There has been a real renaissance, in the last few years, in the field of guitar playing as originally popularised by John Fahey, Leo Kottke and the less well known, but very influential, Robbie Basho. Of course the roots of this music goes back a lot further and many of the guitarists making this new-old music are reaching back to original sources to forge their own modern take on this form. Blending folk, blues, and sometimes eastern influences, artists such as Glenn Jones, Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, Sean Smith and others, are creating rich and innovative musical forms for the guitar, rooted firmly in tradition, but re-imagined for the new millennium.
While Rose's "Kensington Blues" reveals him as leader of the pack, and youthful Blackshaw's "Cloud of Unknowing" is the most experimental in approach, I regard this album as the best of the current crop, in terms of providing just plain consistently enjoyable music.
The record starts strongly with some great bluesy slide work before the epic "Sphinx Unto Curious Men" which merges hypnotic rhythms with gorgeous melodic flourishes to create a truly captivating piece of music. It is an approach he repeats to even better effect on my favourite track "The Doll Hospital", with a gorgeous melodic theme that you may find yourself humming for days after having heard it. Other standouts are "Fahey's Car" the best tribute to the man that I have heard to date, "Linden Avenue Stomp" which is actually a duet with Jack Rose and the aptly, if oddly, titled "One Jack Rose (That I Mean)" a tune so lively it'll make you want to dance around the room to it.
The quality of the playing is faultless, as you might expect, but there are many superb technicians out there and it is the musical strengths that make this such a wonderful album. As I have already stated I believe this to be the best record of its kind in many years(better than his own, more recent, "Against Which the Sea Continually Beats" ) and is a must for those interested in the music of Fahey, Kottke etc or just anyone who wants to hear great music and has no objections to it being performed on acoustic guitar(s).
ウェブプレーヤーを開く
