Nina Attal is a French guitarist. Since the age of 13, she has played countless types of guitar, from the Dobro to the Fender Stratocaster. She leads an all-female quartet that pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix’s fetish album Electric Ladyland. Tales of a Guitar Woman is her fourth solo offering. Nina Attal takes her guitar very seriously. Her style is more rock, blues and folk than jazz. But she masters these genres with great dexterity.
From the very first piece, “Backdoor”, you can feel the influence of Jimmy Page: it rumbles, it growls, it ‘arpeggiates,’ it “solotes” (solos), it grooves. Nina Attal has already said in interviews that the former Led Zeppelin guitarist is a great influence, but she also adds John Meyer and, of course, Jimi.
The first two tracks are well-arranged rock tunes, but flirt a little too much with commercialism for my taste. The rest of the album, however, takes a broader view. Blues and folk tunes, with plenty of acoustic guitars, add depth to Nina Attal’s musical narrative. The 29-year-old likes to explore, multiplying guitar sounds and harmonizing her own vocals. The result is uneven, but eclectic and very interesting.
Although primarily a guitarist, Nina’s vocals are also very good. She sings mostly in English, but three songs are in French. As I often do in my reviews, I encourage her to increase the proportion of songs in her mother tongue. I’ve always felt that the inventiveness of rock guitarists is best appreciated in ballads rather than fast-paced songs. On this album, Nina Attal embodies this perfectly in the tracks “Jimmy” and “Through Your Window.” As she prepares to enter her thirties, the guitarist still has a long way to go to continue her explorations. She also interviews other French guitarists on her YouTube channel. We’ll be waiting for the rest. With open ears.
