Guitar Nine Records - "The Clearing" Review Featured In Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange

Dan Lambert

Review of "The Clearing"

By: Tammy D. Moon

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rack one, "Into the Mist", is a perfect opener for "The Clearing", a full fourteen cuts of Dan's versatile voicings. A blend of lilting Celtic fingerstyle melody (featuring the Welsh Revel guitar) and strong, yet mellow rhythm accompaniment on the Martin, announce Dan's roots in traditional music. I settled into the folksy feel of it, only to be surprised out of my stupor by the first of many jazz improvisations. Superimposed right on top of the primary rhythm too! My first reaction was "Huh?" Maybe I've lived near Nashville too long, where you walk into one joint to hear one kind of tune, then leave and go down the street to hear something different. Dag-nabbit, I was korn-fused! But the eclectic melodies are delivered with compositional competence, and the longer I listened, the more they grew on me.

By cut #4, "Telepathy", I thought I had it figured out. Wrong! This one is straight on jazz. Tight grooves. Edgy. No roots here! Then, whoops! Back to traditional with the next, "Tartan Swing," during which I was tempted to don a kilt and jig along with his strong thumb-picked bass line and fancy Scottish-pipe fret work. He does it all! "Raga Pam" (#8) features Dan on a late 1940's model Gibson (I'm a connoisseur-I HAD to know, and e-mailed Dan for the scoop!). There's a lot going on in that tune and I knew it was more than just a change of tuning on one of the other guitars. Full, interesting sound. Jazz a la D'jango! Maybe because jazz is not necessarily 'my thang,' I'm sure I don't appreciate cut #12, "If Dogs Wore Hats", as fully as others folks might. The riffs lack fluidity; discordant chords jangle as if forced in places. The melody line is a bit repetitive. Compared to others, this one just doesn't work.

He won me back with "Festival on High Street" (#13), my pick of the litter. Light-hearted like the title, with dramatic tempo changes, reminiscent of a Ferris Wheel's dips and climbs. It was the tune I was still humming later in the day, even though it was followed by a Martin solo, "Melody for the End of the Day" (#14). Simple elegance: a perfect end piece.