Favored Nations is proud to announce the September 26th release of Acoustic Gypsy Live by L.A. Guns (Tracii Guns, guitar; Danny Nordahl, bass; Chad Steward, drums; Jizzy Pearl, vocals, Teddy 'Zig Zag' Andreadis, keyboards, Muddy Stardust; guitar and back-up vocals; Doni Gray, percussion). Produced, mixed and mastered by Grammy winner Neil Citron, this is the first acoustic album by the acclaimed Los Angeles band in their 29-year history, recorded at The Hotel Café in Hollywood. The band who lit up Hollywood like a surprise M-80 in a garbage can with their raw radical rowdy ways earned themselves legendary status on the Sunset Strip. When Jason Kramer and Jason Rothberg suggested they do an acoustic record, Tracii was "terrified, as I hadn't played live acoustically for more than an hour since my Bancroft Junior High School guitar ensemble when I was 13 years old. I gathered up the guys I trust the most musically to help make this as great as possible. After listening back to this performance, I am not so scared to perform acoustically anymore". What makes Acoustic Gypsy Live so startling is its nuanced attention-to-detail - a musical awareness that L.A. Guns, who never diluted the manic hysteria of their songs one iota in their previous records, relishes in on Acoustic Gypsy Live. With a gorgeous lead guitar solo by Tracii, the CD's opener, 'Crystal Eyes', hits a bulls-eye with its beauty and clarity-of-vision. Stark, dramatic, simplistically pristine, the inherent harmonic structure of the song itself reaches that part of the soul where honesty is a given, not a constructed artifice. The song cruises to completion to set the scene for the kind of album that no one - including the band itself - even knew was in them. Vocalist Jizzy still works up the growl, as evidenced on 'One Way Ticket'. Tracii started L.A. Guns while still in high school in 1982. The original singer, Michael Jagosz, was replaced by Axl Rose. Signed to PolyGram in '87, their self-titled debut, with Phil Lewis replacing Rose, sold over a million copies, as did Cocked and Loaded (1989) and Hollywood Vampires (1991). With 14 tracks - including not only their hits, but covers of Boudleaux Bryant's 'Love Hurts' and Otis Redding's 'These Arms Of Mine' - Acoustic Gypsy Live proves these long time late night denizens of the Sunset Strip need no electricity to kick ass.
Disc 1: Crystal Eyes 1 Way Ticket Decide Dreamtime Electric Gypsy Its Over Now Never Enough Over The Edge Little Soldier Sex Action These Arms Of Mine Love Hurts Ballad Of Jayne Rip & Tear