Chris Francis - Studs n' Sisters

Chris Francis is a man who should need no introduction to ardent regulars at AOG, as both a contributor to the lessons and as an impassioned performer at the London Guitar Shows and the two Allout Guitarfests.

Chris first rose to prominence in 2000 when he won the Guitarist of The Year Final at Music Live in Birmingham. I say won - nay, slaughtered: I was there checking everyone out and the gulf between Chris’ stunning combination of great composition and world class guitar playing (equal parts Paul Gilbert, Eddie Van Halen, Nuno Bettencourt and Brian May) and the rest of the contestants that year was simply colossal. A well deserved win; and I kept him in the old memory banks. In late 2005, when we started work in earnest on Alloutguitar.com, Chris was one of the first guitarists that I tracked down to join the team.

'Studs n’ Sisters' is Chris’ second solo album - and an ambitious fusion of styles and themes it is indeed. Loosely a concept album, this has a cohesiveness of stylistic themes and melodic construction, combined with soaring guitar playing that renders this album as one of the great instrumental albums in this genre of the last 20 years or so. Yes, it is that good!

Overview!

Opening up with a brief, slightly surreal intro ‘Pickle and Baby Bear', a cracking Nuno-esque riff heralds the arrival of the title track. Very commercial and catchy, a Van Halen-esque shuffle with some great slippery pentatonic fills reminiscent of Andy Timmons and George Lynch, great harmony lines even bringing to mind some of the Allman Brothers major based lines, lots of nice sliding 6ths, a great breakdown with some almost Vai-esque phrases, a pre solo section with Satriani type legato and some great front pick up speed picking: this is a modern rock guitar techniques tour de force all contained within 4 minutes or so of melodic guitar heaven: trust me this is very palatable stuff that even your mum would like!

‘Sometime Lady Crazy' opens up with a sequencer type guitar effect before yet another cracking riff, shades of classic rock here with lots of picked harmonics and a thick warm guitar tone and then we are into a Satch/Vai type track: whilst the influences are easy to spot Chris has a sound that is instantly identifiable as his. A great solo! It is worth commenting on the production here as Chris has obtained a major release sound with lots of layering that never sounds overbearing and always cohesive: a big production album indeed!

‘Light It Up' - one of Chris' live favourites - opens with a funky riff, some great rocktastic riffage, before a section that sounds almost Caribbean and reggae inspired, then we hear the horn section kick in and we are in Extreme ‘Pornograffitti' era heaven! The range of styles never feels remotely forced...I really dig the mid song breakdown here: very ‘Passion and Warfare'! The opening section to the solo is so Lynch! Then we get his trade offs with the great Blues Saraceno - stunning! Again check out the syncro riffs at the end of this baby: if Nuno ever resurrects his funk metal style he needs to really deliver the goods to keep up with this!

After that amazing opening trio things calm down for the more ballady ‘Used-To-Be'. Layered acoustics and subtle string and keyboard pads provide a backdrop for some eloquent Satch style melodic phrasing, again with some great harmony lines with the ghost of Brian May never far away. Another cracking solo, and another full marks!

‘Lift The Dogs' brings to mind some more of Van Halen's work, with a smattering of Vai. Great use of wah here - often a much abused pedal and effect, this is a master class in using effects so as to be subordinate to the song, not the other way around. Lots of cascading melodic lines here, a nice bluesy Timmons-esque breakdown - great, emotive, playing.

‘Riding For A Fall' opens up with some almost Alice In Chains-esque (circa their acoustic period) acoustic and dreamy melodies, proving that Chris is not afraid to mix up his influences; then we have several minutes of emotive playing with a great sense of timing and dynamics. Great production, sinewy pentatonic fills a la Saraceno, all combined with what I will now call ‘Francis-esque' melodies and phrasing. A real stadium rock solo section takes us back to those dreamy and plaintiff acoustics with melodic chiming harmonics.

‘You Can Dance Better Than That' has another of those Nuno Bettencourt style shuffle riffs that Chris is so partial to, before some more melodic lines, and again some more horns. Sort of like a futuristic blues this is a good groovy number: perfect to see in a small club with some ice cold beer on tap. Lots of those great ‘Francisesque' pentatonic/mixolydian lines here, and always that great vibrato!

‘2nd Base' has an almost Isley Brothers type of feel, some nice 70's type ‘Summer Breeze' melodies and a melodic very American laid back feel to the track; some nice Lukather type phrases, even a bit West Coast ballad stuff going on here - a nice ruminative track with great sustained notes and relaxed soloing here also with a wonderfully creamy tone!

A new age type intro takes us into the almost Neo Classical style 'Death Bitch' - very Randy Rhoads some of this: lots of ‘Revelation: Mother Earth' type fills and riffs. This track also has lots of dialogue over the riffing and is very akin to a rock opera type of song. Some real shredding on the solo, with some very suitable altered scale type melodies. A cool track that works very well in the context of the album as a whole - along with the frankly disconcerting baby screaming sound effect at the end!

Another brief interlude (describing a nightmarish Karaoke evening) brings us into the last track of the album proper, an ambitious instrumental cover of Madonna's famed 80's hit ‘Material Girl'. Lots of vocal inflected wah wah guitar work takes us through the vocal melodies - and with a finely arranged production this is an effective cover of a frankly surprising track - I particularly like the ELO ‘Mr Blue Sky/Metal Micky' style vocoder guitar lines!

Finally we have a guitaristic orgy in ‘Deleted Scenes' which is an extended series of out takes from Chris and Blues Saraceno duelling over a funkaceous back beat from ‘Light Me Up': hours of fun here for any guitarist keen to develop their soloing - groovy, melodic, cool and technically challenging. ‘Nuff said!

Conclusion

In conclusion, this is an absolute must-have album for any guitar nut: it is a wholly successful realisation of an instrumental rock guitar album for the Noughties with enough chops to keep guitar heads interested but with enough melodies to not piss off your mother/girlfriend/wife etc - as Kerrang! used to say: Buy or Die!