Hit List

 

Tim Sparks, Tanz.

Fingerstyle guitarist Tim Sparks continues to explore the underlying connections in world music on this beautifully played and recorded CD of Jewish music from around the world—his second recording for John Zorn’s Tzadik label. On Tanz, Sparks is joined by bassist Greg Cohen and percussionist Cyro Baptista for music that is adventurous and rich with melodies and odd meters. Sparks’ studies in world music allow him to trace Jewish musical influences through the cultures of Brazil, Mexico, Yemen, the Balkans, Africa, and Spain, and the result is reflected in his mastery of these difficult musical forms. (Tzadik)

––Gary Joyner

 

The Cash Brothers, How Was Tomorrow

Miss your Uncle Tupelo? The debut of the Canadian brothers Andrew and Peter Cash delivers a similar sort of alt-country vibe, switching between austere acoustic strumming and pure garage rock. Their sibling harmonies are deadpan and dead-on, and their collaborative songwriting turns up a few gems. In particular, they take us into the mind of a 7-Eleven clerk who imagines himself performing on TV ("Night Shift Guru") and the daydreams of a cubicle serf ("Guitar Strings and Foolish Things"), vividly depicting what you might call the dust bowl of the new economy. Musically, the arrangements are simple and effective, emphasizing the rough-cut melodies and some very sturdy hooks. (Zoë/Rounder)

––Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

 

 

Manolo Sanlúcar, Locura de Brisa y Trino

Flamenco guitarist and composer Manolo Sanlúcar (Manuel Muñoz Alcón) is a restless experimenter, always exploring different approaches to flamenco. The music Sanlúcar has created for these settings of Federico García Lorca poems is his most far-reaching experiment yet. He breaks down the essential harmonic and melodic language of flamenco, separating the traditional flamenco forms and rejoining them in ways that result in an open-ended harmonic approach reminiscent of John Coltrane’s music. Sanlúcar is joined on this recording by flamenco singer Carmen Linares (also known for her innovative approach to traditional material), Sanlúcar’s brother Isidro on guitar, and percussionist Tino di Geraldo. (Mercury)

––Stephen Dick

 

Sharon Shannon and Friends, The Diamond Mountain Sessions

The Diamond Mountain Sessions is a great leap for accordionist/ fiddler/ mandolinist/pennywhistler Sharon Shannon, a platinum-selling artist in her native Ireland. After three albums of mostly traditional Irish instrumentals, The Diamond Mountain Sessions is her first album of songs, performed with friends like singers Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, and John Prine and instrumentalists Donal Lunny (bouzouki) and Triona Ni Domhnaill (piano). These relatively informal sessions give them a chance to take arranging risks like mixing sax with mandolin or Hammond organ with banjo. It’s all upbeat, sweetly contemporary, and firmly rooted in the tradition, with Shannon acting as joyful, generous leader. (Compass)

—Kenny Berkowitz

 

Various artists, Buried Country

This two-CD set is devoted to one of the most surprising populations to have taken to twang: the Aborigines of Australia, who were initially drawn to country music because of its emotional directness and stories. Apart from Jimmy Little, whose "Royal Telephone" is one of Australia’s all-time best-selling songs, and Archie Roach, who released a few LPs internationally in the 1980s, the performers here are unknown outside Australia. They include Vic Simms, who recorded the lament "Stranger in My Country" while he was an inmate in Bathhurst Jail; Auriel Andrew, who performs the trucker anthem "Truck Driving Woman"; and Jim Ridgeway, a boxer-turned-singer who scored his only hit with "Ticket to Nowhere." The singing is sometimes a little ragged, and the guitar picking a bit rough, but nearly every track here has as much country soul as anything that’s come out of Nashville in recent years. (Larrikin)

––Michael Simmons

 

Leonard Cohen, Field Commander Cohen: Tour of 1979

Columbia delved into its vaults for this set of performances that demonstrate the magic of a Leonard Cohen performance. Cohen’s nylon-string guitar is the driving force for an ensemble sound––featuring Jennifer Warnes’ band, Passenger––that has deepened since his first sparely produced albums. John Bilezikjian’s oud playing is outstanding, as is Roscoe Beck’s fretless bass work. The material spans Cohen’s career up to 1979, and then-new songs like "The Guests" and "The Gypsy’s Wife" show a deepening mysticism in his writing. (Columbia)

––Gary Joyner

Various artists, Hellhound on My Trail: The Songs of Robert Johnson

With only 29 songs, recorded over four days in 1936 and 1937, Robert Johnson (1911–38) changed the shape of American music. His music is more alive than ever, and the musicians on this tribute CD are as old as David "Honeyboy" Edwards, who used to travel with Johnson, and as young as Derek Trucks, who was born 40 years after Johnson’s death. They’re folkies (Alvin "Youngblood" Hart, Taj Mahal), Chicago blues mainstays (James Cotton, Bob Margolin, Pinetop Perkins), and third-generation electric guitarists (Lucky Peterson, Susan Tedeschi, Joe Louis Walker)—but here they’re playing their acoustic best, recording new versions of 16 songs in a rich, faithful tribute to the King of the Delta Blues Singers. (Telarc)

—Kenny Berkowitz

Andy Irvine, Way Out Yonder

On the third solo album of his illustrious career, Andy Irvine remains a captivating Celtic storyteller and arranger par excellence. His bouzouki and mandolin playing are always fluid and featherlight, his rhythmic freedom seems effortless, and he blows a harmonica with a force that would do the young Dylan proud. He can sparkle one minute with naive comic wonder and flash the next into vivid pain and moral outrage. On Way Out Yonder Irvine adds a strong "down under" influence to the Irish-Balkan amalgam he has made his own. He brings all the poignancy of his best-loved Irish emigration songs to the Aussie convict ballad "Moreton Bay," and he picked up a New Zealand gem in Marcus Turner’s "When the Boys Are on Parade." (Appleseed)

––Danny Carnahan

Various artists, Songcatcher

Drunks, dust-coated strangers, and the lovelorn all move stoically through bittersweet traditional songs on the soundtrack of Songcatcher, a film about a turn-of-the-century woman music scholar who retreats into self-imposed solitude deep in the mountains. Songcatcher features wise acoustic ballads flavored with fiddles, banjos, twangy guitars, and bruised female voices. Of particular note is Dolly Parton’s duet with Emma Rossum on "When Love Is New," in which lush, twining harmonies conjure a mother and daughter bound by common heartbreak. Other highlights include the liquored-up loner etched in Allison Moorer’s version of "Moonshiner" and prime tracks sung by Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, Maria McKee, and Rosanne Cash. (Vanguard).

—Karen Iris Tucker

 

Lyle Ritz, Jazz

In the 1950s Lyle Ritz released two albums of jazz standards (now out of print) arranged for ukulele that are some of the most sophisticated uke recordings ever produced. In this book, Ritz offers ukulele transcriptions of 25 songs, including "Body and Soul," "Spring Is Here," and "Laura," arranged for both soprano (G C E A tuning) and tenor (D G B E) ukes. The book comes with a CD that features Ritz performing 12 of the arrangements. After working your way through this book, you’ll be able to silence the "my dog has fleas" jokes of your guitar-picking friends by playing Ritz’ lovely version of "Fly Me to the Moon." (Flea Market/Hal Leonard)

––Michael Simmons

Stephen D. Anderson with Ron Cid, Visions: A Personal Tribute to Lenny Breau

Guitarist Stephen D. Anderson was a close personal and musical friend of late jazz fingerstyle guitarist Lenny Breau, and his insight into Breau’s style is the result of first-hand exposure to his music. Virtually every aspect of Breau’s playing is analyzed and well-presented here: two-note comping, harmonics, quartal harmony, three-against-two rhythms, and more. The examples that illustrate these techniques are challenging but concise and practical. The book also includes an informative and moving interview with Breau by Ron Cid. Intermediate/advanced guitarists with a basic grasp of jazz theory will benefit most from this in-depth exploration of Breau’s singular musical vision. (Montreal Jazz Guitar)

––Ron Forbes-Roberts

 

Visit the reviews archives to read dozens of reviews of great acoustic-guitar oriented CDs.

Sources

 

Larrikin, www.buriedcountry.com.

Montreal Jazz Guitar, www.angelfire.com/az2/jazzcorps/index.html.

Tzadik, www.tzadik.com.

 

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, August 2001, No. 104.

 

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