CHRIS FRANCIS – Studs N’ Sisters

Have you ever heard about Chris Francis? Like most, you probably haven’t, but his most recent solo output Studs N’ Sisters will earn countless laps in your CD player.

This dude knows how to play the strings! That’s not very surprising, because Mr. Jericho studied his (and surely few a others’) guitar at the now dissolved MI London, graduating with a platinum award. Platinum dude, that’s better than gold and all your mom’s jewelry together.

And so, Studs N’ Sisters offers you an enormous bandwidth of musical composition. There are uptempo tracks sounding like Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Winger, and all the other great Hair Metal guys. And then, unexpectedly, mastermind Francis throws in a little Blues, cranky sounds, and Jazzy elements as well. Sometimes he plays the Bluesy ladders up and down in such a sweet fashion, it makes you wanna cry. Rock on Jericho! Bryan Adams sang: “Played until my fingers bled.” Hah! That was just a joke. On this album you can hear why Chris Francis was a finalist in Guitarist Magazine’s Guitarist of the Year contest in 1999 and won the title in 2000.

There are countless influences to be discovered on Studs N’ Sisters, be it Warren De Martini, Steve Vai, or Andy Timmons. Jericho likes to create whirlwinds of notes that make thoughts spin in your head, and by the way, unpleasant ones will be forgotten easily. All tracks seem to shift smoothly from one to another. And, for all the players: this album will open the gates to endless hours of making love –- women just go crazy by the sound of Jericho’s guitar — yeah!!

But, not to be mistaken, Francis is not a “softie.” At the end of the CD, for all the warriors out there, he throws in a little Malmsteen-ladden, Power Metal-ish track, called “Death Bitch” — making your neck break. Then, surprisingly, he jumps in the midst of 80’s Pop. Madonna! No not the lady up in heaven, boner, Pop icon Madonna. Francis interpreted her all time great “Material Girl” on his guitar and, oh well, you gotta listen to it yourself. The only “bad” thing about this album is that sometimes the backing instruments seem to collide volume-wise with the sound of the strings. The case of “Riding for a Fall” backs this criticism, but that is just a matter of mixing, and it surely doesn’t put a nail in the coffin.