Joel Paterson - Let It Be Guitar! (Joel Paterson Plays The Beatles) (2019)

Last week Bob Dylan introduced us to his band's new guitar player. Joel Paterson is a very talented electric and acoustic axman who specializes in releasing concept albums that show off his unquestionable versatility playing instrumental covers of rockabilly, country, jazz, blues, and western swing.
On his own, Paterson has recorded two Christmas records, an album of original, acoustic blues, and two albums of Beatles' classics.

I first discovered Paterson last year playing lead and steel guitar on an album starring upcoming singer-songwriter Annie Dolan with whom he shares equal billing on a set of tunes that emphasizes her fine vocals on a bunch of old pop, rock, and country standards mostly from the fifties and sixties.
Let It Be Guitar! was originally released in 2019 and again in 2023 as a digital only album. Paterson's choices are mostly from The Beatles' touring years, and that could be because those early songs suit his style better than the group's more musically sophisticated and adventurous later records. A small group, bare-bones take of "I am the Walrus" just doesn't seem to fit well in this setting.

Let It Be Guitar! is suitable for all occasions. You can play it as background music, but it's upbeat enough that you can dance to it too. Paterson's unadorned remakes of these classics show how superb The Beatles were at writing melodies. To me, it was always their strongest asset. The Chicago native instinctively knows what original touches each track needs while remaining true to the songs' original intentions. He adds just enough of his own flair to keep the whole set interesting.

"All My Loving" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" lend themselves well to a Chet Atkins, country setting while "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Drive My Car" find some tasty, jazz-rock organ grooves. "Honey Pie" sounds like the faux-period piece it's meant to emulate.

Paterson's second Beatles tribute CD, Let It Be Acoustic Guitar!, is an all-acoustic affair with a mostly different track listing.
The album cover is interesting too. It's a parody of the famous photograph from Introducing The Beatles that was released on a small label, Vee-Jay, here in the United States even before Meet the Beatles hit the shelves.

Dylan and his band aren't musicians who normally blow the audience away with pyrotechnics, showmanship and sheer volume so Paterson appears to be a good fit for the long-time, folk-rocking legend's stage shows.

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