A few months ago, we took a look at the first disc in Rounder’s
\nCeltic Fingerstyle Guitar<\/i> series, featuring some of the
\nfinest acoustic guitar work I had heard in a long time. For some
\nreason, though, I found myself constantly locking in to only the
\nfirst disc
\nRamble To Cashel<\/i>, and I never really got around to listening
\nto
\nThe Blarney Pilgrim<\/i>, the conclusion of the two-disc
\nseries.<\/p>\n
After just one listen to this disc, I was kicking myself hard.
\nNot only is this disc an excellent collection of guitar work, but
\nit’s even better than the first volume in the series – and that was
\ngoing to be a difficult disc to top.<\/p>\n
The same group of guitarists who performed on
\nRamble To Cashel<\/i> perform on this album, taking traditional
\nIrish and Scottish music and pouring it into their instruments.
\nWhat comes out is not merely Irish or Scottish music; it’s
\nwonderful guitar arrangements that transcend any ethnic boundaries
\none might want to place on them.<\/p>\n
The work of two guitarists in particular I’d like to point out.
\nThese are the works that, when I heard them, made my jaw scrape the
\nfloor. First, Duck Baker’s performance on the medley “Miss Forbes
\nFarewell \/ Poll Halfpenny” completely blows me away. Not having the
\nvideo that this CD is the companion of, I have to guess that Baker
\nis performing this song on a 12 string guitar. The fingerpicking on
\nthe six-string is impressive enough, but Baker adds an incredibly
\nbass-rich tone to this song by switching to the 12-string that
\nmakes this track one of the best in the entire collection. (Maybe
\nthe next time, they’ll do a CD of fingerstyle guitar on only
\n12-string guitars. I’d buy it!)<\/p>\n
The second guitarist is Pierre Bensusan, who throws in
\nflourishes that one would never have expected in his three
\nselections. On tracks like “Sheebeg An Sheemor” and the medley of
\n“The Pure Drop\/The Flax In Bloom,” Bensusan brings out all of the
\nbeauty of these songs with the richness of his work on the acoustic
\nguitar – incredible!<\/p>\n
This is not to say that the performances of the other guitarists
\n– Pat Kirtley, Martin Simpson, Steve Baughman, Tom Long and El
\nMcMeen – is any less good. Each guitarist demonstrates similar
\namazing skills on the six-string to create music that is guaranteed
\nto lift your spirits and put a smile on your face, whether you have
\nany Celtic blood in you or not. (The only minor criticism: the
\nmicrophones for Long’s performances were very sensitive; if I’m
\nhearing right, I can hear him breathing, especially on the
\notherwise outstanding “Jenny Picking Cockles”.)<\/p>\n
\nThe Blarney Pilgrim<\/i> is one of the best guitar albums I have
\never listened to, and will amaze you with its technical beauty. I
\ndon’t think, though, I could watch the videos without wanting to
\nsmash my own guitars, knowing I’d never be as good as these
\nguitarists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38887","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38887","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=38887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38887"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}