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James Blackshaw, "Holly"
This stripped-down 20-minute EP captures Blackshaw back near the top of his game, finding the perfect synergy between his talents as a steel-string virtuoso and his ambitions as a more varied composer.  While the overall feeling of these two pieces is languorous, melancholy, and impressionistic, the crisp sound and complex and inventive arrangements imbue them with a surprising amount of dazzle and immediacy.  James makes a virtue of brevity, as Holly is a complete, undiluted, and consistently strong effort.
In some regards, Holly is very much a return to Blackshaw's roots, as his acoustic guitar playing again takes center stage.  Also, it is very nearly an entirely solo affair, enlisting only multi-instrumentalist/All is Falling alum Charlotte Glasson to fill out the sound. Despite that, these two pieces have little in common with the Eastern-tinged American steel-string folkies that inspired James' earliest work.  Instead, Holly fits comfortably (not regressively) into Blackshaw's career arc, feeling very much like a neo-classical guitar album– Blackshaw even plays nylon string here for the first time.
Fortunately, close similarities to Julian Bream and John Williams fall by the wayside once James picks up enough momentum.  "Holly," for example, begins with a deceptively somber twelve-string guitar motif before quickly spiraling off into an roiling web of lightning nylon string arpeggios and descending piano chords.  I was especially struck by the way the incredibly fast and complicated fingerpicking is counterbalanced by the rather languid piano and violin themes– it gives the piece an unusual sense of motion and urgency.  While certain passages in "Holly" are quite beautiful compositionally, the main attraction for me lies in the blindingly dexterous and multilayered cascade of notes employed to unfold the piece's simple melodies.  This is essentially a mesmerizing performance that also happens to be a good song.
"Boo, Forever" is a bit less awe-inspiring technique-wise, but it is cut from roughly the same cloth and is no less enjoyable.  The key difference is that it is built around a few layers of 12-string steel guitars, which gives it an added crisp physicality.  Also, the melodic crescendos feature woodwinds rather than violins, but the general mood remains the same.  Exactly what that mood is, however, is somewhat difficult to put my finger on.  It is impossible to say how much the Christmas-connotations of "holly" have colored my judgment at this point, but I think these two pieces definitely evoke a cozy, huddled-near-a-fireplace-on-a-cold-winter-day feel that is quite appealing (even when co-mingled with muted sadness).  In fact, the worst thing that I can possibly say about this release is that it may err on the side of being too polite, but I can find room in my heart for "nice" things if they are well-executed.  While it doesn't quite reach the heights of some of Blackshaw's individual pieces from the past, Holly is certainly an inspired detour (and a very solid one at that).
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