Hit List

Eastmountainsouth.

On their debut CD, Kat Maslich and Peter Adams deliver a smooth, poppy take on Americana and troubadour folk. The central attraction of Eastmountainsouth is the young duo's silky voices, which blend beautifully on Stephen Foster's "Hard Times" and a slate of graceful originals. The arrangements (by Adams and coproducer Mitchell Froom) are soft and dreamy, a wash of acoustic and electric guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, pedal steel, and keyboards over understated bass and drums. Although the band name points toward Appalachia (and Maslich does come from Virginia), the musical vibe is closer to southern California—more Jackson Browne than Iris DeMent. (DreamWorks, www.dreamworksrecords.com)

—Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

 

Leadbelly, Take This Hammer.

The recording career of Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter extended from the mid-1930s (on recordings made by John Lomax while Leadbelly was a prisoner in a Louisiana penitentiary) until his death in 1949 and included multiple versions of dozens of songs. The 26 selections he recorded for Bluebird during two Herculean sessions in mid-1940 are notable for 12 amazing performances of prison and work songs with the Golden Gate Quartet, the premier gospel foursome of the era. This unlikely collaboration produced music that, while not strictly "authentic," is certainly unique, forceful, and unforgettable. The remaining solo tracks include definitive renditions of such classics as "Roberta" and "Midnight Special." Excellent notes and 80 minutes of playing time make this one of the most easily recommended of Leadbelly reissues. (Bluebird, www.bluebirdjazz.com)

—Duck Baker

Paul Curreri, Songs for Devon Sproule.

Kelly Joe Phelps was impressed enough by Paul Curreri's talents to produce the Virginia native's second CD (and add some distinctive slide guitar to one track of this otherwise solo acoustic project). As the title hints (singer-songwriter Sproule is his girlfriend), Curreri writes mostly about getting closer to his beloved. But he eschews romantic clichés in his original imagery ("Ain't crossing nothing sweeter / Than the 'keep out' of the theater / Lift the velvet rope / Now lift it for me") and belies the innocence of both his sentiments and his charming tenor voice with the bluesy bite of his dynamic, mostly fingerstyle guitar work, influenced by the likes of Dave Van Ronk, Reverend Gary Davis, and Mississippi John Hurt. (City Salvage, www.citysalvagerecords.com)

—Derk Richardson

 

Ray Wylie Hubbard, Growl.

Working with producer/guitarist Gurf Morlix and guitarist Buddy Miller, Ray Wylie Hubbard is showing more muscle than he has in years. Instead of waxing poetic about Rainer Maria Rilke or thinking deeply about Eastern philosophy, he's writing about loaded dice, growling the blues, and rocking out on a rattling old Regal resonator guitar. The songs here are dirt stained and southern fried, with nods to Lightnin' Hopkins and Townes Van Zandt. They're gutbucket tough ("Little Mama"), weather beaten ("Rock 'n' Roll Is a Vicious Game"), and oversized ("Screw You, We're from Texas"). That last mines the same vein as Hubbard's "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother" and marks his return to form as an outlaw's outlaw. (Philo/ Rounder, www.rounder.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

 

Tony Cuffe, Sae Will We Yet.

Scottish guitarist and singer Tony Cuffe occupied the emotional center of two extraordinary Scots traditional bands in the 1980s, Jock Tamson's Bairns and Ossian. Before dying far too young (at age 47) in 2001, he had compiled an impressive discography and inspired countless guitarists with his light, quietly confident fingerstyle guitar work. This CD collects recordings made mostly in the last four years of Cuffe's life, providing a lovely visit with a guitarist who had a rare ear for extraordinary melodies missed by others and the ability to adapt Scots trad tunes to settings that fall naturally under the fingers, ornaments and all. Some—like the title track, a hopeful anthem he popularized at home and abroad as a set-closer with Jock Tamson's Bairns—revisit songs and tunes he first performed with his bands. All add up to an entirely sweet album and a loving tribute to one of the trailblazers of modern Celtic music. (Greentrax, www.greentrax.com)

—Danny Carnahan

 

Tim Bluhm, The Soft Adventure/Colts.

For the past ten years, Tim Bluhm has drifted between the popular northern California band Mother Hips, which released five albums of country-rock between 1992 and 2001, and his folkier solo work as a singer-songwriter. He's a vagabond and a surfer, and his influences, including Merle Haggard, Gram Parsons, and Brian Wilson, are archetypally Californian. On The Soft Adventure/Colts, Bluhm has rescued ten "lost" songs from 1995—96, and set them alongside six new ones in a collection of beautifully melodic, honest California country. They're small, restless, gently depressing songs of home and heartbreak, balancing an urge to stay put with the peaceful, easy feeling of quiet adventure. (California, www.californiarecordings.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

Various artists, Six Strings North of the Border, Vol 2.

All the guitarists on this acoustic sampler are from Canada, but a strong international flavor informs their playing styles, including hot Gypsy jazz from the Marc Atkinson Trio on "Fredric's Closet," the flamenco influence in John Cohen's "The Wind," and traditional Celtic pieces by Dave MacIsaac ("The Green Mountain Boys") and Bob MacLean ("The Rose of Allendale," a highlight of the disc). Art Turner and John Park Wheeling offer up more contemporary sounds on the strange and dreamy "Invitation to Circumstance" and the gently flowing "Reverie," respectively. Other contributors to this fine collection include slide aces Colin Linden and Steve Dawson, bluesman Michael Jerome Brown, and Kirsten Sweetland playing her hypnotic east-meets-west piece "Hermetica." (Borealis, www.borealisrecords.com)

—Ron Forbes-Roberts

Bill Bourne, Voodoo King.

Veteran Canadian folk artist Bill Bourne has the whiskey-soaked, smoke-cured voice of a barroom poet who has been around the block more times than he can remember. He opens Voodoo King with a loping, spoken-word introduction to "Hilfiger Heaven," then his lonesome strummed acoustic guitar is joined by a plaintive saxophone before he begins to sing, "Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, where's the water all gone down." This powerful CD's 11 masterful songs are full of broken hearts and reflective regrets balanced by a streetwise philosophy of acceptance. "Portland," for example, reminds one of Tom Waits crying over a warm beer. Bourne's backing crew includes vocalists and instrumentalists on electric and slide guitars, cello, saxophones, percussion, and bass, adding to the bittersweet moods that draw you back again and again. (Second Storey, www.secondstorey.com)

—Gary Joyner

Various artists, Kentucky Mountain Music.

Although fiddle and banjo feature much more prominently than guitar, which is heard primarily as backup for singers and fiddlers, guitarists should take note of this seven-CD box set of classic ballads and songs from the 1920s and '30s. Some of the guitar accompaniment, like Asa Martin's splendid work with legendary fiddler Doc Roberts, is superlative, but it's never really in the limelight. The anthology includes 167 selections, none of which are repeated from Yazoo's The Music of Kentucky, Vols. 1 and 2. Sound quality is as good as modern technology can make it, and the accompanying booklet features great notes and wonderful photos. For devotees of old-time music, only Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and Alan Lomax's Southern Journey box set can compare with this truly essential collection. (Yazoo, www.yazoorecords.com)

—Duck Baker

Fapy Lafertin Quintet and Tim Kliphouse, Fine and Dandy.

Gypsy jazz cognoscenti often cite Belgian-born, Netherlands-based guitarist Fapy Lafertin as the player who comes closest to the tone and phrasing of the great master Django Reinhardt. Due to limited distribution of his CDs abroad, Lafertin remains largely unknown outside Europe, but Fine and Dandy secures his position on any list of the top Gypsy jazz guitarists in the world today. Possessing a keen sense of phrasing and a broad palette of musical colors, this exceptionally talented guitarist playfully dances through a 14-tune set that ranges from Irving Berlin tunes and Hot Club standards to mandolinist David Grisman's "Tango for Django." Violin soloist Tim Kliphouse demonstrates a strong StŽphane Grappelli influence but exhibits his own improvisational insights, and his harmony and duo passages with Lafertin are highlights of this outstanding CD. (Iris, www.iris-music.com)

—David McCarty

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, October 2003, No. 130.

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