East by Midwest

5-STARS Seattle-based Origin Records will blow the minds of electric guitar fans with their 2025 CD release of East By Midwest by recording artist and composer Charlie Ballantine. The nine-track, 40 minute album sounds quite scintillating in spaces and the guitarist does his best with effective backing by Quinn Sternberg (bass) and Dan Weiss (drums). With the artist having already released a number of albums under his name, East By Midwest is an excellent disc to approach the guitar magic of Charlie Ballantine.

The CDs starts off slow and deliberately with "Storyteller" and it quickly grooves on with eight more instrumentals that tastefully carries forth Ballantine's guitar-centric philosophy. Although the melody of track two "Runaround" kind of echoes the 1970 Beatles classic "Let It Be", it isn't until later on in the album that Ballantine expresses his true Beatles influence vis-à-vis two more Fab Four covers of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Apart from several more covers here written by Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and Elliot Smith, the album mostly consists of original tracks by Ballantine, with all expressing his true love of the electric guitar. Released by a label that is well-known for its traditional jazz and other mainstream jazz sounds, East By Midwest makes for a mind-blowing, ear-opening experience that moves beyond jazz and well into the more exotic avenues of instrumental rock and jazz-fusion.