Hit List

Caitlin Cary, While You Weren't Looking

On her first full-length solo album, Caitlin Cary proves that Ryan Adams isn't the only wunderkind to rise from Whiskeytown's ashes. Cary's solo work echoes the alt-country pop of her former band, ably mixing Celtic, folk, and rock influences into catchy songs that alternately depict harsh, realistic slice-of-life vignettes (the admonishing "What Will You Do?") and lyrical flights of fancy ("Pony"). Cary's confident, crystal-clear voice soars throughout this album, displaying an emotional versatility that was never afforded her as Whiskeytown's harmony vocalist: ethereal on "Shallow Heart, Shallow Water," a country-rock powerhouse on "Thick Walls Down," and a remorseful quiver on the poignant "Sorry." Cary is joined by many of her former bandmates here, as well as Thad Cockrell, who ably fills Adams' role of gravel-voiced vocal foil to Cary's clear, strong alto. (Yep Roc, www.yeproc.com)

—Nicole Solis

 

Steve Dawson, Bug Parade

The music on Steve Dawson's first solo CD is a departure from the acoustic roots/psychedelia sound of his duo Zubot and Dawson. On Bug Parade, his fine fingerpicking guitar work is front and center on contemporary folk originals and creative arrangements of traditional material. Dawson demonstrates his prodigious slide skills on several cuts, notably "Peddlar and His Wife," and coaxes some fascinating, sitarlike sounds out of his Weissenborn on "Into My Room." His clean, rhythmic playing clearly owes something to Leo Kottke (as does his monotonic vocal style on a few cuts), but Dawson has no shortage of unique compositional and technical ideas. (Black Hen, www.zubotanddawson.com)

—Ron Forbes-Roberts

Peter Rowan, Reggaebilly

Recorded at Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica, Reggaebilly finds an easygoing middle ground between reggae and old-time country music. From Nashville, there's Eddie Adcock (banjo), Jerry Douglas (Dobro, lap steel), and Stuart Duncan (fiddle). From Kingston, there's Squidley Cole (drums), Chris Livingston (bass), and ex-Wailer Earl Chinna Smith (guitar). Holding them together is Peter Rowan, singing a gentle set of new songs and old ballads and playing acoustic solos on guitar and mandola. "I Don't Want to Live without Your Love" is as beautiful as anything he's ever written, and the mountain ballad "Little Maggie" comes alive with Douglas and Duncan soloing in front of a reggae rhythm section. It's a surprisingly sweet mix, with plenty of room for picking and a quiet, unlikely beauty. (A-Train, www.peter-rowan.com, www.planetbluegrass.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

Baaba Maal, Missing You

On Missing You, Afropop superstar Baaba Maal goes back to the acoustic music roots of Senegalese village life. Multiple acous-tic guitars (played by Maal, Mansour Seck, and others), kora, and percussion create a dense carpet of sound for one of the most recognizable voices in contemporary world music. The gritty feel of Missing You is a refreshing departure from Maal's often rather slick pop projects. Infectious grooves, catchy melodies, and deceptively simple fingerpicking make this a great introduction to African guitar as well as a treasure for longtime fans of the genre. (Palm, www.palmpictures.com)

—Teja Gerken

Suzzy and Maggie Roche, Zero Church

Zero Church takes its place alongside other CDs whose songs have taken on additional meaning since the events of September 11, 2001. The CD was scheduled to be released that day, but Suzzy and Maggie Roche (of the sibling trio the Roches) decided to wait and add to the set—a multidenominational compilation of poems, prayers, and spirituals—and release it a few months later. Stand-out cuts include the warm, rumbling, traditional a cappella "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray," with guest Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock, and the haunting Hebrew prayer and chant "Aveenu Malcainu," sung by Maggie, Suzzy, and Joel Bard. In addition to this age-old material, the album features a number of contemporary originals accompanied by unobtrusive acoustic guitar strums and other light instrumentation. (Red House, www.redhouserecords.com)

—Karen Iris Tucker

 

Bob Brozman, Live Now

Fans of National steel guitar virtuoso Bob Brozman have been demanding a live album for years, and Live Now, culled from various shows in the U.S. and Australia, doesn't disappoint. The title's Zen-inspired double meaning is no accident. Brozman proves himself a veritable force of nature with a glass slide, eliciting through total mastery and intense concentration a mind-boggling array of sounds and timbres from his instruments. He has always been rooted in blues, but his ever-widening palette now includes Hawaiian, calypso, old jazz, classical, Indian slide, and even German oompah, and he borrows and mixes freely. Still, tunes like the magnificent Skip James–like "So Sad Blues" will satisfy traditionalists. Live Now is a portrait of a man in love with music and in the full throes of his passion. (The Running Man, www.bobbrozman.com)

—Ian Zack

 

Mason Jennings, Century Spring

Mason Jennings' third recording, Century Spring, is an irony-free meditation on modern love. But rather than sounding boring or preachy, it comes across as a testament to the power of sincerity and simplicity. The guitar and vocal melodies are catchy, but the heart behind the lyrics is even more memorable. "Sorry Signs on Cash Machines" unfolds like a rallying cry against fear and cynicism: "All these burning battlefields are now behind us / Love has brought us here together to remind us that love will rise above it all / And just keep rolling / Life keeps rolling / Every moment starts right here with us." (Architect/Bar None, www.bar-none.com)

—Drew Pearce

 

James King, Thirty Years of Farming

Virginian James King's bluegrass is as trad as it gets, and even though half of the songs on his fourth Rounder release are relatively young, his approach is strictly old school. The tunes, from Fred Eaglesmith's "Thirty Years of Farming" to George Jones' "Flame in My Heart," are stripped down and then built up again, played with a deep sense of history and sung with heart-stopping intensity. On acoustic rhythm guitar, King provides the foundation, while Joe Clark (bass, guitar), Adam Poindexter (banjo), Kevin Prater (mandolin, guitar), and Owen Saunders (fiddle) provide the muscle, playing solid, understated, hard-driving lines that hold close to the music's emotional center. It's traditional in the best sense of the word, bringing new passion to simple, heartfelt songs of home, farm, and family. (Rounder, www.rounder.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

 

Dave Black, Alone and Together

Using moving bass lines with chords and other contrapuntal techniques, Dave Black makes his guitar sound like a tight, swinging, self-contained ensemble on this (mainly) solo set of jazz standards and pop tunes. He pulls a rich, full tone out of both nylon- and steel-string guitars as he improvises rapid single-note lines and interesting reharmonized chord sequences on tunes like "On Green Dolphin Street," one of several cuts that show his astonishing facility for playing complex bass lines against chords. A few less well-worn tunes would have been welcome here but, for the most part, Black has the technique and musical imagination to take even the most familiar chestnuts to new places. (Wildstone, www.wildstonemedia.com)

—Ron Forbes-Roberts

 

Rich O'Brien, Southwestern Souvenirs

Rich O'Brien's aptly named Southwestern Souvenirs skillfully blends southern music, as in south of the border, with western, as in cowboy and western swing. O'Brien displays his mastery of western guitar styles on tracks like the instrumental version of the old Gene Autry song "Under Fiesta Stars," the Chet Atkins–inspired "Ruelas," and a swinging version of "Rose of Mexico." But it's the southern part of the equation that is most intriguing. When O'Brien takes a western swing standard such as "Blue Skirt Waltz" and plays it with a distinctly Mexican inflection or recasts the Hollywood strains of the Roy Rogers song "Padre of Old San Antone" as a romantic Spanish guitar and violin duet, he reminds us that most cowboy music could easily be called vaquero music. (Western Jubilee, www.westernjubilee.com)

—Michael Simmons

 

David Tanenbaum, David Tanenbaum Plays Weiss

On this recording, guitarist David Tanenbaum performs his transcriptions of two dance suites and other shorter works by lutenist and composer Silvius Leopold Weiss, a contemporary, and many say equal, of Johann Sebastian Bach. The opening work, a six-movement suite in E minor, is as rich in counterpoint and melodic invention as anything Bach wrote for the lute. With up to 24 strings tuned mostly in thirds, the Baroque lute was built to allow the notes of a melody to ring over one another. Tanenbaum's overlapping notes create secondary passing dissonances that are part of the high Baroque style often missing from more "guitaristic" renditions, and his performance of these works is intimate, expressive, and powerful. (Acoustic Music, www.acoustic-music.de)

—Stephen Dick

 

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, July 2002, No. 115.

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