Band : Santana
Album title : Guitar Heaven - The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All
Label : Arista
Distributor : Sony Music
Release date : 15/10/2010
Review : 2CD

Guitar Heaven is the new album from guitar player Santana.

The bands covered on this album are among my favorite bands and I still love spinning records of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, CCR, Cream, The Beatles,… So, it features a dozen cover songs, which Santana has chosen from the repertoires of his favorite 70's acts. But not everything works being Santana and I am sure AC/DC fans won't approve his rendition of “Back in black” with a horrible rap singer, which doesn't fit the band at all. I hate hip hop, so fuck this. Each song on Guitar Heaven is recorded with different musicians and Santana being the solid backbone providing leads for all songs. Lately there have been lots of cover albums and therefore the "tribute" concept is a bit worn out. However, it is problematic with tribute albums, because 99 percent of the time you prefer the originals and that goes for Guitar Heaven also.

Maybe it is to gain new fans. Speaking for myself it is not gonna be me - I would rather dust off my originals and the first albums of the Latin rock master himself and play them.

Cosmicmasseur.