When I found Paul Gilbert’s Acoustic Samurai I had high hopes that this would be yet another great acoustic studio album (you might remember my review of Gilbert Hotel the acoustic bonus disc that was included with the Best Of Paul Gilbert CD). Listening to opener “Potato Head” made very clear that Acoustic Samurai is a live recording from the gig Gilbert played with Linus of Hollywood at The Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo; man these Japanese are enthusiastic! As to the sound quality, don’t expect too much from this release. The gig was recorded on tape and then transferred to CD format. On the other hand, this is a live recording in the purest sense of the word. I can imagine people that attended one of Gilbert’s acoustic live shows to really love this one.

The joy and the relaxed atmosphere are very well captured. As to the songs, Gilbert made this gig some what of a best of show. I still absolutely dig “I Like Rock” and “Three Times Rana”. At first I felt a little disappointed because of the just below average sound quality but this is absolutely compensated for by the joy of listening to Gilbert playing his instrument and his audience. I should also mention that there are two bonus songs on the disc. “Maybe I’ll Die Tomorrow” is the ending theme from the movie Aragami. The song is loud and therefore too much in contrast with the live tracks. The final song is the acoustic studio track “Always For Alison”, I’m still hoping for a new Paul Gilbert acoustic studio release!