Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, The Lonesome Touch. Playing traditional Irish fiddle music, Martin Hayes stands at the top of a small heap--for pure, achingly slow reels, there's just no one like him. These delicately arranged, carefully constructed tunes show off his precise, subtle touch. Reaching for the sadness behind the tunes, Hayes plays the fewest possible notes with the least amount of energy, while Dennis Cahill's guitar provides a hint of the harmonies underneath and just enough rhythm to keep the tunes moving. The combination is maddeningly slow and unbearably beautiful, with an approach so radical it sounds perfectly true to the tradition. (Green Linnet, 43 Beaver Brook Rd., Danbury, CT 06810)
--Kenny Berkowitz
Cliff Bruner and His Texas Wanderers. Cliff Bruner was one of the originators, along with Milton Brown and Bob Wills, of the blend of jazz and country we now call western swing. Like Wills, Bruner was a fiddler, but his style owed more to Joe Venuti and jazz than to old-time square dance tunes. In the mid-'30s Bruner assembled a crackerjack band that included musicians like Moon Mullican and Bob Dunn, the man who introduced the electric steel guitar to country music. This five-CD box set covers all of Bruner's recordings from 1937 through 1950, and, like all Bear Family releases, it is meticulously annotated, in this case with a 60-page illustrated book. (Bear Family, PO Box 1154, D-27727 Hambergen, Germany)
--Michael Simmons
Allen Shadd, A Cut Above. Flatpicker Allen Shadd has assimilated influences ranging from Clarence White and Doc Watson to Tony Rice, yet he never sounds like a clone of anyone. His expressive, fluid melody lines dart in and out of the songs like hummingbirds around a honeysuckle vine, and his up-tempo solos are so fast that even a hummingbird would be impressed. Great tunes like "If You're Ever Gonna Love Me" and originals like "A Cut Above" give Shadd the chance to stretch out with musicians like Alan O'Bryant of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and champion fiddler Randy Howard. (Mid-Knight, PO Box 20506, Greensboro, NC 27420)
--David McCarty
Dayna Manning, Volume 1. You may have seen Manning perform as part of the Lilith Fair last summer. On her debut recording, the folksy singer-songwriter, whose voice often possesses subtle shades of both Toni Childs and Nanci Griffith, mixes up delicate acoustic pieces ("Half the Man"), up-tempo folk-rock numbers ("My Addiction"), and charged rockers underlined by emotional delicacy ("Under the Hill"). She makes good use of subdued trumpet, textural keyboards, gently flowing cello and violin, and percussion. Her ability to explore different moods keeps things engaging and bodes well for her future work. (Nettwerk)
--Bryan Reesman
Bla Pahinui, Mana. The eldest of the performing Pahinui sons demonstrates that slack-key has more to do with feeling than with tunings or even tunes. Bla plays left-handed and upside-down in dropped-D tuning, and his singing has a throaty, emotional quality reminiscent of his father Gabby's without being merely imitative. Included are slack-key standards such as "Sanoe" and "Maori Brown Eyes," often freely adapted, as well as the rhythmically punchy instrumentals "Incoming" and "Gabby Kai." (Dancing Cat/Windham Hill)
--Russell Letson
Ron Sexsmith, Other Songs. The Canadian singer-songwriter's second album is a masterpiece of simplicity and craft. Produced by Mitchell Froom (Elvis Costello, Los Lobos) and Tchad Blake, the album's 14 songs are poignant short stories that recall the powerful everyday experiences that shape our lives. Sexsmith's tunes range from lullabies to full-blown pop, yet their melancholy nature prevails. His lyrics are touching, funny, and dead-on direct, and he delivers them with his trademark understated style. Attracting the attention of the likes of John Hiatt, Paul McCartney, and Costello (who called Sexsmith's debut his favorite record in 1997), Sexsmith is certainly an artist to watch. (Interscope)
--Lisa Theo
Vinicius Cantuária, Sol Na Cara. Cantuária recorded seven solo albums in Brazil and wrote hits for superstars Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa. After two years of living in New York, his music is changing; he's creating bossa nova that sounds as much like Brooklyn as Bahia. Sol Na Cara has its share of old-school bossa, but its heart is set on carrying the music forward. Produced by Arto Lindsay--and performed by Cantuária and Ryuichi Sakamoto--Sol Na Cara is warm, melodic, gently propulsive bossa nova for the 21st century, with drums, keyboard synths, and double-tracked acoustic guitars. (Gramavision/Rykodisc)
--Kenny Berkowitz
Various artists, Folk: Live from Mountain Stage. This collection, culled from the archives of the internationally broadcast radio program Mountain Stage, is a vibrant, aural feast for fans of acoustic guitar and good songwriting. Just about every cut is a gem, but the most memorable are those from Steve Forbert, Richard Thompson, Richie Havens, and Al Stewart, whose scintillating acoustic version of "Time Passages" features some staggeringly beautiful guitar work by Peter White. My own favorite is Bill Morrissey's "Letter from Heaven," a place where "Django's fingers have both gone straight." (Blue Plate Music, 33 Music Square W. #102B, Nashville, TN 37203)
--Steve Givens
Kevin Burke's Open House, Hoof and Mouth. There are plenty of hot chops out there, but it's not often that we are lucky enough to find chops combined with really quirky imagination. Such is the case with Open House, a quartet of astonishing performers who meet in the cracks between genres with mind-blowing results. Irish fiddler Kevin Burke anchors things, while the rock-solid Paul Kotapish shifts from guitar to mandolin, wry poet Mark Graham juggles clarinet and harmonicas (when not singing), and Sandy Silva leaps in with foot percussion. Charming, varied, razor-sharp arrangements of French, Balkan, Finnish, Irish, and American tunes abound. There's only one original Graham song on this, the band's third CD, but it's "Oedipus Rex," one of his best. (Green Linnet)
--Danny Carnahan
Paul Geremia, Live from Uncle Sam's Backyard. Acoustic blues legend John Hammond once said that he would go a thousand miles to see Paul Geremia, and after listening to this live disc it is obvious why. Performed solo, and alternating between six- and 12-string guitars, this 16-track disc serves as a wonderful introduction to Geremia's work. He is not only a songwriter who consistently pushes the envelope within the genre, he is also a formidable blues and ragtime fingerpicker. His version of Bo Carter's "Arrangement for Me Blues" is a toe-tapping, string-snapping delight. (Red House, PO Box 4044, St. Paul, MN 55104)
--James Jensen
The Manhattan Guitar Duo, Evocation. This new disc pairs Kevin Gallagher and Antigoni Goni, two first-prize winners of the Guitar Foundation of America competition (1993 and 1995, respectively). On their duo debut, they present ten gems by Spanish nationalist composers Granados, Albéniz, and Falla. Gallagher and Goni find the pathos and sensuality in Granados' lugubrious "Oriental" and Albéniz' "Evocation" and "Córdoba," qualities that many duos miss. Falla's "La Vida Breve" moves along passionately without resorting to a breakneck tempo. Throughout, their interpretations reveal uncommon insight, control, and sensitivity. (Willow Shade Classics, 40 Brookside Rd., Westford, MA 01886)
--Mark L. Small
Mourning Cloak, In Dreams You See. This intriguing trio has a penchant for taking crystalline acoustic guitar sounds and setting them against trippy ambience and mysterious vocals. Delicate arpeggios, enigmatic chord progressions, and neo-Renaissance melodies support and contrast the darker--often psychedelic--electronic effects and vocals ranging from ghostly whispers to forlorn singing. The song titles--"Chrysalis Repose," "Mistbreather"--reflect the artists' state of mind. Mourning Cloak takes listeners on a mystical, introspective journey. (Mindfield, PO Box 685, York, PA 17405)
--Bryan Reesman
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