HoLoGram RecordingsFormer Wings guitarist Laurence Juber has just released his third collection of acoustic instrumental versions of Beatles tunes, titled, appropriately enough, LJ Can’t Stop Playing The Beatles. The new album features 14 songs taken from various periods of the Fab Four’s career and arranged for a single guitar.
Juber tells ABC Radio that he finds it pleasantly challenging to present Fab Four tunes as solo instrumentals.
“These are such iconic songs, and the context of doing them on one guitar but trying to capture as much of the energy and authenticity of the originals is a great challenge for me as a player,” he declares, “but one that I gladly meet.”
Juber reveals that the tracks were recorded in his home studio, noting, “There’s no overdubbing. There’s no studio tricks. It’s just performances.” He adds that he then had the recordings mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Al Schmitt at Capitol Studios in Hollywood.
Among the tunes Laurence says were the biggest challenge to arrange were “Hey Jude” and “And Your Bird Can Sing.” The latter tune was particularly tricky, he points out, “because there’s this twin lead guitar thing that…to squeeze that onto one guitar, it was almost like a classical guitar piece in the end.”
Looking back, Juber tells ABC Radio that he initially wasn’t interested in recording a whole album of Beatles songs, but his wife eventually convinced him to do his first one because she enjoyed the solo arrangements of some of the band’s tunes he’d been working up. This led to 2000’s critically acclaimed LJ Plays The Beatles, followed in 2010 by LJ Plays The Beatles Vol. 2 and now LJ Can’t Stop Playing The Beatles.
Juber will be promoting the new album with a variety of upcoming concerts. Check out his itinerary at LaurenceJuber.com.
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