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It's the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, I've listened to more Christmas music than I've eaten pecan pie, and I needed to go on a pure rock diet for awhile to work off some of the holiday. Lo, what tasty morsel have we here? In Frank Lee Sprague's pure rock guitar, I find the perfect diet! Sprague's particular talent, aside from being a guitar wizard in his own right, is reintroducing audiences to some of the classic sounds of rock guitar from the '50s and '60s. Naming his style "merseybeat" in reference to the British invasion bands of the '60s, Sprague takes an inventory of the signature guitar styles of the early rock era.

Half the fun of the record was trying to identify all of the guitar sounds he sounds like on this more than ample 15-song set. I heard Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Who, The Moody Blues, Jerry Lee Lewis (piano and vocals), and many, many more. Sprague is obviously having some fun here, but it bespeaks a special kind of reverence (and the patience of a savant) that an artist would go to the trouble to learn so many of the great guitar licks.

Frank Lee Sprague's Merry Christmas is the most accessible of rock Christmas records. Even my old rock-hatin' Aunt would love this.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2007)

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From the liner notes:

Recorded at Wichita Falls Records Studios, North Hollywood, CA
Produced by Frank Lee Sprague
Frank Sprague, guitar and vocals, etc.
Christopher Sprague, drums
Randall Fuller, Harmonies on Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Management: Art Fein

Frank Lee Sprague

Merry Christmas

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Track List