Oscar Lopez
Heat
Narada Equinox ND-63040 (1997)

Often when guitarists play by feel, they are going for hooks, sound patterns that listeners will find familiar and memorable. For some, this task is an easy one. For others, the music can sound contrived or cliché. For Oscar Lopez, success is measured one note at a time. By that measure, he deserves enormous credit for this album. His musicianship as a player of a nylon-stringed guitar, as well as his compositions, holds together like few others. In fact, he leaves most other guitarists in the dust.

Born in Santiago, Chile, this Canadian resident offers a mix of flamenco, jazz and emotion-charged Latin instrumentals. Call it Latin fusion or folk music with Spanish flair, but Lopez's work is just that – a collection of songs that work not only as a set, but individually as well. In songs like "Sentimiento," Lopez works his melodic guitar lines and trills off buoyant percussion. It's Lopez's trademark to draw you in as a listener with a finely arranged melody, then slip in rocket-fast licks. "Fire and Fury" is an amazing example. It starts with guitar picking that would make most other guitarists blush, and that's just the introduction. It then progresses into the speed zone, with guitar lines that hardly seem humanly possible. Other, like the jazz-infused "Distancia," are sweetly melodic. I also enjoyed "Step by Step," which has a plucky folk-guitar feel.

Joining Lopez are Vince Ditrich (drums), Michael Simpson (piano, keyboards) and Oscar Nieto (castinets, palmas).

It's impossible to relay the true nature of Lopez's work. His guitar work is outstanding and often amazing. His composition is top of the shelf. If there were a criticism, it is that his style is at times overwhelming, and though the songs differ overall, some of them sound similar. But that is more the exception than the norm. This album is one that lives up to its name. — Stephen Ide (Norton, MA)

Various artists
Virginia Traditions: Ballads from British Tradition
Global Village CD 1002 (1997)

Various artists
Virginia Traditions: Early Roanoke Country Radio
Global Village CD 1010 (1997)

The Virginia Traditions series, produced by the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College, offers reissues of classic folk and country music. These recordings will be of interest to folklorists, but they also have a lot to offer for the nostalgia buff and the folk music aficionado.

The field recordings on Ballads from British Tradition are often of barely passable quality, but fans of British folk music will be eager to hear these Appalachian versions of songs like "Wind and Rain," "Little Massie Grove," and "The Devil's Nine Questions." The singers are clearly untutored, and their diction, coupled with the recording quality, makes one wish that a lyric sheet were included. The primitive effect is very charming, especially in the final track, "The Butcher's Boy," delivered by Kelly Harrell, who sounds like he should be herding pigs rather than impersonating a besotted maiden.

Even more fun is Early Roanoke Country Radio, featuring many of the finest country and western musicians who passed through the studios of the Roanoke Valley from the 1920s to the 1950s. The liner notes confirm that this southwestern Virginia town was important in the spread of this music; the vagaries of signals meant that WDBJ could sometimes be heard as far north as Nova Scotia. The deadpan humor indigenous to this part of Appalachia shines through songs like the Texas Troubadours' "Barnacle Bill the Sailor." Prominent among the album's musicians is Roy Hall, who is still remembered fondly by people of the area from his days as a barn dance bandleader. The album is a sweet journey back to a simpler time.
— Pamela Murray Winters (Arlington, VA)

The Karelian Folk Music Ensemble
Ingrian Folk Songs
Gadfly 504 (1997)

Ingria is the region of St. Petersberg, Russia (and the surrounding 70 or so kilometres). Before St. Petersberg was built, the region was home to Ingrians and Karelians (Finno-Ugric peoples, who still live in the area). Their languages were related to Finnish, and their unique song traditions were passed down over the generations. This release contains 22 ballads, satirical songs, dance tunes, laments and cradle songs from that tradition. They were all collected between 1847 and 1920 by Finnish ethnographers.

The material is performed by the Karelian Folk Music Ensemble, who are also known as "the Ensemble Toive" ("toive" means "hope"), who are based in Petrozavodsk. The CD has a slightly classical choral feel to it, with strident melodies and instruments always gently swelling in the background. (The instrumentalists are allowed to shine on a seven-minute suite of Finnish dances.)
— Ivan Emke (Corner Brook, NF, Canada)

Robin and
Linda Williams
Devil of a Dream
Sugar Hill SH-1059 (1998)
Devil of a Dream kicks off with the honky-tonk laced "Things I've Learned," which defines their classroom dynamic: "Learned it in the bedroom, the barroom, in a hobo's hard luck tale, in the gray gloom of a back room as the light began to fail." Robin's and Linda's voices rise and fall, moving in, out, and around each other like a dervish who stole the stage at a tent revival. On "Five Rooms" they paint a stark, Dobro-infested picture of a lonely lover who wins the you-get-to-keep-the-house lottery. The Williams' also seem to have learned that raising the funk-o-meter can highlight the best of exemplary ballads, like "Green Summertime," a prayer-like tune whose bucolic simplicity yields a mature acceptance of the hand that's dealt. While roots may be transcendent, they are undeniable (as is Linda's voice here). The Everly classic "I Wonder if I Care as Much" waltzes the goose-bump fantastic, while exemplifying the album's sparse arrangements. Helping to goose this diabolical CD turn (along with Fine Groupers Jim Watson and Kevin Maul) are ubiquitous cats-about-town, Stuart Duncan and Tim O'Brien.
– Michael Amitin (Kagel Canyon, CA)

Papi Oviedo
y Sus Soneros
Encuentro Entre Soneros
Candela/Tinder 42849222 (1997)

Over the past couple years, there have been quite a few CDs of traditionally based music from Cuba released in the U.S., and this album holds its own in comparison with the others. First of all, the pedigree is impeccable: The 64-year-old tres player Papi Oviedo has been a musician since he was a teenager, and his father was the late, renowned master of the instrument, Isaac Oviedo. The younger Oviedo played in Elio Revé's band for 15 years and then formed his own group in 1995. Papi Oviedo y Sus Soneros perform the traditional-style Cuban son in a traditional setting: no electric guitars or electronic keyboards here, just a lineup of tres (a guitar with three pairs of strings), bongos, maracas, guiro, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, two trumpets, and two vocalists. The expressive, evocative Cristina Azcuy and Osvaldo Montalvo sing together sometimes, alternate the lead sometimes, and participate in a goodly amount of call-and-response singing. The vocal and instrumental arrangements are second to none, and highlight the spirit, soul and rich depth of this music. Especially enjoyable is how the the trumpets are deployed throughout the album. There are a dozen cuts, ranging in sub-style from son-montuno to bolero to guaracha-son. Highly recommended.
— Al Riess (Buffalo, NY)

Cherish the Ladies
Live!
Big Mammy (1997)

Aoife Clancy
Soldiers & Dreams
Ark Albums/Big Mammy (1997)

The Cherish the Ladies CD was recorded at two theater performances by the band in March 1997 and is an excellent representation of what the group does in a live setting. Four step dancers also make their way onto the disc, augmenting the Ladies' sound on a few tracks with their lively footwork. The 13 selections are sequenced to create the feel of a live show and run the gamut from fast instrumental medleys to slower airs to mid-tempo numbers. Five traditional songs from vocalist Aoife Clancy are interspersed among the tunes and include the lyrical "Mal of Lismore," a jaunty rendition of "Banks of the Roses," and an a cappella Gaelic "Fear an Bhata" that segues into a slow fiddle-led air, then into a rip-roaring dance tune by track's end. Fans of the band should note that there is hardly any duplication with material available on other Cherish the Ladies albums or on Joanie Madden's solo CD Whistle on the Wind [Green Linnet GLCD 1142 (1994)].

The principal instrumentalist on Clancy's solo disc is album producer-arranger-engineer Gabriel Donahue on guitars, keyboards, synthesizer, and bouzouki. Joining him are fiddler Bobby Donavan, uilleann piper Jerry O'Sullivan, and Cherished Lady Joanie Madden on flute and whistle. The arrangements and instruments used give Soldiers and Dreams a contemporary-meets-traditional-music on equal terms feel, and Clancy's smooth, expressive singing works both ways too, ensuring a successful merger of the two approaches and an enjoyable listening experience. "Fighting for Strangers/Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" and "Two Sisters" are set in upbeat tempos — the former seems almost jolly in parts — and are interesting treatments of these traditional songs. Other goodies are the love song "Ronan Og," featuring piano and flute to the fore, and the part English, part Gaelic "Summertime is Coming (O'-ro')," with lyrics by Donahue that speak of "a new day is a-dawning/ For all of Erin's exiled children/ We're able and we're willing/ To build a new tomorrow."
— Al Riess (Buffalo, NY)

Cherish the Ladies
One and All, the Best of Cherish the Ladies

Green Linnet GLCD 1187 (1998)

Cherish the Ladies
Threads of Time
BMG Classics 09026 63131-2 (1998)

I suppose you can't blame Green Linnet for getting one last infusion of moolah from a departing band, but keep in mind that One and All makes use of only Cherish the Ladies' Green Linnet recordings, which means about half of the band's total recorded output. Still, One and All is a rousing selection of tunes and songs from one of the very best bands in Irish music today. From Joanie Madden and Maureen Doherty Macken's opening strains on twin tin whistles, through Mary Coogan's brisk mandolin polka, soulful vocals from Cathie Ryan and Aoife Clancy, and lots of hot sawing from the band's three fiddlers, there's not a bad or boring selection here. My one real complaint is that the disc is slanted toward the band's third Green Linnet release. Arguably, people interested in the bandhistory (and this is at least partly a historical release) would be better served by a few more tracks from the earlier CDs, which featured the group's original lineup; "Coal Quay Market" from The Back Door and "The Out and About Set" from Out and About, both of which could have fit on this CD without deleting anything, would have been nice additions to the package.
Threads of Time, the Ladies' newest CD, represents the band at its latest and best. Anyone who worries that their move to the Chieftains' label and to producer Brian Keane will mean a more classical-sounding Cherish the Ladies should listen to track three, a set of reels as fast and furious as anything they have played before, and just as brilliantly executed. Where Keane's orchestrations do make changes to the band's sound, they are always either very subtle (the addition of acoustic bass for extra resonance in places) or very interesting and fresh (the addition of a triangle behind Madden's flute and Coogan's mandolin). As for the ladies themselves, as always they are magnificent. Their hallmark here is a big bold sound that nevertheless doesn't lose the detail, shading and texture so essential for Irish music to stay compelling. Madden's fluid whistle-playing on "The Battle of Aughrim," Donna Long's melodic piano on "Liza's Dream," Siobhan Egan's driving fiddle solo on "The Monaghan Twig," and Mary Rafferty's syncopated accordion playing on a set of Cape Breton tunes are only a few of the instrumental highlights. Most of all, the vibrant ensemble playing, when the thick rush of melody is propelled by Coogan's guitar and Long's piano, stirs the blood. The three-part harmony vocals by Clancy, Madden and Long on "The Bonny Light Horseman" is also particularly effective; two adaptations of Yeats poems, along with Jez Lowe's "The Bergen" and the traditional "High Germany," round out the vocal selections, all of them rendered passionately by Clancy.
— Steve Winick (Philadelphia, PA)

 

Copyright 1998 Dirty Linen Ltd