Acoustic Shards is Buckethead's second special release. It consists of acoustic recordings culled from tapes that were reportedly recorded on July 2, 1991, when Buckethead was 22 years of age. This album is considered more of a special release rather than his latest effort.
The album was released on May 31, 2007, by Jas Obrecht, through his label Avabella, who also released the DVDs Young Buckethead Vol. 1 and Young Buckethead Vol. 2.[3] The album was engineered by Tyler Stipe [4]
Imagine, if you will, that Buckethead walked into a quiet living room, picked up an acoustic guitar, and began improvising one amazing composition after the next -- that's what happened when we recorded Acoustic Shards back in 1991. (It was taped a couple of weeks after the final Deli Creeps concert on the Young Buckethead DVDs, but is quite different musically.) It is a single-CD, 52:30 minutes in length, 15 tracks. Included are very early versions of "For Mom" and "Who Me?" as well as a lot of stuff you've never heard before. The playing is spectacular -- some of it sounds like Django Reinhardt meets Ornette Coleman meets young EVH meets... well, that which is uniquely and lovably Buckethead. Some passages are so advanced you'd swear it's two guitarists -- but it was all recorded in real time and without overdubs -- while other parts are just melodically beautiful beyond words. So far, everyone who's heard it has said it's the kind of music that resonates in you long after the stereo's been turned off.
"For Mom" was first released officially on the album Colma (1998) and "Who Me?" followed on Monsters and Robots (1999).
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