Classical guitar maestro Steve Gibb’s latest album, Island of Woods, is the result of accepting a personal challenge – to record said album in 10 days. Did he succeed? He did, releasing the album only one week after a 10-day recording blitz. Now, there was considerable preparation beforehand, such as arranging and a bit of practice, but once he hit “record?” Well, that’s when his usual unreachable paradigm of audible magic began.
Island of Woods is an album of flat-out, incontestable virtuoso guitar playing (he trained at London’s Royal Academy of Music, after all) – an album filled with brilliantly reworked standards and a sprinkling of bright, springy, and dramatic originals. Let’s hit the highlights:
The album opens with a medley of three Celtic standards (“The Mullindhu / Islay Ranter’s Reel / The High Drive”), and the fretwork is agile, careful, and considerate. There’s a slower start, a sinking in shadow, and then a frenetic pounce leading to spontaneous pirouettes on fields of green and gold.
“Auld Lang Syne” starts with gentle harmonics – like peeking sunbeams skating on puddles after a morning rain. And when the guitar’s full breadth of sound returns, a listless musical standard suddenly expresses a previously unfelt melancholy; a feeling braced with glimmers of hope.
“Island of Woods,” the title track, is an interpretation originally conceived by American/Irish fiddler Liz Carroll. It’s the sound of endlessly rolling hills, and the tumbling, generational journeys occurring on them, and under them.
“Funky Dog,” the first original, is an exercise in dexterity as Gibb breezes through neck-traveling arpeggios. Some moments aggressive, others subdued, “Funky Dog” certainly has teeth.
What do you do immediately after David Bowie dies? You create a beautiful, plaintive, acoustic version of “Space Oddity.” And yes, it’s mournful, but it embraces the powerful moments, perhaps carrying our beloved musical astronaut to the next world worthy of his experimental pedigree.
“Tanera,” written for Gibb’s great aunt (who, by the way, recently turned 103), starts with an almost eastern-sounding arpeggio. Gibb describes the song as “jazzier,” and perhaps I hear it through various sectional resolutions, but I still hear a more classical approach throughout (the next track, “Broadway Express,” hits those “jazzy” buttons right out of the gate). Regardless, it’s a beauty, and a finalist in the Great American Songwriting Contest.
Album closer “Tomorrow’s Song” gently frames a transition; a state of loss that precedes an awakening or new beginning. It’s slow and spacious; it’s the tugging emotional depths one must embrace before starting anew.
Is Island of Woods a good album? No, it’s an AMAZING album with a grieving, gracious guitar spilling more emotion than it has any right to. It’s truly a vessel for the brilliance of its player, and I still can’t shake the 30-billion feelings it soaked me with. Highly recommended? OhmyGod – YES!
BELOW: Listen to Steve Gibb and check him out on Bandcamp, Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, and Facebook. Please support Steve by visiting his website, and playing, downloading, and/or purchasing his music. And, as always, thank you for supporting real music.
(Want to have your music reviewed on The Ark of Music? Click HERE.)
Follow, stream, download & connect with STEVE GIBB online:
