Description
To describe StringyBach as a mandolin and guitar quartet could indicate that the group’s repertoire is predominantly classical. It can be be, if this is your choice. However, StringyBach is equally at home with music from the renaissance through to the Baroque, Romantic, jazz, Latin, ragtime and the modern era, including the Beatles.
The instrumental line-up includes acoustic guitars (steel string and classical), mandolins, bouzouki and acoustic bass. And because we care enough about the listening comfort of our clients, we don’t dominate the scene through over-amplification. While we play you can still maintain a conversation.
Put us in the background, or up front as part of your celebrations, depending on the occasion. And yes, we do play music for dancing, with a repertoire of swing music, strict tempo and folk melodies to fit the setting.
StringyBach – Bach in the Bight
CD review by Tony Smith TN178 Jun
TN337-34 – $20
This album from the 1990s features a number of tracks which could well be described as classical music likely to make you swoon: ‘Elizabethan Serenade’ (Binge), ‘Allemande’ (Phalese), ‘Minuet’ (Boccherini), ‘Giocando’ (Telemann), ‘Matona mia cara’ (diLasso), ‘Sarabande & Gigue’ (Southwood), ‘My Lady Carey’s Dompe’ (Anonymous), ‘Valse No.13’ (Chopin), ‘Forlane’ (J.S. Bach) and ‘Love In Her Eyes’ (Handel).
While some of these themes have been adapted for more recent commercial settings, other tracks on this album were written specifically for film and television including ‘Brideshead Revisited’ (Burgon), ‘Batman’ (Hefti) and ‘Eye Level’ (Trombey) used as the theme for the Van der Valk theme on BBC television.
This track has some excellent guitar work.
The Harry Lime theme from the film ‘The Third Man’ (Karas) was originally played on zither.
There are some rather quirky choices including ‘The Easy Winners’ by ragtime pioneer Scott Joplin and ‘Harvest Moon’ (Bayes & Norworth).
The song’s full title is ‘Shine On Harvest Moon’, a popular tune for the ‘Canadian 3 Step’, an echo of those ‘50-50’ dances of the post war period.
There is some controversy about who should be credited with the composition.
There is also a miscellany of ‘Classical Gas’ (Williams), ‘When I’m 64’ (Lennon & McCartney), the Latin-American inspired ‘Begin the Beguine’ (Porter) and ‘Dream a Little Dream’ (Schwandt & Andree).
The Mamas and the Papas version of the latter is probably the least schmaltzy cover of this song.
Except for the album ‘Weeping Willow’, StringyBach’s CDs are named punningly after the baroque master: ‘BachPedalling’, ‘Bacchanalia’ and ‘BachOdes’.
StringyBach are: Jeremy Hobbs, who plays mandolin and bouzouki; Jim Elliott and Ann Palumbo, who both play guitar, mandolin and bouzouki; and, Robert Kay, who plays acoustic bass guitar.
They are joined by Alan Harvey on mandolin and Don Blue on guitar, mandolin and bouzouki and a ‘drummer-in-a-can’.
The Telemann shows the mandolin at its best, closely followed by the Brideshead theme.
For overall sound, the Dompe is perhaps the most enjoyable track for me with the cleanest arrangement and then the Joplin.
The tracks on this album cater for a range of musical tastes.
Bach’s period is well represented by contemporaries Handel, Telemann, Boccherini and others.
It is good that the group chose to include less well known Bach and Handel pieces.
Then there are the themes from a few television programs and a movie, something for the blues fans, a couple out of the ukulele songbook and an original by Jim Elliott.
‘The Barque in the Bight’ is a pleasant tune and stands up perfectly well in this venerable company.
I suppose it invites the question whether its bark is worse than its bite.
A Stringybark is a native Australian tree.
It is a Eucalypt with fibrous bark and a variety of uses.
When you are an ensemble of strings, it seems a perfectly natural step to adapt the name to suit your repertoire.
Bach would be delighted to think his legacy has reached regions unknown to Europeans during his lifetime.
Ed. StringyBach have three albums for sale on the Trad&Now website, all of which have been uploaded to Trad&Now Live! and may be heard there from time to time.
