Taste, tone, and technique, all three displayed in
creative reads of Thelonious Monk's 'Blue Monk', Kenny
Durham's 'Blue Bossa', Cole Porter's 'You'd Be So Nice
To Come Home To'..... Unaccompanied renditions of jazz
standards played on acoustic steel string guitar, the
disk is the epitome of a solo project, as he also
handles the the distribution -and the creative writing
inside...
- JAZZIZ Magazine

One of the best rising stars of the American acoustic
jazz scene.
- 20th Century Guitar Magazine

A treat for musicians and and fans, Eric Skye is a
guitar Maestro with a gift for working a wide range of
expression from his steel strings. Though he leans
toward acoustic guitar, the Pacific Northwest artist
is proficient in jazz, offering a fresh approach to
the genre with interpretations of the classics and
impressive original material.
-The Oregonian

Eric Skye's Cd, Acoustic Jazz Guitar Solos, is
precisely that. Skye performs these twelve standards
with aplomb. Performing most of the tracks on
steelstring guitar, tastefully. He infuses such
chestnuts as Black Orphues, A Foggy Day, Blues Bosss,
and others with a well honed sense of rhythm and solid
time. Skye's take on Thelonious Monk's Blue Monk is
down home bluesy, rather than the jagged rhythms that
Monk might have used. He intersperses his own walking
bass lie with block chords right on the beat. Talk
about delicious subtlety, Skye provides just that on
Jobims' How Insensitive. This pensive track is simple
in it's presentation, it's success is the presentation
of the melody, fine intonations, and execution.
- Jazz Improv Magazine

One of the most singularly most wonderful records
we've heard in ten years.
- Acoustic Music Resource

4 Stars. Stunning debut. Beautiful arrangements and
stellar guitar work. Eric Skye has managed to avoid
simply repeating the past in this beautiful album.
From a somber and slightly dissonant arrangement of
God Bless The Child, originally made famous by Billie
Holiday, to a smoking version of Black Orpheus
performed on classical guitar, this recording
continually surprises the listener with its fresh
interpretations of classic material.
- Earl Patrick

....With nothing but a guitar, a wooden chair and some
fine fingerwork, Eric Skye had my toes tapping in
record time. I know nothing about this guy except that
he can interpret a great tune and write some damn good
ones himself. My favorite cover song on “For Lulu” is
Skye’s rendition of Charlie Mingus’ “Goodbye Porkpie
Hat.” What a fantastic sound! It made me dig to the
back of the closet for my old vintage porkpie so the
cats and I could groove. Skye not only can hold up
another musician’s song, his originals show signs of
classics in the making. Both “Happy Cake” and “Waltz”
stand out....Skye has perfect execution and impressive
interpretive abilities. He has a good ear for mixing
jazz and blues … frankly, the man has skillz. There’s
little not to like.
-Daily Sentinel

A musician you must go see live.
- KMHD Radio

With a background that includes studies with one of
classical guitarist Christopher Parkening's top
students, one might expect that Eric Skye would
approach a program of standards with a certain amount
of reverence. And, truthfully, the meat of the songs
are never far from the forefront; yet with Acoustic
Jazz Guitar Solos, Skye shows that this is more than
just a series of exercises; this is a passionate look
at a set of well-known material that is refreshing,
innovative and thoroughly engaging. Performing all but
three tracks on steel-string guitar, Skye displays a
distinct roots flavor. He is as much Artie Traum as he
is Jim Hall; as much John Fahey as he is Joe Pass. He
is able to operate with an independence of thought
that is clearly an extension of Charlie Hunter, by way
of Lenny Breau. In fact, on his classical guitar
rendition of Cole Porter's 'You'd Be So Nice to Come
Home To', he trills high notes while running arpeggios
underneath that is very reminiscent of the way Lenny
Breau would approach the material. With a program that
includes such frankly worn-out standards as 'My
Romance', 'Autumn Leaves', 'Black Orpheus', 'Blue
Bossa', 'How Insensitive' and 'Summertime', the
question arises: Do we really need yet another CD
interpreting the Great American Songbook' In this
case, the answer is a resounding yes. By allowing his
classical, blues and folk roots to inform a program of
jazz, Skye makes each tune his own; from the walking
'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' and 'Blue Monk' to the
out-of-time 'God Bless the Child', the material is
accessible, yet improvisationally deep enough to merit
repeated listens. Beautifully recorded and cleverly
packaged, Acoustic Jazz Guitar Solos is a fine
recording of jazz standards that will appeal to jazz
fans, but also deserves a listen by fans of more
roots-oriented music. Its cross-genre style makes it a
unique entry in a space that is occupied by far too
many artists who have nothing new to say; Skye clearly
does.
- John Kelman - Jazz Review.com

It's a beautiful album.
- Scott Billington Rounder Records

Immediately allured as of the resumption bluesy and
energetic of "Willow weep for", one continues me to
listen with pleasure. It fresh, simple,
reinvigorating, is well troussé. The pretext?
Resumptions of standards impossible to circumvent of
the history of the jazz ("Blue in green "and" All
blues "of Miles Davis ," Girl from Ipanema "and"
Desafinado "of Jobim," Goodbye porkpie hat "of Charles
Mingus ," Take five "of Dave Brubeck...) and also some
delicate original compositions ("Coil-portrait in
blue", "Waltz") which fit in this patchwork knitted by
an acoustic guitarist of great talent. Very quickly
convinced, one until the end, happy will find superb
melodies been useful with humour and swing: honest
attacks, an often percussif style, creative
arrangements and improvisations connected around
inalterable "tubes": thus "The girl from Ipanema"
develops a completely amusing variation folk and "Take
five" is revisited with pretty quotations like "My
favorite things"
- Sefronia ( French magazine )

The guitar is a problematic jazz instrument in several
ways. Originally confined to a rhythm role because of
volume considerations, amplification offered the
instrument a more prominent voice, but little music
was composed for jazz guitar outside the soul jazz and
fusion categories, meaning that many artists have
found themselves unable to exploit the full range of
their instrument outside a limited range of genres.
There are two elements necessary to break out of the
mold - imagination and technique. The first is perhaps
the hardest. Just imagining how to organize a jazz
standard for the particular capabilities of the guitar
is a challenge, since the guitar was hardly in the
mind of most composers. Translating the idea to the
fretboard, if a guitarist is going to exploit the
potential of chordal rhythms, simultaneous bass
accompaniment and single string or chorded leads is a
challenge more formidable than most will even attempt.
Doing it all on an acoustic instrument? There are a
few who will try. They're called Masters. Eric Skye is
a Master Guitarist. This offering of twelve songs
drawn from the Great American Songbook and jazz
standards like Monk's "Blue Monk" and Kenny Dorham's
"Blue Bossa" is not just a recording, it's an
accomplishment. An astonishing one. Part of that is
technique, of course. Skye is one of those rare
players whose fingers are fully equal to his mind. In
the process of planning the album, he had what he
describes as an "eleventh hour epiphany" regarding the
inclusion of a moving bass line into his arrangements,
and in doing so he achieves the rarest of all musical
feats - an original style. Part of it, too, though, is
imagination. Time and time again, I found myself
shaking my head and saying "I never would have thought
of that!" as he flawlessly applies his technique to
some aspect of arrangement that can make a warhorse
GAS tune like "Summertime" or "My Romance" sound like
something he just thought up. "Acoustic Jazz Guitar
Solos" is an excellent jazz album, and exceptional
guitar album, and a pleasure in every describable way.
- JazzReview.com

Although the melodies are universally easy on the ear,
Skye's challenge is to render them new so that they
don't come across worn-out. Skye succeeds by fluidly
nailing a counterpoint of walking bass to melody in a
way which beginning jazz guitarists will surely lust
after this holy grail of technique. In fact, this CD
might be considered a collection of ?tudes for jazz
guitar... the only thing missing is the tablature.
- Alan Fark - Minor 7th Magazine

We all have our personal favorites among jazz
classics, those versions which we feel are definitive,
or can not be bettered. But it is always a pleasant
surprise to hear old, much loved tunes revitalized and
there are a few like that on this modestly titled set.
Skye's background is in classical guitar as well as
jazz and the two elements combine productively here.
Prodigious technique is allied to a warmth of feeling
and expression which makes for some refreshing
interpretations. Taking a Monk tune and creating
something fresh is never going to be easy but his
version of 'Blue Monk' is closer at times to a guitar
rag than anything else and seems a natural way to
redefine such a classic tune. He also takes a more
jagged, angular approach in places which suits the
piece and would, I'm sure, win Monk's approval. You'd
think that nothing more could be done to 'Summertime'
and you'd probably be right. Wisely he chooses to give
it a fairly straight ahead reading without too much
embellishment and it works fine. The steel strings
wring the blues out of the melody in a clean and
resonant fashion reminding you why it was so memorable
in the first place. His take on 'You'd Be So Nice To
Come Home To' is a little different, edgy yet suffused
with classical influences, it displays his dazzling
technical facility whilst cooling some of the song's
emotional temperature.
One outstanding feature of his playing is the
inclusion of a very strong, mobile bass line along
with chords and melody. This is evident, for example,
on 'Autumn Leaves', a piece that is often taken at a
more mellow pace. Here it is driven by the walking
bass which made me think of someone hurrying to get
away from the downraining of dead leaves rather than
reflecting on the proximity of 'old winter's song'.
But it is an oddly engaging and refreshing angle,
nevertheless. It's hard to choose favorites from such
a selection but I do like 'My Romance' perhaps because
in part I am a romantic and the breathtaking qualities
of the melody are preserved and enhanced. Equally,
Ellington's 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' is given
that propulsive bass treatment, retaining the song's
inherent momentum whilst ensuring the melody remains
in the foreground.
It is an album that displays his obvious love of these
songs and is well worth seeking out.
- Paul Donnelly, E-Jazz.com

Eric Skye's "For Lulu," a collection of solo acoustic
guitar arrangements of jazz standards and original
material, begins with an unapologetically sparse and
beautifully musical steel-string version of the Miles
Davis, Bills Evans classic "Blue in Green."
Stylistically, Skye is caught between the jazz of Joe
Pass and the acoustic work of the descendents of John
Fahey, leaning heavily toward the latter.
Improvisations on standards, on occasion, travel too
far from the spirit of the songs, leaving the listener
to wonder why Skye even bothers with them in the first
place, particularly when his own material is so
strong. That said, when Skye sticks close to a theme,
as he does on "Samba de Orpheus," and Brubeck's "Take
Five," which segues perfectly into "My Favorite
Things" and circles back again, it's as if he can do
no wrong.
- Minor 7th Magazine

Interpreting music of jazz greets but with various
ethnic folk stylings.....Oregon area guitarist Eric
Skye's licks are quite tasty. From lilting blues
picking on "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" to the
slightly flamenco-influenced "Black Orpheus" and the
snappy take on "Autumn Leaves," Eric's fingers inject
his own distinct personalities into the songs.....
- Mark E. Waterbury, Music Morsels

For Lulu. Have you ever purchase a cd by an unknown
artist, played it and not really was in the right mind
frame for what was coming through your speaker?, but
then three months later you play that same cd and you
think it's the best thing you ever experienced since
tea was discovered. What I enjoy are the times when
you purchase a cd from an unknown artist and you find
that you are blown away after maybe the first couple
of songs, well that just recently happened to me with
Eric Skye's For Lulu cd. The only difference is that
this time around instead of waiting for a couple of
songs to play before I decided if I enjoyed what I was
listening too. Well it only took 30 seconds for me to
know that this cd was a masterpiece in-waiting and
that it will get alot of airplay from me. Skye's For
Lulu is the perfect loveletter ala' acoustic jazz
guitar. Skye fascinate us with his bluesy,
genre-bending improvisations, while maintaining a
uncluttered and intimate acoustic feel to great tunes
such as Miles Davis's "Blue In Green" and "All Blues",
Jobim's "Girl From Ipanema" and "Desfinado", and
Mingus's "Goodbye Porkpie Hat". For Lulu is not only a
cd of jazz standard, Skye has written three wonderful
compositions, "Happy Cake", "Self Portrait In Blue"
and "Waltz" which compliment nicely with the standards
that we all know and love. Skye's For Lulu will engage
you with masterful and crisp technique, and astonish
you with his unique way of expressing himself through
his guitar playing. I see and hear a new jazz guitar
pioneer in Eric Skye
- Maurice Edwards (Evolution Of Media)

...jazz standards by Richard Rodgers, Ellington,
Jobim, Gershwin, etc, made to sound simple, yet played
with such finesse it will be much appreciated by
guitarists fearful of playing acoustic jazz. Skye has
a way of making it all sound so simple. And your wife
or girlfriend won't walk out the room when this jazz
is played.
- Michael Cheah, Big O (Singapore music magazine)

Eric Skye – “For Lulu” – Gotta love those jazz, blues
and listener friendly guitar licks and storytelling
folks artists no matter how ya cut it. But, Eric
displays a truly keen sight more loveliness than
average in a project slam full of mood music for the
Jazz lover no doubt. I am totally enamored with the
selection of some old time favorites such as Miles
Davis and Duke Ellington solo acoustic guitar remakes,
as well as the snappy, precise and FUN Skye originals
scattered throughout a collection of sweet and
timeless tunes. Looking forward to more! Wonderful job
– period.
-Coffeehousetour.com

As Eric says in the liner notes, “all tracks were
recorded with a Taylor 514C, steelstring acoustic
guitar and a great little straight-backed wooden
chair”. And if you know me well you’ll know that I
love this lo-fi type of set-up. When it’s acoustic
jazzy rock that we’re talking about, it’s even better.
His guitar play is staggering and around each corner I
find a new chord or picking technique that I just
love. Great instrumental acoustic guitar work like
this doesn’t come around too often so I’ll be
clutching tight but sharing with all who’ll listen.
- Smother Magazine