Hit List

Elaine Summers, Sparkler.

From the first notes of the buoyant, rocking opener, "Fade Away" (an ode to faulty memory), Elaine Summers and her band completely surrender to the joys of pop abandon, cranking up the distortion and singing "ooh-ooh" with a sincerity rarely heard since the '60s. Songs like "Took a Lot of Time" and "Blown Away" are filled with Beatles-esque hooks, and Summers pays homage to Jefferson Airplane in the richly layered "Puzzle Man" and darkly grooving "Dream Song." Rootsy rocker Pete Droge joins Summers, a longtime member of his band the Sinners, on almost every track, most notably on a rocking, head-bopping cover of Gram Parsons' "Just Can't Take It Anymore." (Elaine Summers, www.elainesummers.com)

—Nicole Solis

Tin Hat Trio, The Rodeo Eroded.

On The Rodeo Eroded, the Tin Hat Trio augments its core sound of acoustic guitar, violin, and accordion with a number of unusual instruments (prepared guitar, "trumpet violin," toy piano) as well as several guests on percussion, harp, tuba, and vocals. The Rodeo Eroded is at once more experimental and listenable than its predecessors, but the trio is still mining its quirky, uncategorizable fusion of tango, bluegrass, jazz, and classical music. The group's last CD, Helium, featured a vocal by Tom Waits on one track, and this time around the trio called upon Willie Nelson for an Americana/spaghetti-western version of the standard "Willow Weep for Me." Guitarist Mark Orton penned nine of the disc's 15 tunes, and there is no shortage of cool picking, particularly his "out" solos on "Happy Hour" and "O.N.E.O." and wobbly Dobro playing on "Bill" and "Manmoth." (Ropeadope, www.ropeadope.com)

—Teja Gerken

Mary Gauthier, Filth and Fire.

In the opening track of singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier's latest CD, Filth and Fire, ominous Hammond organ swells set the stage for this gorgeous yet dark collection filled with ground-down characters all but destroyed by loneliness and their tragic life choices. Fire images punctuate these 11 roots-rock tracks, from the departing lover who finds herself alone among the flames ("You are the lover / Who loved me right down to my bones / Now I walk through the fire alone") in "A Long Way to Fall" to the poisonous smoke that clouds the horizons in "Sugar Cane." Gauthier alternates between measured guitar strums and nimble picking, and producer Gurf Morlix's guitars lead a band of sympathetic accompanists that includes Peter Rowan (mandolin), Rich Brotherton (acoustic guitar), and Slaid Cleaves (harmony vocal). (Signature Sounds, www.signaturesounds.com)

—Karen Iris Tucker

Craig Dobbins, Christmas Time.

On his latest release, fingerstyle guitarist Craig Dobbins gives such Christmas classics as "Jingle Bells" and "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" a down-home bounce with his flawless Atkins-style picking. But he also captures a more pensive aspect of the Christmas spirit on arrangements of "Away in a Manger" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," which features some fine chordal harmonics (alternating natural notes with artificial harmonics) and a nice reharmonization. Dobbins contributes a couple of Christmasy sounding originals—the bluegrass tinged "Sand Mountain Sleigh Ride" and the beautiful "Appalachian Lullaby." His relaxed feel and excellent melodic phrasing is particularly strong on "Love Came Down at Christmas," which he played on a Del Vecchio resonator guitar. (CBD, www.funkyjunk.com/agw.htm)

—Ron Forbes-Roberts

Steve Tibbetts, A Man about a Horse.

A Man about a Horse is guitarist Steve Tibbetts' seventh album featuring the atmospheric, densely layered music in which electric and acoustic guitars, voices, percussion, and sampled sounds swirl at the edge of recognition. Tibbetts' airily reverbed acoustic 12-string is prominent, and longtime collaborators Marc Anderson and Marcus Wise (percussion) and Jim Anton (bass) provide strong support for his slice-and-dice studio style. This is heady music that moves easily from soothing calm to agitation. Most of the guitar tracks for A Man about a Horse were recorded with Tibbetts' complex MIDI guitar system on a single night of manic, inspired creativity. (ECM, www.ecmrecords.com)

—Gary Joyner

Dolly Parton, Halos and Horns.

With hundreds of unrecorded songs behind her, Dolly Parton keeps going on songwriting binges. Set alongside two covers (a gospel "Stairway to Heaven" and a bluegrass version of Bread's "If") and two remakes from her back catalog, the new songs on Halos and Horns are some of the best Parton has ever written. "Hello God" is a prayer for peace in the wake of September 11; "These Old Bones" is an old-fashioned country story about a mountain wisewoman; "I'm Gone" is a classic kiss-off to a no-good husband. Backed by a group of Dollywood pickers and singers, Parton has written songs that are sad, funny, vulnerable, soulful, honest, and beautifully direct, adding up to her best album in years, an all-acoustic country record that's as simple as it is wise. (Sugar Hill, www.sugarhillrecords.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

Steve Greene Trio, Live in Your Living Room.

Few acoustic archtop guitarists can coax as wide a range of tones from their instrument as Steve Greene. Recorded in an intimate, live-in-the-studio setting, Greene and second guitarist Roy Berns gracefully move through an eclectic collection of tunes ranging from the Reinhardt/Grappelli standard "Minor Swing" to Sonny Rollins' "Pent-Up House" and Freddie Hubbard's timeless "Up Jumped Spring." Buoyed by the incessantly swinging bass of Paul Barrett, the trio elegantly interprets the bouncy "Joshua Fought at the Walls of Jericho" and Bill Frisell's haunting jazz ballad "Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa" with a healthy respect for the acoustic archtop guitar's dry, smoky timbre and wide dynamic range. (North Twelve, www.stevegreene.com)

—David McCarty

Cliff Eberhardt, School for Love.

Cliff Eberhardt's sixth album, School for Love, reveals the Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter as a full professor in matters of the heart as well as the art and craft of songwriting. Supple melodies illuminate Eberhardt's mastery of blues, folk, and roots music, but these finely shaped tunes could conceivably be given eloquent interpretations by singers gracing theater stages or cabarets. Lyrically, Eberhardt trods heartbreak's familiar turf, dwelling on what remains after the loss and the good-byes. His answers are sometimes light, sometimes bittersweet, and always poignant. Eberhardt plays a variety of guitars, including resonator, 12-string, and a Tacoma Papoose, tastefully accompanied on most tracks by bass, drums, and piano, with occasional guest vocalists like Mark Erelli, Dar Williams, and Liz Queler, whose clear harmonies perfectly complement Eberhardt's textured voice. (Red House, www.redhouserecords.com)

—Kathy Rutz

Various artists, Gipsy Jazz School: Django's Legacy.

Gipsy Jazz School is a two-CD set of rare recordings from some of the finest guitarists to follow in Django Reinhardt's wake. The tracks feature first-generation Gypsy jazzers such as Joseph Reinhardt; Sarane, Matelo, and Baro Ferret; Eugene Vees; and Henri Crolla as well as contemporary players like Romane, Rapha‘l FaØs, Moreno, and Francis Alfred Moerman. Other treats include a brief radio interview in French with Reinhardt and a recording of Reinhardt backed by StŽphane Grappelli on piano. The set includes a 100-page booklet in both French and English by Alain Antonietto that gives a brief history of Gypsy jazz along with short biographies of all the performers. This musical genre may have begun with Reinhardt, but this set amply demonstrates that it sure didn't end with him. (Iris/ Qualiton, www.qualiton.com)

—Michael Simmons

Various artists, The Canvas Remembers September 11.

To raise money for charities that benefit inner-city children and the arts in New York City, Stacy Kray sent out a call to her fellow California singer-songwriters and put together an engaging collection of songs inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. This compilation captures the spectrum of emotions—the sadness and apprehension as well as the hope and rejuvenation—that came in the aftermath of that day. From the mournful sound of bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace" at the close of Natasha Miller's heartbreaking opening track to the uplifting chorus of "Alive" by Think of England, what's most impressive on this disc is how the songwriters have turned a sorrowful subject into something comforting and cathartic. (Canvas, www.thecanvasgallery.com)

—Drew Pearce

LAGQ, Latin.

The new CD by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet traverses the vast territory of Latin and Latin-flavored music. LAGQ blends effortless virtuosity, rhythmic intensity, and poignancy on selections by Leo Brouwer, Aaron Copland, Egberto Gismonti, Astor Piazzolla, Eduardo Martin, Joaqu’n Rodrigo, Georges Bizet, Andrew York, and Sting as no other classical guitar ensemble could. For example, Sting's "Fragile" begins meditatively but then rollicks Gipsy KingsÐstyle to a fade powered by fleet-fingered improvised lines. Subtle percussion playing, guest James Walker's jazzy flute on York's "Syzygy," and ingenious arrangements throughout make this disc a standout. (Telarc, www.telarc.com)

—Mark Small

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, January 2003, No. 121.

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