Renowned Guitarist Laurence Juber Announces New Beatles-Inspired Album, ‘The Fab 4th’

Laurence Juber is renowned in music circles for his time with Paul McCartney in Wings, as well as his impeccable work with an acoustic guitar — and the re-imagining he’s given to songs from throughout the Beatles‘ catalog over the years.

To date, he’s released three albums of Beatles-inspired instrumental recordings, and his fourth is coming out soon. As detailed this week. The Fab 4th will once again find Juber tackling songs from John, Paul, George and Ringo as only he can, and it’ll surely be a wonderful listen.

That, above, is an example of Juber’s ability to transform Beatles songs into something all his own, which he’ll do again with this new record, specifically on these tracks:

Across the Universe
Every Little Thing
Back in the USSR
If I Fell
A Day in the Life
Tell Me What You See
Lady Madonna
I’ll Be Back
I Will
Don’t Bother Me
She’s Leaving Home
Need You
She’s a Woman
Girl
Julia
You Never Give Me Your Money

The album will released on March 27.

Here’s some context from Laurence Juber regarding his foray into these Beatles records over the years:

My wife Hope first suggested the idea of an album of solo arrangements of Beatles tunes more than twenty years ago. I was reluctant at first, considering myself primarily a composer, not an arranger. But, then I figured that as she listens to me play for so many hours a day, it was only fair to devote a portion of that time to these tunes.

In return, she took on the role of producer.

As the arranging unfolded, I found myself ever-more deeply drawn, both as a guitarist and a musician, to the depth and dimension of their creativity. Stripping the songs down to their musical essentials exposes their uniquely nuanced musicality, while seeking the complementary guitaristic space, is an exercise in my own creativity.

Little did I realize at the time, that LJ Plays The Beatles, would become the first of an evolving series, with a volume two, a volume 3 (LJ Can’t Stop Playing The Beatles) and, at Paul McCartney’s instigation, One Wing.

Hope’s idea for a title, The Fab 4th, was the call to action once more.

There are almost 200 original Beatles compositions. Not all translate well to the fingerboard, although there have been some serendipitous moments, when an unlikely candidate revealed itself as a cool arrangement.

This collection includes favorites that I missed on the previous albums, along with some under-appreciated songs, and a few guitaristic challenges. There are many that haven’t yet made the cut, and I’m not sure that I’ll tackle any more, but that’s what I’ve said before……”

And here’s Juber’s 2017 album, LJ Can’t Stop Playing hte Beatles, via Spotify: