Gretchen Menn Rethinks the Concept of an Instrumental Guitar Album

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This is the story of an experiment. On December 8, 2011, I sat down with guitarist Gretchen Menn at a Peet’s coffeehouse and asked her, “What if you did something as different as possible from your last album, Hale Souls, and, perhaps, even unlike the typical guitar albums I receive at the magazine every day?” I pushed a scrap of paper towards her with an album and theatrical concept sketched out for a modern retelling of Dante’s epic poem, Inferno.

What Menn accomplished with that basic idea required five years to complete. The creative journey necessitated an intense study of classical orchestration, involved serious overhauls of her guitar technique, caused her to evolve her approach to composition, and it also entailed the weathering of a personal tragedy. It was almost like being devoured by one of Dante’s hellish beasts, but the resulting album, Abandon All Hope, is a vivid, unique, and magnificent piece of musical drama (including a libretto—which I contributed—and gorgeous and spooky photography by Max Crace). By forsaking the “lead guitarist’s ego” to place her guitar playing in complete service to the story line, the other instruments, and the compositions, Menn was freed to conjure a sonic landscape of emotion, salvation, and dread. As a song cycle, it’s an experience of near-cinematic wonder.

I watched it all happen from the wings, so to speak, and, biased or not, I obviously consider Abandon All Hope a stunning achievement. Hopefully, it also will be an inspiration for other guitar players looking to create works that transcend conventional guitar instrumentals in execution, performance, composition, and/or marketing. Although, considering the pain, effort, and artistic self-examination involved, I doubt that Menn—or any other guitar player for that matter—will accept an invitation to have