Releasing a good tribute album sounds in every single way easier than it in reality really is and especially when it comes down to these two guitar virtuosi or better yet guitar gods. While a tribute album is released in honor of a band, in most cases however a tribute album just means money; it is as simple as that and this album is unfortunately no exception to the rule. Although the names (among others: Jake E. Lee, George Lynch and Bruce Kulick), which partake on this album, are not the least, they are also not the cream of the cake. But most important of all, why is there no true guitar hero like for instance Marty Friedman on this album? The album itself is divided in two parts; the first part, consists of five songs and is dedicated to Joe Satriani while the second part, another five songs, is dedicated to Satriani’s former student Steve Vai. Considering the vast amount of albums and songs these two guys have released during their already immensely long careers, these ten songs are not nearly enough. Especially not when one considers that an album can hold up to 75 minutes of music and this is after all a tribute! The first part, dedicated to Satriani, is of an overall high level with very well chosen songs (mostly from Satriani’s best album: “Surfing with the Alien”), like “Summer Dream” and the classic “Surfing with the Alien”. Jake E. Lee does a decent enough job on the latter, although it does not come anywhere near the original version, while Brad Gilles does a more than excellent job on the former.

However the best of the five songs is a very tasteful translation of the song “Echo” by Jimmy Crespo and Dave Ragsdale, during which Ragsdale’s melancholic violins really shine. The second part, dedicated to Vai, is of a whole lot lower level, mostly due to the poor choice of songs. We all know that Steve Vai became famous because of David Lee Roth’s brilliant glamour rock album “Eat ‘Em and Smile” but apart from superbly playing lead guitar, Vai’s contribution to that album was minimal. Unfortunately however, three out of the five songs are chosen from this album; “Shy Boy”, “Tobacco Road” and “Yankee Rose” and although played quite decently, they fail to capture the true spirit of Vai’s super technical and extremely complex music. The two remaining songs are “Tender Surrender”, a relatively straightforward moody song from the album “Alien Love Secrets” and “Attitude Song” from Vai’s solo debut album “Flexable”. The latter song ‘finally’ manages to capture the true feeling and elements of Vai’s music: intricacy, complexity and creativity. Ironically, a total unknown Richard Kendrick plays this song and I must admit in an amazing way and he clearly shows talent as well as promise. Although this album might be appreciated by `true` guitar lovers in general, as a tribute it unfortunately does not offer enough to be very interesting and more specifically does not do any justice to Steve Vai`s brilliance.