LONDON CALLING

NO GROUP HERALDED the 1990’s unplugged revolution like Tesla. Acoustic guitar has always played an essential role in the music of the Northern California rock and rollers, who were well ahead of the curve when it came to that decade’s major musical trend. “We certainly didn’t invent the acoustic set, but the timing of it all was magical,” founding guitarist Frank Hannon says. While on a break as the opening act on Mötley Crüe’s monstrous Dr. Feelgood tour in 1990, Tesla cut Five Man Acoustical Jam live at the Trocadero in Philadelphia. For a major rock act to release an album of live acoustic music turned out to be a big deal. Five Man Acoustical Jam went Platinum and helped ignite the acoustic movement during the following decade, when seemingly every guitar-driven act took a stab at it.

Thirty years later, the group has returned to the acoustic fold with (Ume). The album was recorded live in a single-day session, and there was no better place to do something different and exciting than Abbey Road.”