Gary Lucas: Improve The Shining Hour: Rare Lumiere 1980–2000 (Knitting Factory)

THE GLITTERING career of US guitarist Gary Lucas has inevitably become overshadowed by the work he produced for Captain Beefheart during the early 80s on Doc At The Radar Station and Ice Cream For Crow. Although it would be foolish to claim that his involvement and creative relationship with Beefheart was merely transitory, after listening to this stack of tracks — featuring him playing alongside a broad spectrum of various musical colleagues and true believers — it becomes apparent that Lucas is anything but a one trick pony.