Entrance

Guy Blakeslee, a.k.a. Entrance, plays left-handed on conventional guitars turned upside down, just like Jimi Hendrix. Blakeslee has also developed his own unique style, a blend of blues, rags, field hollers, ragtime and primordial Midwestern American church music that at times comes close to the sound John Fahey called “American primitive guitar.” The nine extended tracks here are marked by Blakeslee’s ability to reinvent familiar tunes and progressions by applying an idiosyncratic attack that includes measured single-note runs, traditional folk picking that often devolves into showers of glassy, feedback-drenched slide notes, and abrasive pull-offs and hammer-ons. The cops are impressive throughout, and complemented by ethereal vocals that bring to mind the fragile warble of Marc Bolan. Blakeslee often sounds like a dissolute angel moaning in terror as the fires of hell lick at his heels — not at all a bad place for a young bluesman to be.