Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists - Show of Hands

Originally released: 1991 Personnel Robert Fripp (guitar) Crafty Guitarists: Steve Ball, Tobin Buttram, Guido Ernst, Nigel Gavin, Tony Geballe, Curt Golden, Ralph Gorga, Trey Gunn, Steve Jolemore, Bert Lams, Victor McSurely, Hideyo Moriya, Herman Nunez, David Pittaway, Paul Richards, Pietro Russino (more guitars) With: Patricia Leavitt (a capella vocals and text on "Listen", "Here Comes My Sweetie", "This Yes", "Empty Magazine" and "Ease God's Sorrow") Cathy Stevens (viola on "The Moving Force")

Tracks

• 0'47 Listen (Fripp, Leavitt)
• 2'57 Eye of the Needle (Fripp)
• 2'07 Askesis (Geballe)
• 3'00 Bicycling to Afghanistan (Golden)
• 0'47 Here Comes My Sweetie (Fripp, Leavitt)
• 2'16 An Easy Way (Lams)
• 2'36 Scaling The Whales (Ball)
• 1'50 The Moving Force (Fripp, Stevens)
• 2'27 A Connecticut Yankee In The Court of King Arthur (Gavin)
• 2'08 This Yes (Fripp, Leavitt)
• 1'15 Are You Abel? (Ready And Able To Rock 'n' Roll) (Gorga)
• 2'14 Spasm For Juanita (Gorga)
• 2'40 Hard Times (Gorga)
• 1'22 Burning Siesta (Nunez)
• 1'50 Empty Magazine (Fripp, Leavitt)
• 2'24 Circulation (LCG)
• 1'09 Chiara (Lams)
• 3'19 Asturias (Lams)
• 1'49 Ease God's Sorrow (Fripp, Leavitt)

Reviews

Reviews are listed in chronological order within each section. Please retain a chronological order when adding new reviews.

Entire Release

Date Submitted: 27-May-98
By: Eric Kirchner (Leonidas at xnet dot com)

"Show of Hands is probably the most astonishing guitar work I've ever heard from a disciplined perspective. While the music gets a bit frenetic at times (such as in "Bicycling to Afghanistan" -- my wife calls this 'music for doing your housework fast') it is a fascinating listen.

"The album operates in what I would call a bunch of 'quick hits' -- most tunes are around 1-2 minutes. At about 3 piece intervals starting from the beginning, an a capella vocal piece by Patricia Leavitt is featured. They last about 40-50 seconds and she has a nice voice, but I found it incongruous and inappropriate in relation to the theme of the album.

"While I thought the whole album enjoyable (with the exception of Leavitt's contributions), the pieces that really blew me away were Eye of the Needle, Asturias and An Easy Way. The guitar skill displayed is first level and a real joy to listen to.

"Listen to it a couple of times to start getting the most out of it. If you're a KC fan checking out Fripp's other projects, you'll like this if you liked the guitar approaches on Discipline and Frame by Frame."