Memory Crash is a singular accomplishment for Stevens as a guitarist, songwriter, and arranger. “It was great to be able to stretch out on some of the records I’ve played on in the last few years, but Memory Crash is a little different,” Steve Stevens says. “It is certainly more compositional than some others I’ve done. For this record, I didn’t start on an idea unless it was fully realized. These pieces follow along a traditional structure.”

Above all, however, Stevens reminds us (as he does with a song like “Small Arms Fire”) that the guitar is still a dangerous instrument. “Whether it is Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar ablaze onstage, Woody Guthrie writing ‘This machine kills fascists’ on his acoustic, or the ‘wake up calls’ The Edge and U2 give us with their songs, when you think about it, the guitar is the only instrument that has the power to be a protest instrument,” Stevens says. “At the end of the day, this instrument, the guitar, has been with me since I was a kid, and it still fascinates me. I still have a love affair with the guitar.”