Guitar Heaven
Artist: Santana
Label: Arista
Reviewed: October, 2010

Guitar Heaven is the appropriately named latest project from Carlos Santana. I say “appropriately named” because the song selections and Santana’s treatment and interpretation of those songs are absolutely heavenly. I picked up the disc while vacationing in Phoenix and couldn’t turn the darn thing off. I LOVE IT!!!

From the opening riffs of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, with a more than phenomenal vocal delivery by Chris Cornell (Soundgarden and Audioslave) to the duet with Jonny Lang on I Ain’t Superstitious, this CD delivers a delightful bundle of great songs that you’ll more than likely hit repeat repeatedly. Also enjoying the rare and special opportunity to work with this guitar legend are such incredible artists as Scott Weiland, Rob Thomas, Chris Daughtry, Nas, India.Arie, Yo-Yo Ma, Jacoby Shaddix, Pat Monahan, Gavin Rossdale and Joe Cocker.

One very interesting and pleasant surprise on the album is Santana’s version of the Doors hit, Rider’s On The Storm, featuring Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) and Doors co-founder and keyboardist, Ray Manzarek. Delivered with a similar, but completely different, eeriness, the unmistakable ivory artistry of Mansarek provides a consistent thread from the original recording to Santana’s interpretation of this iconic hit. I’m not sure but I think Jim Morrison would be proud of this one.

If you love the original versions of the twelve songs on Guitar Heaven, then you’re going to also love Santana’s version of these same tunes. Download now and find out for yourself.