Auten is a fingerpicking guitarist with bravura chops and a steady compositional sense. He is somewhat oriented toward a pop sensibility – my one complaint is a tendency to overly display the fireworks, but that I chalk up to wanting to impress with his first release. The playing doesn’t sound like Chet Atkins and Albert Lee, as the really dreadful liners suggest, but Jerry Reed, Buster B. Jones and Martin Simpson are evoked, and those are heavy hitters in this league. A player to watch.
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