Customer Reviews

Rock & More Roses

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Irishman Pat Kilbride is a virtuoso on fingerstyle guitar and bouzouki. This CD collects his first 2 recordings and offers a great set of trad Irish tunes and songs arranged in his unique and adept way. This is a must for all trad Irish music fans, especially guitar or zouk oriented ones.

I don't know why Pat Kilbride isn't more popular in the Celtic music world. His guitar/cittern/etc. work is 2nd to none. This album combines his two early albums, including some terrific work while he was in Belgium. The mix of tunes is excellent - ranging from some hypnotic legend-telling tunes at the beginning to some traditional reels, a cover of a Sting song (traditionally arranged), and some creative use of African rythms.

I also recommend his other solo albums and work with Kip's Bay, though those have a more modern feel, which is quite good, too.

Not typical Irish-Scottish traditional music, but nevertheless thoroughly enjoyable if you can accept innovation. This is Pat Kilbride's "Best Of" album covering the first part of his performance career. He is an absolutely awesome fingerstyle guitar and cittern player, does great Irish accented singing, and has the courage in a sometimes snobbish traditional music world to push the envelope with duets with tabla percussion and other atypical instruments. However, you have to believe your ears when they hear good accoustic, chamber style music. He is off the beaten track for the traditional Irish, Scottish music fans, but this is a real gem and read discovery of an album. If you a guitar, cittern, bouzouki, octave mandolin player, you will appreciate the opening Anne's Favorite/Kitty's Wedding and "The Boy in the Gap" where he seems to grow extra fingers and goes into overdrive on cittern and guitar respectively. Then there is the deceptively simple little tune, but unforgetable "Swedish March" on Cittern. "The Dublin Reel/ Wind that Shakes the Barley" returns to exquisite fingerstyle guitar. "The Blackbird" sounds like classical guitar and may go well with candleligt and wine. "We Work The Black Seam" commemorates the hard work in the coal mines. "Sgt. Early's Dream" returns to a near classical fingerstyle guitar showcase performance. The album finishes with the gentle but spirited Rodney's Glory/ Rakish Paddy on fingerstyle guitar. It's albums like these that make me love being off the main music industry highway to credit real creativity.