Anyone who has followed this site for any length of time knows
\nthat I’ve been singing the praises of fingerstyle guitarist El
\nMcMeen since I discovered his work courtesy of a compilation disc
\nreleased by Rounder. Thanks to my review of those two discs, El and
\nI have struck up a friendship which has helped to turn me on to
\nother guitarists of similar quality.<\/p>\n
In all journalistic fairness, I probably shouldn’t be the one
\nreviewing El’s music, since I do consider him a friend. Then again,
\nsometimes I feel that this gives me more of an insight into what he
\ntries to do with his music, and I sometimes feel like I can be more
\ncritical than normal, since it’s leveled with an equal dose of
\nrespect.<\/p>\n
That all said, I can’t say anything negative about his latest
\neffort,
\nDancing The Strings<\/i>. A mixture of more modern songs and
\ntraditional Celtic workings, McMeen shows why he is one of the best
\nguitarists out there, amplification and flash be damned.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, I do prefer the more traditional Celtic numbers —
\nbut maybe that’s because that’s what I was first exposed to with
\nEl’s music. Yet I can’t find any flaws in his choices of covers on
\nthis particular disc; of the 14 tracks, there is not a single one
\nwhich is a letdown. I learned some time ago that McMeen can take a
\nsong like “Danny Boy” which has been beaten to death by so many
\naverage versions and breathe new life into it with his gentle style
\non the acoustic guitar. On
\nDancing The Strings<\/i>, he performs a Frankenstein maneuver on
\n“The Tennessee Waltz,” taking an old chestnut and lovingly giving
\nit a new lease on life while respecting the song’s history.<\/p>\n
The same can be said for his takes on such Sixties hallmarks as
\n“Tears Of A Clown” (even if the acoustic guitar can’t quite imitate
\nthe calliope-like opening of the original), “There Is A Rose In
\nSpanish Harlem” and “Working My Way Back To You.” Even if you grew
\nup listening to the original versions of these songs, you can’t
\nhelp but be awed by McMeen’s performances.<\/p>\n
Even a forgotten guilty pleasure like Orleans’s “Still The One”
\ngets the respectful treatment by McMeen, literally giving this
\ntrack a new perspective for a generation who may not know the
\noriginal.<\/p>\n
I said earlier that I happened to prefer it when McMeen played
\nthe more traditional music — and this does not get shorted on
\nDancing The Strings<\/i>. I defy anyone to try to keep from
\ndancing a jig when they hear tracks like “The Humors Of
\nBallyloughlin” or “The Kid On The Mountain” — yes, kids, the
\nperformances are that good. Likewise, McMeen knows when to turn the
\nvolume down and the intensity up on quieter numbers like “The
\nLovers’ Waltz” and “Midnight On The Water.”<\/p>\n
The highlight for me, though, is McMeen’s take on “America The
\nBeautiful” — which I honestly wish he had recorded and released
\njust after the events of 9\/11. I don’t know if it was intentional
\nor not, but McMeen’s performance of this patriotic standard almost
\nseems like a dirge for those whom we’ve lost far too soon, be it
\nfrom terrorism or from the resulting skirmishes across the globe.
\nYet in that mourning, McMeen conveys a new respect for the feeling
\nof national pride one feels – and, again, takes an old, tired
\nnumber and transcends it into something special.<\/p>\n
It seems like every time I talk to El of late, he seems to speak
\nof slowing his pace down, even if it means retiring from the
\nstudio. Yet each disc he releases is a wonderful surprise, and the
\ntalk of slowing down starts up again. I know for fact that El reads
\nthese pages from time to time, so I hope he takes my humble advice
\nand keeps on releasing discs like
\nDancing The Strings<\/i>. After all, the more he has out there,
\nthe more proof there is that he’s a treasure waiting to be
\ndiscovered by the multitude. Here’s hoping that discovery comes
\nvery soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6270],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37995","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-el-mcmeen","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37995"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}