''Fire Garden'' is the fourth studio album by guitarist
Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...
, released on September 17, 1996, through
Epic Records.
[ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas]
"Fire Garden - Steve Vai"
''AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
''. All Media Network. Retrieved 2014-12-10. The album reached No. 106 on the U.S.
''Billboard'' 200["Fire Garden - Steve Vai , Awards"]
''AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
''. All Media Network. Retrieved 2014-12-10. and remained on that chart for two weeks,
[ "Steve Vai - Chart history" '' Billboard''. Retrieved 2014-12-10.] as well as reaching the top 100 in three other countries.
["Steve Vai - Fire Garden (album)"]
''finnishcharts.com''. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
Overview
As described by Vai in the liner notes, ''Fire Garden'' is a
concept album divided into two "phases":
[ "Phase 1" comprises tracks 1–9 and is entirely ]instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
(with the exception of Devin Townsend
Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...
's backwards vocals on "Whookam" and some more vocals toward the end of "Fire Garden Suite"), while "Phase 2", the remainder of the album, features Vai on vocals on every song except the instrumental "Warm Regards". ''Fire Garden'' was intended to be a double album, but during mastering Vai heard about the new 80-minute CD format (instead of 74 for a standard CD), which meant that both sides were able to fit onto a single disc."From the Archive: Steve Vai Discusses His 1996 Album, 'Fire Garden'"
'' Guitar World''. NewBay Media
NewBay Media, LLC was a magazine and website publisher founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City.
NewBay Media served five marketplaces — Music, Pro Audio/AV, Video & Broadcast, Consumer Electronics, and Education.
In April 2018, Fut ...
. October 1996. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
"Dyin' Day" was co-written by
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...
during the writing sessions for Osbourne's 1995 album ''
Ozzmosis
''Ozzmosis'' is the seventh solo studio album by English heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. Recorded in Paris and New York with producer Michael Beinhorn, it was released on 23 October 1995 by Epic Records. The album reached number 22 on the ...
''. Another song from those sessions, "My Little Man", made its way onto ''Ozzmosis'' and is credited on that album as being co-written by Vai.
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine at
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
gave ''Fire Garden'' four stars out of five, calling it "An impressive effort from a musician who continues to grow and stretch himself with each new release" and "enjoyable for non-guitar freaks, as well." He said that Vai's vocals "still have a way to go before they are as expressive as his instrumental work, but this subtle and dense concept album is the closest he's ever gotten to integrating the two sides of his musical personality together."
[
]
Track listing
Personnel
*Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist f ...
– lead vocals, guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, all other instrumentation (except where noted), arrangement, engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
, production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
*Devin Townsend
Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...
– lead vocals (tracks 4, 9)
*Will Riley – keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
(track 14)
*John Avila
John Avila is an American bassist and music producer, best known for being in the new wave band Oingo Boingo from 1984 to 1995.
Career
Avila co-founded the music group ''Food for Feet'' in 1981, and played with them until 1991.
In 1984, he ...
– bass (track 2)
*Stuart Hamm
Stuart Hamm (born February 8, 1960) is an American bass guitar player, known for his session and live work with numerous artists as well as for his unconventional playing style and solo recordings.
Career
Born in New Orleans, Hamm spent his chil ...
– bass (track 3)
*Fabrizio Gossi – bass (track 14)
*Chris Frazier
Chris Frazier (born September 7, 1967) is an American drummer. He is known in the professional ranks since he started recording and touring with guitarist Steve Vai from 1985 through 2001. Frazier was the touring drummer with classic rock singe ...
– drums (track 1)
*Greg Bissonette
Gregg Bissonette (born June 9, 1959) is an American jazz and rock drummer and vocalist. He is the brother of bassist Matt Bissonette, with whom he frequently collaborates. He has played on albums by dozens of recording artists, including Davi ...
– drums (track 2)
*Deen Castronovo
Deen J. Castronovo (born August 17, 1964) is an American drummer and singer, best known for being a member of classic rock band Journey and hard rock acts Bad English and Hardline. He currently plays drums and shares lead vocals for the bands Jo ...
– drums (tracks 3, 5, 7, 11, 12, 15)
*Mike Mangini
Michael Anthony Mangini (born April 18, 1963) is an American musician and current drummer of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He has also played for bands and artists such as Annihilator, Extreme, James LaBrie, and Steve Vai. Be ...
– drums (tracks 8, 9)
*Robin DiMaggio – drums (track 14)
* C.C. White – background vocals
A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...
(tracks 12, 17)
*Tracee Lewis – background vocals (tracks 12, 17)
*Miroslava Mendoza Escriba – background vocals (tracks 12, 17)
*Kimberly Evans – background vocals (tracks 12, 17)
*John Sombrotto – background vocals (track 17)
*Mark McCrite – background vocals (track 17)
*Jim Altan – background vocals (track 17)
*Julian Vai – spoken vocals (track 18)
*Marcelo Gomes – engineering assistance
*Sergio Buss – engineering assistance
*T. J. Helmerich
T. J. Helmerich is an American musician and audio engineer.
Helmerich is known for developing a unique 8-finger style of playing his guitar, a technique he taught to a young Joel Hoekstra as one of his first guitar teachers. He has produced/eng ...
– engineering assistance (track 17)
*Bernie Grundman
Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer.
He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...
– mastering
Chart performance
References
External links
In Review: Steve Vai "Fire Garden"
at Guitar Nine Records
{{Authority control
Steve Vai albums
1996 albums
Epic Records albums
Concept albums