The Capo Voodoo: Solo Guitar Project is a long-overdue compilation of guitarist Harvey Reid's ground-breaking partial capo guitar work that spans 29 years from 1981 to 2010. Two of the tracks are re-recordings done in 2010 of earlier arrangements, one cut is unreleased, and the rest were remastered from earlier CD and LP releases. Harvey Reid was the first modern guitarist to compose, publish and record guitar music with the partial capo, and this collection contains many of his most important recordings. From this beginning, the partial capo has now spread to thousands of guitarists on many continents who are busy exploring the new possibilites and fresh ideas that this simple tool gives to any guitarist. Previously, the references to the partial capos has been only small print in the liner notes of Reid's recordings, and now for the first time it is being put in big letters on the front. 10 of the 18 tracks are available in sheet music/TAB either in Harvey's books of partial capo arrangements, and no for the first time as individual sheet music. Reid has used a partial capo on over 125 recorded tracks on his 25 albums, including nearly 2 dozen configurations of various types of partial capos in a number of different tunings. Though he has mostly used the capos in standard tuning on guitar, Reid has also pioneered the use of the partial capo on 6-string banjo, octave mandolin and mandocello. 'The Lucky Penny' showcases his amazing 'faux-frailing' 6-string banjo style that is done on a banjo tuned in standard guitar tuning. A second CD is planned for early 2011 that will feature Reid's partial capo songs, since he has used it all along on more than just instrumental music. (Currently the largest group of players that are using the partial capo is the singer/songwriters.) Two tracks here feature flatpicking; the rest are solo fingerstyle instrumental pieces that range from traditional fiddle tunes to classical pieces, airs, celtic pieces and Delta blues. There are 3 slide guitar pieces played on resonator guitars, 2 tracks played on 12-string, and the rest are 6-string acoustic guitars. 11 different steel-string instruments are featured. If you listen carefully to the music, you will notice that the guitar (except for the tracks that are played in open tunings combined with partial capos) has the familiar flavor of standard tuning, but has a noticeable added resonance due to the new landscape of open strings the capo produces. You'll also hear the flowing standard tuning scales, and the counterpoint bass lines moving against the melodies (such as you often hear in classical guitar) in ways that you don't normally hear in open-tuned guitar pieces. The partial capo offers the 'best of both worlds' in that you get the ringing drones and haunting resonances that open tunings provide, but at the same time the scale & chord positions are generally those associated with standard tuning. This means that players who normally play in standard tuning can take advantage of their knowledge of the fingerboard while still getting a lot of the kinds of sounds that normally can only be done with non-standard tunings. There are 9 other important partial capo tracks on Reid's other 2010 solo guitar compilations 'The Solo Guitar Project: Vol 1-2' that are currently only available on digital download in their remastered versions, or on various older CD's. Any of them deserves to be on this collection, especially the epic 23-minute Esus piece from 1986 'The Minstrel's Dream.'