There are 15 duets with different improvisers from the Northern California region. The styles vary from mellow and spacious compositions to fuzzed out, sliding noise (ie, Lucio’s track). my personal favorite is “An empty garage,” a guitar and vocal duet w/ alecia sanchez. Other artists on the recording include: Randy Mckean, Scott Amendola, Shawn Hale, Chris Ferreira, Tom Monson, Phillip Greenlief, Byron Blackburn, Lucio Menegon, Kevin Corcoran, Lisa Mezzacappa, Vincent Difiore, Alex Jenkins, David Bole and Rick Lotter. This project seemed easy enough at first, but it has become quite a chore to try to assemble. Still, I’m pretty happy with the results. I consider this to be like a diary, and am very grateful for all of the players involved. "Using range of style, instrument and emotion, Hammond, along with several other California artists, builds steady, climaxing anticipation on Duets. “An Empty Garage,” which pairs Hammond’s weeping guitar with Alecia Sanchez’s airy vocals, is heart-wrenching. Sean Hale’s bass work on “Reviving the Old Rooster” results in reserved composition, sleazy enough to relay danger. “Stalingrad?,” with Vince DiFiore on trumpet, is sprawling, angelic and devilish, while interplay between Hammond’s banjo and Alex Jenkins’ tabla on “Power Outage” tells a quiet story that ends in excitement and frenzy. This isn’t showy, big-stage jazz, nor is it bookish, cluttered jazz—and at times it’s hardly jazz at all. Simply put, Duets is fascinating, truthful and full of wild, yet expertly controlled temperament." -Josh Fernandes, Sacramento News and Review “As a guitarist, Hammond has grown tremendously over the years, as this set of pairings with local and Northern California players will attest. The individual pieces vary from meditative and melancholy to densely forested and upbeat, some of them with either multiple overdubs of Hammond’s guitar, or else he’s got more hands than an eight-armed Shiva Statue...” -Jackson Griffith, Sacramento News and Review