Search - John Renbourn, Stefan Grossman :: Keeper of Vine: Best of

Boy, do I feel stupid.

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 06/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is hard for me to know where to start with this album. I just bought this album today and have been listening to it continuously for the last several hours. I have known of Renbourn and Grossman seperately for some time yet somehow their occassional collaborations were unknown to me. Alas! All those years gone by when I could have been strengthened by this music. Sigh.
Suffice it to say that this is a wonderful album. This is culled from four previous albums: their first eponymous album, Under the Volcano, The Three Kingdoms and Live...In Concert. There are no vocals on this CD-just beautiful, deeply melodic, subtly rhythmic guitar duets. These guys play as well together as any duet I have ever heard.
They seemed to have somehow merged their different musical backgrounds into one very deep and inclusive aesthetic. Celtic, English folk from John, country blues from Stefan, jazz from both. The diversity and the appeal of this approach is stunning to me. I very rarely feel this strongly in favor of a CD this quickly. But what we have here is something unusual- these are guys who have not only developed their own musicality to the nth degree but have also listened deeply to other great musicians. They know great songs (Round Midnight, the two Mingus tunes), they write great tunes and they obviously get a kick out of playing with each other.
If you love acoustic guitar of any style, this one is for you."