CD Reviews

Strings For A Season

David Walker Music

And if you just cannot get enough guitar carols, check out Richard Gilewitz playing them on his CD Strings for a Season. I have just had an extensive introduction to Mr. Gilewitz’s music, and I will be writing more about it in the near future, but I can tell you that this CD is the best of the bunch. You can buy this one from Amazon.com.

ChristmasReviews
The perfect backdrop for almost any holiday event

The ChristmasReviews.com website has many holiday music reviews featuring solo acoustic guitar albums, and these are some of my favorite offerings. The warm and winning sound of a well-played guitar is a natural organic match for Christmas carols; the familiar and accessible guitar voice embraces and enhances the nostalgic joys inherently associated with the holidays. Richard Gilewitz's Strings for a Season is an exciting addition to the instrumental guitar genre; even more importantly, it provides more layers of interest. In addition to Gilewitz's virtuosity on the 6 & 12-string guitars, he welcomes several musician friends who contribute a family of strings (guitar, cello, violin, mandolin, banjo, and piano). The result is a richer, fuller sound that largely retains the intimacy of the solo guitar, and this fine recipe makes Strings for a Season a great entertainment option for the holidays.

I reviewed this album at 5 AM on a frosty October morning in Minnesota, and the music's friendly companionship certainly made the early hour easier to accept. The arrangements are exceptional; Stephen Siktberg provides the bulk, but the late John Fahey contributes one, and Gilewitz presents his own freshly-minted, Fahey-inspired constructions. The well-worn carols dance with color, light, and heat--almost as though the music is its own holiday hearth, rewarding the listeners with comfort and bliss. The music is cheery, but never frenetic; this album is the perfect backdrop for almost any holiday event.

Although all players make important contributions here, I particularly love the cello's low voice (Laurie Jarski, Deidre Emerson); for me, the cello speaks straight from the soul. Every track is excellent, and it is difficult to pick out "favorites" from the group. Even so, the highlights must include Gilewitz's solo guitar on Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, the jazzy flourishes (and banjo excitement) on God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and the full interplay of strings and piano on We Three Kings.

Impressive! Richard Gilewitz has created a classic Christmas album that should endure; Strings for a Season will be warmly received by diverse holiday music aficionados for many, many years to come!

--Carol Swanson - 2008

FAME Reviews
by Mark S. Tucker
for the Folk and Music Exchange

I was enamored with Richard Gilewitz's *Live at the Second Street Theater* in 2006 (here), where the fingerpicker showcased a dazzling schedule of compelling cuts. The guy's a favored performer in the California Guitar Trio's fancy, so you know we're talking about unusual skill and quality. Christmas CDs, though, are often a dicey affair, what with so many New Age goop fests and pop banality tending to surfeit the market, but Gilewitz only decided to produce his after listening to Stephen C. Siktberg's Christmas Music for Acoustic Guitar and the bracing arrangements contained therein. It was a wise choice as the guy managed to also avoid the oft smotheringly wooden recitals seasonal songs receive when rendered in a classical vein. Part of this departure from rigid orthodoxy derives from the guitarist's love for John Fahey's work.

The disc, however, is not solo, as Gilewitz chose a quintet of backing musicians (second guitar, two cellos, keyboards) with nicely attuned ears, a gathering managing to straddle the rarefied airs of both Beethoven's time and the Windham Hill label (the most successful New Age imprint yet produced), ending up with, as Gilewitz himself puts it, a flurry of sounds. Mostly the atmosphere is of the sort Fahey would've favored, along with refrains of Jan Akkerman's baroque solo stylings and tastes of William Ackerman's famed imprint. Don't take that as gospel, though, as the arrangement of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman smacks deliciously of a cow poke's Christmas, embodying an absolutely unique interpretation. Matching it, closing the CD is a version of Jingle Bells that would do a barnraising proud. These two cuts, in fact, for all the warmth of the classicalist approach, prompt me to urge Gilewitz to consider next year doing a completely countrified Xmas release:, the pair here being so devastatingly good.

Throughout Strings for a Season, the mix is sometimes thick and lush (The First Noel for instance), other times spare and pensive (O Holy Night) but always rimed with the stateliness of antiquity and a number of innovations the years since have evoked. Credit Tim May and Tim Roberts for partial credit as well. May provides the complementary back-up guitars (banjo and mando included) while producing and Roberts engineered a sound as clear and shining as the light atop a yule tree.

Edited by: David N. Pyles
Copyright 2003, Peterborough Folk Music Society.
This review may be reprinted with prior permission and attribution.

Gerry Grzyb
host of the Dr. Christmas radio shows
on WRST-FM University of Wisconsin

"I am lucky enough to have a copy of a 20-year-old CD full of Stephen Siktberg’s Christmas arrangements for guitar, but it existed only as a Musical Heritage Society release available to members alone. Despair not! Richard Gilewitz uses some of Siktberg’s excellent arrangements on his new “Strings for a Season.” His CD also stands out because of the use of cello, violin, mandolin, banjo, and piano to provide effective settings for his guitar playing. Given Richard’s fine playing, I hope he will record ALL of Siktberg’s arrangements for wider distribution."

WL2P

Although our friendly postal clerks have been stuffing our box with CDs celebrating the Christmas and holiday season for several weeks, we just got our first snow, so it’s time to come to grips with the fact that this year is wrapping up fast. If all you want for Christmas is your two front teeth, than our first holiday selection is not for you. While recognized by his concert audiences (and listeners of his live CDs) as one of the strangest people to fingerpick a six (or 12) string, for this recording, Richard Gilewitz donned a Santa’s cap and focused on creating a CD of heirloom quality. The songs are all familiar favorites, presented in a musical box style befitting of the season. It is simple, yet lush, with a roman! tic, fireside quality that paints a backdrop for Christmas dreaming. Richard is joined on this CD by Tim May, Cellists Laurie Jarski and Deidre Emerson, violinist Gretchen Priest-May and David Webb on keys.