Hit List

 

Patty Larkin, Regrooving the Dream

Singer-songwriter Patty Larkin has a wondrous knack for reinventing her sound using samples, loops, and strains of blues, jazz, and Celtic music. On Larkin’s ninth CD, dreamy soundscapes ebb and flow like your most indelible memories, and Tina Turner–like R&B sounds merge with plucky country cutups for a perfectly organic-sounding 14-track set. Larkin plays a wide range of instruments here, layering octave mandolin, harmonica, accordion, bass, and keyboards with her nimble-fingered electric, acoustic, and slide guitar work. Her seasoned wit and unflinching lyrical honesty distinguish her writing from that of the current crop of post–Lilith Fair folkies. (Vanguard)

—Karen Iris Tucker

 

 

 

Miguel Angel Cortés, Patriarca

Young flamenco guitarist Miguel Angel Cortés comes from a long line of Gypsy artists who have lived and worked in the Sacromonte, an old section of Granada with a rich flamenco history. This history flows through all of Cortés’ music, from his approach to rhythm and harmony to his brief quotations from traditional tunes. In pieces like "De Corales," Cortés has an easy, light touch when playing contratiempo, a syncopated approach to rhythm found in flamenco music and dance. His light touch carries over nicely into a bulerías entitled "Raquel." The bulerías is traditionally a very lively, dynamic piece, but Cortés’ approach is gentle and romantic. (Alula)

—Stephen Dick

 

 

Al Di Meola, Winter Nights

Jazz fusion legend Al Di Meola adds an arsenal of world instruments to his acoustic guitar work on this release of seasonal material. The light world music flavor is strengthened by support from Ukrainian bandurist Roman Hrynkiv and percussionist Hernan Romero. Hrynkiv’s bandura creates a mythic aura and a comforting feeling of winter solitude. Tunes range from Christmas favorites like "Carol of the Bells" and "The First Noel" to Di Meola originals. The clean and spare production is enhanced by a tastefully liberal use of reverb, resulting in a thoroughly enjoyable and soothing recording. (Telarc)

—Gary Joyner

 

 

June Tabor, A Quiet Eye

English folksinger June Tabor plumbs emotional depths in her singing that others either can’t find or fear to approach. She’s wonderfully at ease on this organic collaboration with longtime accompanist Huw Warren. Warren’s string, piano, and horn arrangements are deliciously appropriate, lifting Tabor’s smoky voice out of the constraints of the expected and far from her folky beginnings. Highlights include Maggie Holland’s joyous "A Place Called England," Richard Thompson’s sweetly optimistic "Waltzing’s for Dreamers," a wistful rendition of the standard "I’ll Be Seeing You," and Bill Caddick’s epic history lesson "The Writing of Tipperary." (Green Linnet)

—Danny Carnahan

 

Les Primitifs du Futur, World Musette

Les Primitifs du Futur blend French musette (an accordion-driven waltz style popular with the Parisian working class in the 1920s and ’30s) with various international forms of music. Dominic Cravic, the band’s leader and main guitarist, mixes styles that were contemporary with musette’s heyday--New Orleans jazz, Delta blues, tango, Moroccan belly-dance music--rather than trying to modernize it. The musicians he has gathered play everything from guitar, violin, and accordion to oud, ukulele, and musical saw. Robert Crumb, the legendary cartoonist, plays mandolin and banjo on a few tracks and also illustrated the liner notes and drew the cover. (Sketch)

—Michael Simmons

 

 

Various artists, Gram Parsons Notebook: The Last Whipporwill

Is this how the late Gram Parsons would have done it? We’ll never know, but the six new songs here—Parsons’ notebook scribbles finished by Ed Bergoff, Eddie Cunningham, Eddie Dunbar, Carl Jackson, Jim Lauderdale, and Mike Ward—come close to Parsons’ dream of a "cosmic American music" where country, bluegrass, gospel, and R&B all come together. The mix here is decidedly country, with all-star picking by James Burton, Jerry Douglas, Al Perkins, Ricky Skaggs, and Marty Stuart, but Cunningham’s "Jesus Is More Than a Name" is pure gospel, and Jackson’s "L.A. Customs Blues" pure honky-tonk. Lauderdale best fulfills Parsons’ vision, transforming a few lines of poetry into "Blessing for Being," a beautifully simple meditation on life and loving, creating a fitting tribute to an American hero. (Shell Point)

—Kenny Berkowitz

 

Tom Taylor, The Crossing

Walking bass lines, baroque counterpoint, Celtic lilt, bluegrass licks, and rock backbeats converge on guitarist Tom Taylor’s ambitious fusion of jazz, rock, classical, and world music. Such varied influences as Frank Zappa, Virgil Thomson, Al Di Meola, Steve Morse, and Béla Fleck can be heard in Taylor’s writing. He blends electric and acoustic guitars with Joe Caploe’s vibes on pieces like "D’Alien," "Freerun," and the title track and overdubs several acoustic guitars into a luminous latticework pattern on a lovely rendition of "Greensleeves." Mandolin virtuoso David Grisman guests on "Aubade" and "Big Basin Breakdown," which also features the Kronos Quartet. (Summit)

—Bill Milkowski

 

Robert Shafer with Randy Howard, Swingin’ Appalachian Style

Put two great contest-winning acoustic musicians together in the studio and the results are bound to be spectacular. Former National Flatpicking Champion Shafer dances through this exotic collection of flatpicking tunes like Fred Astaire on the fingerboard. His remarkable, triplet-laced "Little Rock Getaway" and fingerbusting "Wild Fiddler’s Rag" will undoubtedly send pickers off to their woodsheds for months. The late Randy Howard earned the respect and admiration of every musician who played with him, and his fiddling here is a fitting tribute to a great musician gone too soon. (Roane)

—David McCarty

 

Visit the reviews archives to read dozens of reviews of great acoustic-guitar oriented CDs.

 

Alula, PO Box 62043, Durham, NC 27715-2043; (919) 416-9454; www.alula.com.

Green Linnet, 43 Beaver Brook Rd., Danbury, CT 06810; (203) 730-0333; www.greenlinnet.com.

Roane, PO Box 5294, West Logan, WV 25601; www.fiddletunes.com.

Shell Point, 1017 16th Ave S., Nashville, TN 37212; www.thegramparsonsnotebook.com.

Sketch, 4 Passage D’Enfer, Paris 75014, France; sketch@easynet.fr.

Summit, PO Box 26850, Tempe, AZ 85285; (800) 808-4449; www.summitrecords.com.

 

Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, December 2000, No. 96.

 

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