John 5 – Songs for Sanity

In the past, I’ve pretty much ignored any coverage of John 5’s music, mostly because of his association with Marilyn Manson. I’m not really a fan of Manson’s, so I didn’t pay much attention to his guitar players. However, I’ve missed out on some great guitar playing. For some reason or another, not too long ago I stumbled across John 5’s MySpace page and checked out some of his music. I became intrigued and starting checking out his music in more depth.

I’ve been very impressed; as his fans already know, John is a phenomenal guitar player. He has a command of many different styles of music and somehow manages to merge Heavy Metal and Country chicken pickin’ so that it sounds great!

The first album of John 5’s that I picked up was his Songs For Sanity album, which is actually his second album. Steve Vai and Albert Lee make guest appearances on the album. This is one of the best guitar albums I’ve heard in a long time. The album starts out fairly heavy, but melodic. A few songs into it, he gets a little country. One of the more interesting songs on the album is called “Behind the Nut Love” which features him bending strings behind the nut of the neck. On YouTube, you can view a guitar lesson of John 5 showing how to play “Behind the Nut Love.” He also displays some beautiful acoustic guitar playing on the album, as well. Unlike some guitar albums I’ve heard in the past, the songs are interesting and the guitar playing is excellent.

John 5 has recently released a new album called The Devil Knows My Name. Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson make guest appearances on the new album. Although I still don’t care much for his imagery, I’m now a fan of his playing and I’m looking to hearing more from him. I’d highly recommend picking up any of his albums.