With the release of his second solo album BORN ON EARTH - a head-spinning collection of richly embroidered original songs - the L.A.-based Anderson makes it clear he's much more than just your average sideman. Anderson is a guitarist/singer/songwriter who's anxious to get his freak on, freed from the understandable boundaries placed on him by other artists. He may be the world's most successful guitarist waiting to be discovered as an artist. [We assume it is out already since the PR didn't contain a release date]

BORN ON EARTH is a bold, sparkling statement from a guy whose worldview is eclectic and consistently left field. The new album's title song is a microcosm of Anderson's artistry. It opens with circus snare drum hits and cymbal crashes under a dramatic string section (Is this Wagner?) then slams straight into fourth gear with a titanic guitar riff that sounds like it's leveling the earth (Black Keys or Black Sabbath?). Anderson's vocal enters with a throat-shredding howl, crying "Shoot out! Vengeance on the street!" (John Lennon?) That guttural howl is then followed by a bouncy, catchy melody (MGMT?). All this and we haven't even reached the first chorus...

BORN ON EARTH features more roaring rock on "Under A White Star" and "New Beginning," both of which showcase Anderson's stratospheric guitar playing and existential, multi-layered lyric play such as "Once there was a mannequin / staring out the window / watching the butterfly / living for today." Even more surprising may be Anderson's tenderness on tunes like "Where Would We Go." Over gentle acoustic guitars and a foot tapping kick drum, Anderson asks, "Won't you, won't you / say that you will / honey I'll meet you up on that hill / Don't you say no / We could both run, ah, but where would we go?"

Anderson grew up playing guitar in La Habra, a borderless cog in sprawling machinery of Los Angeles, and he inhaled Southern California's wacky worldview like laughing gas. He took note of every guitar-hero invader who swaggered into L.A. with visions of conquest, and ended up becoming one of the hottest guns in town himself. His playing is free, expressive, and only excessive when it needs to be. It's not surprising that many of music's greatest artists have asked him to share a bit of himself on their records. But we get the real Rusty Anderson on his own disks.