Guitar legend Eric Johnson released the acclaimed Up Close back in 2010 (apparently only in North America), and he's asking us to take 'another look' at this album here in 2013, as it's been revised and remixed from its original release. To coincide with his upcoming UK tour, Johnson has revised 6 of the songs with some new arrangements and remixed seven others. For the casual fan I'm not sure how relevant this new special edition will be (let's face it, the original was damn fine in its own right), but for completists and loyal fans, some of the new touches the guitarist has added here will be worth hearing. For those outside of the US who didn't pick up an import copy, this will no doubt be your first exposure to the CD. The info we were given along with the CD doesn't list the changes that were made to some of these songs, but if you look at the track listing of each version you can see that songs like "Traverse" and "Change-revisted" were left off this new edition. Most of these songs are sparkling, brimming with Johnson's spectacular guitar tone and fluid dexterity, yet just as impressive are the guest appearances who help elevate some of these songs. Malford Milligan puts in a great vocal performance on the catchy "Brilliant Room", as does Steve Miller on the Electric Flag blues classic "Texas", which also features guitar from Jimmy Vaughan. Blues upstart Johnny Lang rips it up on "Austin", and the great Sonny Landreth duels with Johnson on the sultry "Your Book". Otherwise, it's the stellar instrumentals that feature Johnson's virtuoso guitar skills that really are the highlight here, like "Fatdaddy", "Gem", "Soul Surprise", "On the Way", "Vortexan", but he also dazzles on the numbers where his vocals are front and center, like "A Change Has Come to Me" and "Arithmetic". As I mentioned earlier, this edition is basically something Johnson put together to help him promote his UK tour, so for all fans on that side of the pond who perhaps didn't check out Up Close back in 2010, now's a good time to do so and while you are at it, get yourself a ticket to one of his gigs as well.