Peter Fisher Rock Guitar Secret

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the release of Eclogue. British Chamber Music, a collection of British chamber music from the 19th to the 21st centuries including nine first recordings featuring the label debut of the Chamber Ensemble of London in their 25th anniversary year with director Peter Fisher.

This is a reasonably comprehensive collection of Peter Green's catalog, with 78 minutes of music at mid-price, drawn from In the Skies, Little Dreamer, Blue Guitar, White Sky and Legend, the first two albums contributing the majority of the best material here. Green's guitar playing is as impressive as ever, and his singing is nothing to ignore, a sweet, gently soulful rasp that recalls his one-time rival Eric Clapton at his best behind the microphone. There's just a bit of fall-off in quality between tracks like "Apostle" and "Little Dreamer," and later stuff like "Last Train From San Antone" when they're heard side by side. And a lot of this doesn't seem as strong today as it did in the late '70s, when Green was one of the last exponents of British blues still working in that genre and getting heard. But the sound is good, and the price is right.

The band Karthago received the Péter Máté award last year in recognition of its work, and after receiving it, band leader Ferenc Szigeti came up with the idea to pay tribute to Péter Máté's exceptional life work and his huge musical legacy by covering an entire album of songs. In addition, the fact that in 1979 Karthago worked together on two LPs recorded by Péter Máté, they took part in the recordings of various music TV shows together, and a few years later they asked him to arrange their song Requiem in a big orchestra gave an additional "boost" to the actual implementation. - with which they won the 1983 International Dance Song Festival in Villach - so not only a working but also a friendly relationship developed between them over the years, thus making the current movement much more personal.

For sheer musicianship, it is difficult to think of many contemporary guitar playing singer-songwriters who can claim superiority to Peter Mulvey. His third studio album, The Trouble with Poets demonstrates once again the originality and technical proficiency of his guitarwork, incorporating echoes of accomplished fretsmiths like Leo Kottke and Ani DiFranco into a style that is distinctly his own (on "Wings of the Ragman," he even manages an effective impression of the Sundays' David Gavurin). The Trouble with Poets is also more satisfying as a thematic whole than his previous efforts, realizing to a new extent Mulvey's considerable promise as a lyricist.

Time-Life Music's Guitar Rock: Guitar Thunder features 12 rock radio staples, including "Show Me the Way" by Peter Frampton, "Easy Livin'" by Uriah Heep, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions, "All Right Now" by Free, "American Woman" by the Guess Who, "Summertime Blues" by Blue Cheer and "Whipping Post" by the Allman Brothers Band. Some of the songs, such as "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar and "(I Know) I'm Losing You" by Rod Stewart with Faces, however, aren't exactly hard rock. These songs are available on other compilations, but this disc offers a decent collection for the casual fan.