Hit List

Greg Brown, Milk of the Moon

The disorienting, yet impossibly soothing tension between Greg Brown's gravelly bass voice and the plucky banjo on the opening track, "Lull It By," immediately sets the stage for Milk of the Moon. Brown considers his role as a musician to bring people together, and his evocative songs explore the range of emotion found in human interaction. He lovingly recounts tales of loneliness, memories of a father and son, and true love, then lays bare the earthy and occasionally darker side of relationships in the eerie "The Moon Is Nearly Full" and the low-down blues of "Let Me Be Your Gigolo." Yet Brown always emerges hopeful, living his idea of community by example: "All around the world, when the dark night falls, we should be sitting around the fire telling stories." (Red House, www.redhouserecords.com)

—Nicole Solis

 

Mike Marshall and Darol Anger, The Duo Live at Home and on the Range

These West Coast veterans virtually defined progressive acoustic music in such ensembles as the David Grisman Quintet, Montreux, New Grange, and Psychograss. Their new, mostly live duo CD shows that four hands can sound like a full band. Marshall, a premier multi-instrumentalist, divides his time between mandolin, fiddle, mandocello, and guitar, while Anger sticks with the bowed instruments. Marshall's rich tone and immense command of the guitar's fingerboard make him sound like a cross between Doc Watson and Joe Pass. His stunning work on "Down in the Willow Garden" and other tunes incorporates chord formations that cover the instrument's entire range, and he glides effortlessly through richly textured passing chords to provide depth and focus for Anger's haunting violin lines. And no one can make the mandocello sound as hip and funky as Marshall does on his classic "Gator Strut." A worthy addition to their storied musical careers. (Compass, www.compassrecords.com)

—David McCarty

José Luis Merlin, Dreams of Argentina

This collection of solo instrumental works by Argentine guitarist José Luis Merlin is rich in melodic and rhythmic invention. Merlin, a student of Abel Carlevaro, is a master of both classical technique and the South American right-hand style of mixing strums with slaps and muting to create exciting cross-rhythms. His use of this technique is especially effective in the opening track, "Cruz del Sur." By contrast, the evocative "Insectos, Párajos, y Nubes" stands out for its hymnlike simplicity. Dreams of Argentina also includes two collections, "Suite del Recuerdo" and "Cinco Canciónes de Amor," whose evocative melodies will make you homesick for the pampas, even if you don't know the difference between a bola and a bolo. (Dos Almas, www.dosalmas.com)

—Stephen Dick

Ben Kweller, Sha Sha

Ben Kweller is what Ben Folds would sound like if Folds had grown up listening to Pavement as much as the Beatles. The singer-songwriters both have earnest and endearingly unpolished singing voices and a firm grasp of catchy melodies and clever, sincere lyrics. But the 20-year-old Kweller's music is heavily influenced by his indie upbringing. The pop hooks on tunes like "Wasted and Ready" owe as much to Weezer's "Buddy Holly" as to Holly himself, and his lyrics and melodies are liberally peppered with indie-requisite irony: "Love is supposed to be this bad / Make you cry mega-ultra sad" from "Walk on Me" and the self-consciously bubblegum chorus of "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)." Although Kweller's main instrument is piano, he is equally adept at guitar, leading his sparse studio band from ballad to post-punk to alt-country in only 11 tracks. (ATO, www.atorecords.com)

—Nicole Solis

Beppe Gambetta, Carlo Aonzo, and David Grisman, Traversata

This stellar collaboration celebrates the mandolin repertoire of early-20th-century Italian immigrants who made the traversata from the old world to the new. The trio tackles sprightly tarantellas, mazurkas, and waltzes as well as stately operatic arias by such composers as Raffaele Calace, Pasquale Taraffo, and Giacomo Puccini. On most tracks, Carlo Aonzo takes shimmering leads on a traditional bowl-back mandolin while David Grisman delivers subtle counterpoint and spot-on harmonies on his darker-sounding Gibson F-5. Beppe Gambetta underpins the mando play with stunningly full accompaniment on a 14-string harp guitar and steps into the limelight on a vintage Gibson L-5 for Nick Lucas' "Pickin' the Guitar." The beautiful playing and formal compositions are augmented by free improvisation, inventive voicings, and sparkling arrangements. Break out the chianti. (Acoustic Disc, www.acousticdisc.com)

—Paul Kotapish

 

Otis Taylor, Respect the Dead

A dissonant, driving banjo strum opens "Ten Million Slaves," the first tune on bluesman Otis Taylor's Respect the Dead. Its relentless, pulsating rhythm serves as a counterpoint to Taylor's impassioned vocals, which bewail the hellish voyage of the Middle Passage. As on his critically acclaimed White African, many of the tunes here contain only two or three chords and lack a discernable chorus or anything resembling a 12-bar structure. But multi-instrumentalist Taylor makes the most of this minimalist approach. Aided by bassist Kenny Passarelli and lead guitarist Eddie Turner, Taylor crafts moody sermons about race, love, and death that linger long after the tunes end. One can hear strains of John Lee Hooker, but Taylor is fashioning his own blues, with echoes of rap, electronica, and African music. (Northern Blues, www.northernblues.com)

—Ian Zack

 

Josh Ritter, Golden Age of Radio

Juxtaposed with gorgeous landscapes—curvy mountains and slowly setting suns—Josh Ritter's lyrics are decidedly morose. The 25-year-old Idahoan seems desperate to find a place to hang his hat and also determined to find a partner who can take him there. From the hushed longing in "Come and Find Me" to the Donovan-style pacing in "You've Got the Moon," Ritter's stories about heartache and dusty drifters wading through cornfields are accented by alt-country vocal inflections and colorful acoustic picking. Ritter's melody-driven music is filled with sunny Americana trappings and a dark poetic bent. (Signature Sounds, www.signature-sounds.com)

—Karen Iris Tucker

 

Larry Pattis, Hands of Time

On his sophomore effort Hands of Time, Utah-based fingerstylist Larry Pattis proves himself to be a solid composer and performer. A collection of mostly mid-tempo solo tunes, Hands of Time will appeal to those listeners who appreciate straight-ahead guitar playing, without technical flash or heavy studio processing. Pierre Bensusan's influence is apparent on many of the tunes, but Pattis really shines when he includes almost-classical counterpoint in such pieces as "Homeland Suite" and "Going for Baroque." The opener, "Buddy Boy," and the title tune both have a solid sense of form, successfully avoiding a trap many open-tuned soloists fall into. (Guitar Odyssey, www.larrypattis.com)

—Teja Gerken

 

Townes Van Zandt, A Gentle Evening with Townes Van Zandt

This album was recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1969 but has only now been released in its entirety. The CD's ten cuts include eight tracks that showed up on various studio albums over the years; "Talking KKK Blues," which has never been issued on any Van Zandt album; and a silly joke about a nun. Van Zandt's performance is a bit tentative in places, perhaps because he's apprehensive about playing in Carnegie Hall. But the nervousness drops away when he launches into soon-to-be classics like "Tecumseh Valley," "Like a Summer's Thursday," and "Talking Thunderbird Wine Blues," which he plays with the excitement and confidence of a musician discovering just how good he really is. (Dualtone/Capitol, www.dualtone.com)

—Michael Simmons

 

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, September 2002, No. 117.

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