Cruise Control is a fifty-fifty CD by
Steven Halpern & the Sound Medicine Band. The band is
Halpern, Jim Surles,
Marc Van Wageningen,
Kim Atkinson,
Geoffrey Gordon, and
Ian Dogole. There are some deep healing pieces, the kind that
Halpern creates as well as anybody. And, for every one of those tracks, there is a weak rock & roll track. In the liner notes,
Halpern compares Surles' guitar playing to that of
Jimi Hendrix. It is quite soulful and it is excellent.
Halpern suggests that Surles "channeled the spirit of
Jimi Hendrix" into his own. It is quite appropriate to compare the sounds and the techniques, but channeling
Hendrix's spirit is questionable and in making this suggestion,
Halpern goes one step too far.