Hit List

Danú, The Road Less Traveled.

With the release of its third album, Danú seems poised to become the next "it" band in traditional Irish music. Combine the bristling, joined-at-the-hip playing of fiddler Oisin McAuley, accordionist Benny McCarthy, and flutist Tom Doorley with the lush, driving rhythm section of Eamonn Doorley (bouzouki), Donal Clancy (guitar), and Donnchadh Gough (bodhran) and you have an instrumental sextet that is equally at home blazing through reels and jigs like the world's greatest seisiún band and providing nuanced accompaniment for the full-voiced singing of the young Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. Nic Amhlaoibh is the real revelation here. With a slightly husky voice and relaxed, emotionally direct style that recalls that of Niamh Parsons and Dolores Keane, she delivers traditional Gaelic songs, a Richard Thompson beauty ("Farewell, Farewell"), and an American folk song ("Peg and Awl") with equal authority. (Shanachie, www.shanachie.com)

—Scott Nygaard

Pearl Django, Swing 48.

On its sixth release, Seattle-based acoustic swing quintet Pearl Django has crafted its most compelling and cohesive effort yet. Wafting through such classic swing tunes as "Double Scotch," "Sweet Chorus," and the title track, as well as an array of catchy originals like violinist Michael Gray's haunting "Dragonfly," Dudley Hill's rhythmically intense "Samois Swing," and Neil Andersson's daring "Freeway," the band displays a captivating ensemble sound while fully supporting its often-brilliant soloists. Hill's masterful, percussive amplified archtop guitar style meshes ingeniously with Andersson's traditional Selmer-style acoustic instrument. With Swing 48, Pearl Django melds Gypsy swing and Parisian musette styles with a more driving, hard-edged, American-style swing. (Modern Hot, www.pearldjango.com)

—David McCarty

Trio Da Paz, Café.

This guitar/bass/percussion trio of American-based Brazilian musicians (helped out on a few tunes by sax man Joe Lovano and singer Dianne Reeves) continues to create a heady blend of samba, bossa nova, and jazz, throwing in a bit of Baroque flavor on a dreamy bossa version of J.S. Bach's "Arioso." Guitarist Romero Lubambo displays his signature rapid-fire but lyrical single-note playing on such tunes as Clifford Brown's "Blues Walk" and Lubambo's own "48th Street Baiao." Equally impressive are the remarkable chord voicings and rhythm playing that drive Carlos Lyra's "Influencia do Jazz" and trio bassist Nilson Matta's "Baden." Alternately ferocious and poignantly delicate, Romero's playing makes him one of the greatest standard bearers for the Brazilian guitar tradition epitomized by Baden Powell and Garoto. (Malandro, www.brazilianjazz.com)

—Ron Forbes-Roberts

Various artists, The Real Bahamas in Music and Song and The Real Bahamas, Vol. 2.

These two titles, recorded in the Bahamas in the '60s by Peter K. Siegel and Jody Stecher, are among the best in the Nonesuch Explorer series. The main focus is on the complex "rhyming spirituals" vocal style, which typically features a lead singer with two or three other voices. But the presence of the great Joseph Spence makes these recordings important for guitarists. Spence appears on a significant number of songs, which are invaluable in revealing the context of his unique guitar style. To a large extent, his instrumental work follows the harmonizing approach of the rhyming singers, and the vocal versions of songs he loved, like "Out on the Rolling Sea," are absolutely beautiful. (Nonesuch, www.nonesuch.com)

—Duck Baker

Kate Campbell, Twang on a Wire.

The dozen covers here, ranging from sad (Emmylou Harris' "Boulder to Birmingham") to sassy (Tom T. Hall's "Harper Valley PTA"), were all country hits back when countrypolitan defined the Nashville sound. Thirty years later, when the bathos of "Rose Garden" and "Would You Lay with Me in a Field of Stone" should feel laughable, Nashville singer-songwriter Kate Campbell takes them seriously, finding new richness in the melodies and new depth in the emotions. Backed by the carefully understated guitarists/multi-instrumentalists Kevin Gordon, Will Kimbrough, and Jay Zdad, Campbell is deeply moving, her alt-trad arrangements perfectly timeless. (Large River, www.largerivermusic.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

Natalie MacMaster, Blueprint.

Fiddle firebrand Natalie MacMaster pushes the boundaries of Cape Breton tradition to riveting effect on this "greengrass" fusion of reels, jigs, strathspeys, and airs, arranged and coproduced by Darol Anger. Joined by a constellation of bluegrass stars—including Anger (violin), Jerry Douglas (Dobro), Bryan Sutton (guitar), Sam Bush (mandolin), Béla Fleck and Alison Brown (banjo), and Edgar Meyer (bass)—MacMaster brings contemporary zing to the Scottish- and Irish-influenced music of Nova Scotia, as in "Gravel Shore" and "The Ewe with the Crooked Horn," where guitarist Bryan Sutton lets loose with some ferocious flatpicking. The musicians incite each other to giddy heights of virtuosity without sacrificing ensemble unity and inspire MacMaster to take her fiddling in new and atypically complex directions. (Rounder, www.rounder.com)

—Céline Keating

Various artists, Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.

Unlike so many yawn-inducing tribute compilations, this all-star salute to Canada's most beloved folk troubadour is definitely a keeper. An impressive roster of mostly Canadian artists, including Cowboy Junkies ("The Way I Feel"), Bruce Cockburn ("Ribbon of Darkness"), and Ron Sexsmith ("Drifters"), pay heart-felt homage to a shared influence and hero. It is testament to the depth of Lightfoot's quality song bag that such staples as "Early Morning Rain," "Carefree Highway," and "Rainy Day People" don't appear among the album's tracks and aren't conspicuous by their absence. This set is a fine introduction for those who missed Lightfoot's 1970s commercial heyday and a rootsy revelation for longtime listeners who tuned out the sappy, light-rock arrangements that characterized many of his radio hits. (Borealis/NorthernBlues, www.borealisrecords.com, www.northernblues.com)

—Mike Thomas

Fred Fried, When Winter Comes.

Using a nylon seven-string guitar (with a low A added below the sixth string) to play modern jazz, Fred Fried has made both solo and trio recordings prior to this ambitious undertaking, on which he is joined by bassist Steve LaSpina, drummer Billy Drummond, and a string section conducted by Richard DeRosa. One can hear some classical influence in both his compositional and guitar styles, as if someone like Paul Hindemith had tried to write pop standards. DeRosa's string writing is quite intelligent and minimal; in fact, the section lays out most of the time. In some ways, Fried is reminiscent of an updated Bill Harris or Charlie Byrd, and he should be heard by anyone interested in original contemporary jazz fingerstylists. (Ballet Tree Jazz, www.fredfried.com)

—Duck Baker

Paul Burch, Fool for Love.

Paul Burch is deliciously out of touch with the rest of Nashville, coming unstuck in time somewhere between Hank Williams and Rodney Crowell. After four albums that meandered from past to present, he's found his own voice, and it's a pure pleasure to hear. The songs here are the best he's written, the performances are confidently relaxed, and the instruments—almost all of them played by Burch, overdubbing himself on guitar, bass, piano, vibes, and drums—are beautifully recorded, providing a richness in their multilayered simplicity. Stranded at the crossroads of '40s crooning and '70s confessionals, Fool for Love is alt-country that embraces the best of pop music—warm, earnest, and gently idiosyncratic. (Bloodshot, www.bloodshotrecords.com)

—Kenny Berkowitz

Howard Alden and Bucky Pizzarelli, In a Mellow Tone.

Playing seven-string amplified archtops, Alden and Pizzarelli (key participants on the Django-inspired soundtrack to Woody Allen's movie Sweet and Lowdown) partner up for a swinging 65-minute duet romp that exploits their instruments' potential for harmonic richness. At times these jazz guitar titans sound almost like a string quartet, as bass licks on their lowest strings support the soloist. One highlight is the way wily veteran Pizzarelli storms through the introductory chordal passage of "Cherokee," perfectly setting up Alden's lightning solo. With tunes ranging from rare classics like Bix Beiderbecke's "In the Dark" to Fats Waller's familiar "Jitterbug Waltz," In a Mellow Tone is a landmark achievement in modern jazz guitar. (Concord, www.concordrecords.com)

—David McCarty

Jim Malcolm, Home.

As a solo performer and member of Old Blind Dogs, Jim Malcolm is one of the heroes of the contemporary Scottish folk scene. While his latest CD is solidly rooted in Scots tradition, with many songs performed in Scots dialect, it will entrance anyone who appreciates the hallmarks of great acoustic music—fine vocals, innovative guitar work, thoughtful lyrics, and well-crafted tunes. The mostly spare arrangements frame Malcolm's lovely baritone voice as he evokes the dirt and din of factory labor and the balm of the countryside on his original "Fields of Angus" and delivers a poignant eulogy to a ruined homestead on "Coldrochie." A fine guitarist as well, he favors chords with ringing suspensions and instrumental refrains that imply unexpected changes in a song's key center, which gives a mysterious edge to even a straightforward traditional melody such as "Bonny Glenshee." (Beltane, www.jimmalcolm.com)

—Sue Thompson

Homesick Mac, Leaving.

Homesick Mac sings blues and traditional country tunes in a southern baritone as rich as molasses; his fingerpicking calls to mind Doc Watson, among others; and listening to Leaving, it is difficult to believe that he is a Yugoslav (now living in Sweden) who has never set foot in the US. But Mac has absorbed American musical idioms so well that he doesn't merely imitate Watson on "Deep River Blues," but takes the blueprint and runs with it. Exemplified by the title track, which could pass for a 70-year-old country blues standard, Mac's originals bespeak an artist contributing his own voice to the story and deserving greater recognition in the music's birthplace. (Vertical Jazz, www.verticaljazz.com)

—Ian Zack

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, March 2004, No. 135.

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