Search - Justin Roth :: Shine

The finger-style guitar work and folk songs of Justin Roth

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 08/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"We went to go see Shawn Colvin at the Big Tent Chautauqua over near Bayfield, Wisconsin, and the opening gig for the night went to Justin Roth. It seems that once upon a time he worked at the Big Tent and now he was back with a couple of folk albums under his belt to come out with his guitar to show the locals what he can do. Well, what he can do is play original instrumental compositions with his fingers plucking the strings on the frets without ever resorting to anything as common as actually strumming his guitar. The first song he played for us was "Fatima's Waltz," which is not on this album, and closed his short set with "Bagshot Row," a Hobbit-inspired piece, both of which evidenced this particular guitar styling. I mention these to explain why there were shadows of disappointment when listening to "Shine" because on most of these songs Roth actually has words to sing and there are other people playing instruments with all sorts of production values (the other exception would be his version of mentor Billy McLaughlin's "The Weaver of Avoca." That is because Roth's major strength is as a guitar player and sometimes the words and the other instruments get in the way (just like when I listen to Bert Jansch). Then again, if this 2003 album is your introduction to his music, you will not have such regrets until you catch him in concert.



Roth plays acoustic guitar, banjo, jaw harp, and keys on this album, with most of those being on "Dead Horse Trampoline." Now, to be perfectly clear, he did not write that one, so when you get a chuckle out of listening to it and find yourself wishing he wrote more fun songs like that he cannot because he did not write it in the first place. Just try to listen to his guitar on songs like "The Only Life," "Crush," and "Savior," if you can move everything else out of the way. Ironically my favorite song on the album of the ones with the words is the rather elegantly simple "She Dances," not only because he played it in concert but also I like the chorus: "There's no other place I'd rather be/When she dances the way she dances with me." Lyrically "On the Fault Line" strikes me as being the best of the bunch, especially given the use of minor chords and the pathos of the final stanza: "I'm not trying to drive you away/I'm not trying to convince you to stay/I'm just trying to give us some time/To ask ourselves why." But vocally it is my least favorite song because it involves vocal harmonies and a swelling string section, and I think it would be more evocative stripped down to just Roth and his guitar.



Currently my favorite contemporary folk singer is Richard Shindell, and I see Justin Roth as being in that neighborhood. The problem, such as it is, would be that the sort of finger-style guitar work that he has taught himself is not exactly what becomes a folk singer's greatest selling point (name ten really great folk guitarists and let me know if you actually get to using the fingers on your second hand). But anybody who hears him live is going to be hooked on that guitar playing. "Shine" is his third solo album, following "In Between" in 2000 and "Up Until Now" in 1997. All the signs indicate that this guy is on the cusp of moving up to the last level of musical success in the world of contemporary folk music, so be ahead of the game and jump on the bandwagon now, and if Justin Roth is in your neck of the woods and you like folk music, you seriously need to check him out."

Huge Step Forward

Lawrance M. Bernabo | 03/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You can see with each album Justin releases he is making his sound come across clearer and more defined. The album has a couple classics on it, The Only Life, Pull, Shine and live favorite Dead Horse Trampoline."