Reviews
Vadim Kudryavtsev
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Brendan Power
New Irish Harmonica Green Linnet
GLCD 3098
This Review Copyright й 1995 Dan Beimborn
Brendan Power's Green Linnet release titled "New Irish Harmonica" is a dazzling
mixture of the fresh voices of chromatic and diatonic harmonicas with tasteful,
measured backing on guitar, mandolin, bass, fiddle, and percussion. The liner n
otes describe this New Zealander turned Londoner as an experimenter, "constantl
y pulling his instruments to bits in order to improve them". This is clear from
the broad spectrum of sounds he can get from this deceptively simple family of
instruments. At times the clean single notes will sound like a whistle, bubbly
and crisp in the high register. Other ends of the scale sound much more like a
"dry tuned" (no tremelo) button-box. The sound is so appealing, you might find
yourself wondering why there have not been more albums devoted to Irish tunes o
n harmonica (Kevin Burke has featured several great harmonica players on his re
cordings, including Mark Graham with the band Open House, and the Murphy
brothers of Dublin Ireland).
The recording features a sampling of most typical Irish Traditional dance tune
types (jigs, reels, hornpipes, Carolan tunes), with arrangements encompassing m
uted subtlety, fire, improvisation, and everything in between. One of my favori
tes is the fourth track [The Drunken Landlady/The Wind that Shakes the Barley/J
ohn Stenson's No. 2], which features Chris Newman playing a gorgeous finger-pic
ked guitar intro to these well known dance tunes. Power puts a lot of punch and
ornament into his playing- the surprise generated by the novelty of the instrum
ent quickly gives way to a deep appreciation of the ornamentation he
accomplishes on the mouth harp.
Although the extensive liner notes (describing make and key of the instruments
used for each track) will help to lure the budding harmonica player, this album
is also just plain great listening. I have enjoyed it many times over. This alb
um is an essential for anyone who has ever played Irish tunes on the "tin sandw
ich", and a pretty safe bet for people looking for a new album of upbeat dance
tunes.
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Hу всего,
Vadim