What can be said about Joe Gates that could possibly capture the absolute joy and magic of watching or listening to the incredibly talented man play his music? Absolutely nothing. I am so fortunate to live in the same town as Joe Gates where I am able to frequently watch him play, and even after quite a while of knowing Joe and seeing his stunning talents, I am still left absolutely wordless every single time I hear his music. Forgive me, readers, but this is about to get drippy.

There is such a clear and forceful passion in Joe's music, that often simplistic melody lines will reach out and grab onto your chest so tightly that when the song is finished you realize that you have barely been breathing for the entire four minutes and six seconds that it took for Joe to play Apology, a haunting and exquisite piece that literally brings me to tears every single time I hear it. Right now I am listening to a four-track demo that Joe gave me that consists of Apology as the first track, and three improvisational tracks, and these first two paragraphs have taken four listen-throughs of the 12 minute demo CD to write. I am absolutely awed by Joe, and the incredible things he can do with a guitar.

In the many times I've been lucky to see Joe Gates play, he has utilized several different instruments, but the most stunning I have ever heard him play was a fretless bass, and a fretless classical guitar. Joe has, on many occasions, brought me to tears with his playing. I am not a good enough wordsmith to explain to you with ones and zeroes how much of a pleasure it is to see Joe play. Not only to listen to his beautiful music, but to actually watch him play. I am often fascinated with how musicians relate to their own music, and watching their faces and body-language as they play is part of the experience of enjoying music for me. I've been in this business for a long time, and I've watched hundreds of musicians play, and I can with absolute honesty tell you that not a single musician I have seen has ever outwardly displayed the emotion that you can see in Joe's face while he is playing.

This is supposed to be a review of Joe Gates' demo CD, not of Joe Gates, the man. But the two are completely linked in my mind, because listening to this demo is as soulful and wonderful as it is to see him play just a few feet in front of you. The demo is everything that anyone who has ever seen Joe play would expect to hear, emotion, beautiful and intricate melody lines, and incredible raw talent.

To give Joe's music a listen, there are two places you can head to! The first being his facebook page: The Lone Fretless, or you can head overto Reverbnation and check out his tracks on reverbnation.com/jozevgates.