by Thom Owens

As a professional guitarist, Brent Mason demonstrated his virtuosity on sessions with a number of country and pop stars, including George Strait, Shania Twain, Aaron Neville, Trisha Yearwood, Randy Travis and Neil Diamond, but he never had a chance to demonstrate the full range of his talents until his 1997 debut album, Hot Wired. To be sure, Mason tackles country on the all-instrumental record, but he also stretches out, wandering into some jazzy territory here and there. While there are a couple of slow spots -- some of the songwriting is a little undistinguished -- Mason continually shines, proving that he's a guitarist's guitarist.