MUSIC REVEW OF THE DAY: KEVIN BREIT - JOHNNY GOLDTOOTH & THE CHEVY CASANOVAS

Oh, he's a bright one, that Kevin Breit. The flash Toronto guitarist (Norah Jones, k.d. lang, Serena Ryder et al) has fooled us before, posing as The Upper York Mandolin Orchestra while in truth playing all the parts himself. Here, he creates the persona of Johnny Goldtooth, an old-school guitar slinger from the early rock 'n' roll days when they were still inventing the form, and the guitar players were inventing their own gear too. You know the type, only one hit single ever, a legend for his prototype sound, licks that continue to show up six decades later, a hero to all the later guitar gods.

It's an all-instrumental album, with great twangy riffs and wild excursions on guitar. The songs come from the era when the guitars played the melodies, spawning all the surf music bands, Duane Eddy and The Ventures, British groups such as The Shadows and the Tornados, and of course everyone learning their innovation from Les Paul. Breit can, and does, play every variation on these and more, and music archeologists will delight on the bits and pieces he hints at, the techniques he uses, the accurate sounds and the attention to the very last detail. Then they'll shake their heads when he goes left-field a few seconds later, somewhere that could only come from the most fertile six-string imagination.

Then, he does it all over in the arrangements and recordings. Breit estimates he played about 90 per cent of the music here, painstakingly adding all extra touches such as bass clarinet and melodica, fed through all his vintage gear. And never once does it feel recycled or a mere replica. This is instead inspired by a time, but as the saying doesn't go, 50 per cent imagination and the other 50 per cent perspiration.