CELTIC
GUITAR SUMMIT
Irish Music Magazine, May 2003
Art Edelstein, himself no mere slouch on the guitar and a
well-known champion of the O'Carolan cause in the US, poses a
question in the liner notes of this exemplary album: Why he asks
aren't there more Celtic guitar duos? After all the music is great,
the guitar is the folk instrument of modern times and when you hear
what can be done by two masters, you really do suspect that there's
an almost new branch of traditional music here.
A duo works best when there's empathy as dense as Bovril, and
Baughman and Bullock have a deft touch of technique beneath their
fingers, empathy, yes, they have it good and thick. Being a Celtic
album, there's a hearty feed of Carolan on this platter, he's the
one composer that so easily translates to the six-string, no
surprises therefore to find Fanny Power, Lord Inchiquin, Hewlett or
Captain Sutley here. The good news is that these two guitarists
understand the essential musical quality of the work and unlike some
are not simply content to do a guitar version of a Derek Bell
setting. Indeed the opening track, Lady Blayney, is one of the
least-known of Carolan's pieces (number 5 in the O'Sullivan
collection) and they give it a truly crystal clear workover with
Bullock leading the piece and Baughman providing the harmonic
counterbalance.
There's more to Celtic music than Carolan and this duo are well
aware of the fact with offerings of Welsh and Breton tunes (Kas Ha
Baarh is particularly haunting) to give the mix an exotic flavour.
Call me an anorak, but I really enjoyed jamming along with this
album, and these two lads not only tell us how they tune each guitar
(or cittern or bouzouki) on each track, they even let us into the
secret of capo placing. Well done the brothers B! Fine
recording quality, fine choice of tunes. Planxty to ye boys, Planxty
to ye.
Sean Laffey
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