Clive CARROLL : The Red Guitar (2004)

Clive is an acoustic fingerpicker with a beautifully clean technique and the ability to draw you into his music with astonishing ease. This album of predominantly self-composed tracks offers a striking blend of classical guitar meets folk with seamless changes from chamber music into Irish reels. There's sincerity in his playing and in his approach, which leaves you feeling it's all being played for you personally. Praise must also be given to Chris Newman's beautifully simple production that brings Clive right into your home. Ralph Bown built the guitar Clive uses and this will serve as a superb testimonial to his abilities. Listen and be amazed.

"Truly a guitarist for all seasons, Carroll here delivers an album full of ornamentation and filigree, putting him up there with his peers such as John Renbourn and Tommy Emmanuel. Inspirations run from newgrass and fusion jazz to the inevitable Irish stylings, all cleanly arranged and immaculately interpreted."

"Ace young guitarist Clive returns to recording at last after an all-too-long four years away from the studio, shorn of much hair maybe but not shorn of any of that outstanding talent that had marked him out on his debut CD The Sixth Sense as a very special instrumentalist indeed. The Red Guitar is that comparative rarity – an instrumental album par excellence that can be appreciated by fellow-guitarists and us mere mortals alike! Of course, the uneducated and/or impatient ear is apt to dismiss Clive's playing as just a lot of tricksy noodling, but to do so is missing the point, refusing to acknowledge the subtleties of Clive's approach, the intrinsic musicality of his phrasing and tonal shading. The level of musicality that Clive displays is truly astonishing, one not automatically present in even the most skilled of professional guitarists, many of whom are content to spin notes for the sake of showing off how clever they can be with their twelve fingers!
Stylistically, Clive's compositions (which comprise 11 out of the 13 tracks on this new CD) rove eclectically and brilliantly through and across genre boundaries – well, as if that matters!. The opener March And The Messenger starts out craftily like a morris tune, then progresses through a series of syncopated riffs to finish somewhat breathlessly as a fast reel. Song For Chris Berry is an altogether more lyrical creation; then there are two sets directly inspired by Clive's Irish upbringing (which wouldn't necessarily spring immediately to mind when you think of any obvious influence on either his playing, technique or musical sensibility). These sets display Clive's superb sense of rhythm, external and internal, and his unerring feel for pace, knowing just when and how to let the music breathe (marvel at track 3, which pairs the air Black Moon with the march Westward Move, with both even played together towards the end!). Interpolated devices such as harmonics and slaps (I hesitate to call them tricks!) are applied naturally as part of the musical ebb and flow; there's no sense of "oh how clever am I" with Clive, listening to him play is as natural as having a conversation with a good friend. Devil's Bridge (nifty title that!) proves a real finger-twister of a piece, 1½ minutes of satanic Romanian-inspired tunes; Les Petites Clochettes makes a virtue of delicacy. The pensive Inside stretches out lovingly across the fretboard, expanding gently to fill four glorious minutes, and is dedicated to fellow-guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, with whom Clive has memorably toured. Blue notes, percussive slaps and beautiful lyricism combine on the brief road-movie that is Route 73 (Stoke Newington to Hammersmith anyone?!). The Romanian connection surfaces again on Bela Boy, which pithily transcends its inspiration (Bartók's pioneering folksong arrangements in the early years of the last century). The "other" Bela (bluegrass master Fleck) then gets the homage honour on the fingerlickin' hoedown of Luck For Sale. Perhaps on Clive's rendition of Gilbert Biberian's piece The Romantic the character is more of an Impressionist though…? Wayne Shorter's flamboyant showpiece Black Nile then makes for an ideal closer to the CD. Just before which, the insistent, repetitive motor rhythms of Threnody provide an altogether different challenge to both player and listener, which Clive passes with flying colours.
Is one of them "red"? – well, red-hot with aching fingers, I'm sure, but also red-hot with creativity. Your guess is as good as mine! In all its moods, Clive's playing may be note-perfect, but that doesn't ever mean it's soulless. Guitar music doesn't often get right to one's emotions, but I find Clive's playing gets deep to mine. Suffice it to say, this is a superb CD. Go buy it when it appears. And visit Clive's website for the stories behind the tunes."

Tracklist :
1. March and the Messenger
2. Song for Chris Berry
3. Black Moon / Westward Move
4. Devil’s Bridge
5. Les Petites Clochettes
6. The Kid from Clare/ The Dance at Dolan’s /Humours of Tulla
7. Inside
8. Route 73
9. Bela Boy
10. Luck for Sale
11. Threnody
12. The Romantic
13. Black Nile