Acoustic Guitar Reviews

Here is a small selection of reviews that have appeared appeared in ACOUSTIC GUITAR REVIEW. Listen to mp3's from all these artists at our streaming mp3 page, ACOUSTIC RADIO

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RICK PAYNE

JOHN SHEEHAN

MARK COLGAN

PABLO MENTESSI

GILBERT ISBIN

TOM YODER

KEITH CHRISTMAS

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ARTIST: Rick Payne
CD: "Instrumentally Yours"

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Rick Payne is best known as an acoustic bluesman. He is certainly one of the world's finest acoustic slide players who easily holds his own with the likes of Ry Cooder, Bob Brozman and Martin Simpson.

However, this is not the be all and end all of Rick Payne's guitar playing by any means. Hardly surprising when you consider that he studied Classical Guitar at The Royal College of Music in London. Rick's new CD, "Instrumentally Yours" is an adroit and highly enjoyable showcase of all kinds of fingerstyles. The tunes are originals and represent a distillation of ideas that Rick has been working on for the last 10 years or so.

There's a heady mix of acoustic guitar flavours on "Instrumentally Yours" - celtic, folk, blues, ragtime and jazz. From the rollicking ragtime of "The Deptford Cakewalk" to the intricate jazz substitutions and runs on "Lady Sarah's Sugarboot Blues", the CD constantly amazes and delights the listener as it veers this way and that on its musical mystery tour. To prove the exceptional strength of the material, "Lady Sarah's Sugarboot Blues" went straight into the Top 10 of mp3.com's Blues charts within days of release and has garnered much praise from acoustic aficionados all over the world.

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Visit John at www.johnsheehan.net

ARTIST: John Sheehan
CD: "Instrumental Solo Guitar"

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In one word: brilliant! In another: dazzling! On this exquisite fingerstyle CD, John uses both nylon and steel stringed instruments and has his own unique and authentic voice, but you can detect influences as varying as John Fahey and J S Bach in his playing.

These 12 self-penned, nigh-on perfect tracks showcase a guitarist and composer at the very top of his game. The compositional structure of the pieces is always astute and underpinned by great melody and rhythmic variety. As for the guitar playing itself, John's superb tone and technique have been honed by decades of dedicated woodshedding. Even at high speed (some of the tunes and passages really do lick along), deft touch and solid time-keeping never desert Sheehan's strings.

There is not one duff track on this collection. From the poignant opener, "Beauty Road" to the sweet nylon tones of the closer, "Sleepy Eyes", this CD is never less than excellent. As mentioned earlier, the tunes cover a number of bases style-wise: wonderfully rollicking ragtime on "Insomnia"... driving country blues on "Hogfarm"... stupendous steel string baroque speed picking on "The Villain"... the perfectly formed and classical sounding "Ancestry"... and many captivating and sonorously gorgeous shades in between.

Although John Sheehan paints from a broad musical palette, he manages to weave together these varied stylistic elements into a satisfying and unified whole. And hats off to the engineer, Don Sternaker, for helping to achieve this unity and capturing a great natural sound.

Fingerstyle fans, take note: "Instrumental Solo Guitar" is fretboard artistry of the highest calibre. You should definitely have this one in your collection. And a stroke of luck for us players is that tab for the tunes on the CD are also available. For more info and details, visit www.johnsheehan.net

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More info, more music at www.markcolgan.com

Listen to more from Mark's excellent "Begone Dull Care" on AGW:

The Grey Hawk

The Royal Oak

ARTIST: Mark Colgan
CD: "Begone Dull Care"

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Mark Colgan can trace his lineage in the grand tradition of English folk singers and guitar players right back to people like Davey Graham and Bert Jansch. "Begone Dull Care" is an exquisite folk CD that showcases an artist in full command of his genre. On this CD Mark chose a selection of traditional English lyrics and set the words to his own inimitable guitar arrangements. Drawing on a wide tableau of human situations and emotions, Mark Colgan has created 12 practically perfect folk songs.

All the music on "Begone Dull Care" is original, except for the adaptation of the traditional fiddle tune, "The Banks of the Condamine". The fingerpicking is straight out of the top drawer, with excellent production and sound engineering provided by Mark's son, Maclaine Colston, the celebrated dulicmer player. There is a lot of tradition here, yet the whole sounds fresh and modern. This is due to Mark's fine guitar technique, which combines percussive string pounding and delicate filigree fingerstylings according to the emotions he is trying to convey to our ears.

Mark's "Burlington Fair" put me in mind of that great Irish folk song, "She Moved Through The Fair". But in this case it's a young buck who's on his way to the fair to dally with the ladies. The emotions and drama of the text are perfectly exemplified in the lilting harmony of guitar and vocal.

If you like the work of artists like Nic Jones, Martin Carthy and Martin Simpson, it's a safe bet that you will love "Begone Dull Care". Check out Mark's sublime "Burlington Fair" on ACOUSTIC RADIO. You can also preview two other tracks, "The Grey Hawk" and "The Royal Oak" by clicking the links to the left.

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ARTIST: Rick Payne
CD: "The Fret Files"

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"The Fret Files" brings together the finest cuts from Rick Payne's legendary "Blue River Blues" sessions in California in the early nineties and his live set at "The Folk House" in Bristol.

These sessions were in many cases just guitar and vocal, at most two guitars and vocal, yet the cuts have a resonance and depth that is far greater than the sum of its parts. The sessions produced a series of outstanding acoustic blues tracks, as good as anything you'll hear from the likes of Keb Mo, Eric Bibb and other leading lights on the New Blues scene. The sound is tight, full and simply oozes the blues. Rick Payne's peerless slide guitar and picking sweeps you through a panorama of exquisite blues tones. A rich diversity that takes you from the steaming Delta in tracks like "Porgy's Blues", "Little Red Rooster" and "Deep Blue", to the exuberant ragtime of Blind Blake's "Ditty Wa Ditty". There are also folk and celtic flavours here. Check out the sonorous and hauntingly beautiful slide guitar work on "Kilkenny Castle".

Another outstanding cut, maybe the best, is "Cafe Blue" which showcases the awesome acoustic lead talents of John Girton. His fills and solos flow like cream from a jug. Said one reviewer recently: "This song could not be any better--it was absolutely beautiful. The music instantly draws you in and takes you to another place. Vocals are very well done and the acoustic skills were impressive. Very talented group here--highly recommend! Recording: 10 Technical skills: 10 Charisma: 10 Lyrics: 10 I doubt I will find another band (soon) that could receive a perfect score." This is absolutely top drawer playing. As you might expect from one of Maria Muldaur's favoured session men. Girton's played with an array of big stars, including Linda Ronstadt and Hoagy Carmichael. John also played with "Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks". Rick was naturally ecstatic that he could call upon John's services.

These performances led The Daily Telegraph to say: "Impressive blues and slide guitar playing from West country bluesman whose work bares comparison with early Ry Cooder". If you like, this is the best of Rick Payne. So far..!

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More detail's at Pablo's label, Evolve Records

ARTIST: Pablo Mentessi
CD: "Fragile Secret"

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Pablo Mentessi's new CD for Evolve Records, "Fragile Secret" has guitar triumph stamped all over it. But not in a flashy, overpowering, check-my-chops kind of way. It is in fact an intimate tableaux of original acoustic guitar compositions that move serenely from piece to piece like clouds on a Summer's day.

Mentessi is undoubtedly a technical master of the nylon strings, but, as with all great artists, the technique is servant to an effortless and flowing lyrical beauty. This feel permeates all nine nigh perfect tracks on the album that has a total running time of 52.10. The music on "Fragile Secret" has a haunting and ethereal quality. These subtle tone poems live in the memory long after the last bar has faded.

"Fragile Secret" is high class chill out music that, when listened to correctly, has a kind of healing and soothing quality to it. Balm for the ears, salve for the soul. Furthermore it demands to be listened to on a good system to catch all its exquisite nuances, to hear the wood and the ballet of the fingers dancing over the fretboard.

Pieces like "Remembrance" (11.27) and "Hope" (11.23) showcase Mentessi's highly developed compositional skills. It is difficult to sustain the listener through long pieces without descending into monotony and repetition. But Mentessi's tunes endure with great poise, an appropriate interplay between light and shade, and beautiful melody thoughout.

There is an admirably restrained quality to Mentessi's playing that lets the pieces breathe and evolve into a satisfying harmonic and melodic whole. "Rembrance", the first track uses surprisingly long tacits in its opening bars that force you to pay attention to... silence waiting to unfold and release the music.

Mentessi's fingerstyle is contemporary, classical at its roots, yet blended and spiced delicately with subtle influences. Actually it is pointless to try and categorise "Fragile Secret". Just relax, listen and let this beautiful guitar music wash over and seep into you. In a perfect world, "Fragile Secret" should not remain a secret to fans of acoustic music.

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Visit Gilbert Isbin

Isbin tab and online lessons available on AGW in Tuition section, or use the AGW search engine on our home page to find Gilbert Isbin content on acousticguitarworkshop.com

ARTIST: Gilbert Isbin
CD: "Red Wine"

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Listen up! Gilbert Isbin, the Belgian guitar maestro, has released a fine new CD on the Traurige Tropen label. Gilbert has got to be one of the most experimental guitar players on the planet, with an angular, left-field approach to playing and composing. Isbin's nylon string guitar explores hitherto unchartered maps of fingerstyle harmony.

However "Red Wine" is a far more approachable CD than his previous more avant garde work, "Blisters", a CD recorded with Joe Fonda, the American bassist. Where "Blisters" stretches the boundaries of tonality, structure and form, "Red Wine" is a far more melodic vintage with instant appeal right from the opening bars of the excellent "Happy At Your Doorstep". And in fact, the CD contains at least one monster tune you are guaranteed to know!

As with all great guitarists, you know immediately when Gilbert is at the strings. Case in point: there is a truly gorgeous instrumental version of "Little Wing" on this CD which is immediately identifiable as Hendrix, yet is stamped indelibly with the deft and imaginative Isbin feel and touch. Hendrix, I think, would have approved. After all, Jimmy was a past master himself at appropriating other people songs and making them his own.

(As an aside, I must draw your attention to an earlier CD: "Gilbert Isbin Plays Nick Drake". This extraordinary gift of arranging other people's music and presenting it in such a unique fashion is exemplified on Gilbert's awesome arrangements of the tragically doomed English guitarist and songwriter, Nick Drake.) (Tabs available from AGW)

The opening track "Happy At Your Doorstep" is another classic example of Gilbert Isbin's impressive and never obvious approach. It starts off with almost classical guitar figures, dancing intoxicatingly in high arpeggiated spirits, before the tune spins and veers off, taking you on a rollercoaster ride of rhythmic and chordal explorations and expositions.

Listening to "Red Wine" really is an exhilarating experience... strange voicings, insistent and driving chord clusters combined with intense rhythmic invention and hypnotic grooves, hybrid bebop, jazz and bluesy arabesques... Gilbert Isbin takes the guitar to places it has never been before. All 14 tracks on this excellent CD showcase a guitarist and composer at the top of his game. "Red Wine" is an invigorating brew, a testament to a truely gifted and original player.

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Visit Keith Christmas

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What a beautiful album this is. Acoustica has an almost orchestral feel. Various guitar parts combine to create soundscapes that dazzle and uplift. It's difficult to say where Acoustica is coming from musically, except to say it's a wonderful place, where ingenious compositions are wedded to solid guitar technique and tone. Neither rock, nor jazz, neither folk, nor... I can only say Acoustica is an album not to be missed for lovers of the acoustic guitar.

Actually the excellent "Coolbox", the track featured on our mp3 radio station, can be slotted into a pigeon hole. It's a very cool piece of acoustic blues. The high, tight and crystal clear guitar sound (which is a sound that charaterises the whole album) gives the old blues format a really fresh feel.

The melodies and grooves on Acoustica are simply superb. Go check out "Coolbox" now and be sure to visit Keith's site where there are more mp3's you can listen to and download.

Visit Tom Yoder

Yoder tab and online lessons available on AGW in Tuition section, or use the AGW search engine on our home page to find Tom Yoder content on acousticguitarworkshop.com

ARTIST: Tom Yoder
CD: "The Moment The Apple Falls"

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This new CD is pure fingerstyle magic from beginning to end. The tunes are self-penned in a range of exotic and unusual tunings such as AGCGCD, BF#EF#BE and AADGAD. In fact there are only two pieces in standard tuning. Compositional imagination, technical virtuosity and musicianship of the highest order ooze from every bar. Yoder's touch and tone, whether playing loud or soft, never fail to inspire - immaculate evidence of a guitarist at the very top of his game.

In the past I have compared Tom Yoder to the likes of Bensusan, Hedges and Kottke. In a way this does him a disservice. Tom is developing a rich and distinctive sound of his own which is matched by original and inventive ways of writing for the acoustic guitar. "O'Coughlin's Reel" is a great example. This is a beautiful and playful melody played in DADGAD tuning. The main exposition is reminiscent of an Irish fiddle tune. The speed and yet composure of his pull-offs and hammer-ons is bewitching. And then suddenly, quite unexpectedly the tune veers towards a baroque-sounding motif and some almost Arabic figures before returning to the original celtic flavours.

Another superb example of his innovative approach is "Shade Mountain Rag". You wouldn't have thought there was much more to offer in the genre of ragtime guitar, and yet with this rag Yoder somehow transcends the form and gives us an exhilarating ragtime that is fresh and new. And by the way it's a cracking tune. I believe there is some tab kicking around for this, but believe me even the most advanced players will have some trouble decoding this one.

There are a host of delights to savour and enjoy on "The Moment The Apple Falls". I commend it to you highly.

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