 |
 |
 |
|
Mike Gurzi's "Movin' On" presents a very nice mix of bluegrass, old-time, folk, jazz and swing music (all played on acoustic instruments). Mike's guitar work is tasteful, interesting, clean, and captivating. He does a great job demonstrating his talent in a variety of musical genres and I think that he brings a new voice to the world of flatpicking. It is obvious that he has worked very hard on his guitar arrangements and the other musicians on the project have done a phenomenal job supporting Mike's guitar playing and singing. These folks are real pros.
Joining Mike on this recording are Tim May (mandolin, banjo, acoustic lap steel, rhythm guitar, and harmony vocals), Andy Todd (bass), Fred Carpenter (fiddle), Stephan Dudash (violin on the jazz and swing tunes), Gretchen Priest May (fiddle), Chris Joslin (resophonic guitar and clawhammer banjo), and Pat Cloud (banjo on "Out of Nowhere". The CD was engineered by Tim Roberts at Tanglewood Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and produced by Tim May and Mike Gurzi.
The CD kicks off with "Age" a Jim Croce tune that was famously brought over into the bluegrass world by Tony Rice. The second tune is an instrumental, "Williamson County", which was written by Tim May and Dave Holladay. You can hear this tune on the CD that accompanies this issue and you can see a transcription of Mike's solo on the pages that follow this article. The third tune is a Benny Goodman song, "Smooth One." Mike said that he was highly influenced by Goodman's recording of this tune with Charlie Christian playing the guitar. He said, "Stephen Dudash played the violin on this one and I asked him if he could copy the background piano stuff that is on the Goodman recording. He did a great job with that."
From Benny Goodman, Mike leaps forward to the modern day with a cover of the Green Day song -
"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" Mike sings this one and is joined by Fred Carpenter on fiddle, Andy Todd on bass, and Tim May playing banjo, acoustic lap steel, and adding harmony vocals. For the next two tunes, Mike jumps back to the swing era with "Emily" and "Out of Nowhere" Stephan Dudash plays the violin on "Emily" and banjo master Pat Cloud does an awesome job on "Out of Nowhere."
The next four tunes on the recording take us into the old-time, Irish, and bluegrass realms. The first on of this set is the title cut "Movin' On" This one has an old-time feel, which is partly provided by Gretchen Priest May's fiddle and Chris Joslin's clawhammer banjo. On the next tune Mike and Tim May swap solos on the fiddle tune standard "St. Anne's Reel". However, they don't play this one at jam session breakneck speed. They slow it down and allow the pretty melody of this Canadian fiddle tune to shine through. The next tune is the great Bill Monroe and Peter Rowan bluegrass standard "Walls of Time." The group - which includes Fred Carpenter on fiddle, Chris Joslin on banjo, Tim May on mandolin and harmony vocal demonstrates that they can play traditional bluegrass with the best of them. The fourth tune of this set is the Irish fiddle tune "Temperance Reel."On this one Mike demonstrates that he can rip a fiddle tune. Gretchen Priest May plays the fiddle and Tim May joins them on mandolin. On the final tune of the recording, Mike plays a solo guitar arrangement of "Moonlight in Vermont." He said that he had learned this tune years ago from an article by Johnny Smith in Guitar Player Magazine. Mike said, "I think this song was originally written in Eb. The Johnny Smith article had it arranged in C, but I decided to play it as a solo piece in D." This tune makes a nice ending to a very fine CD.
Song List
1. Age (Where I Started Again)
2. Williamson County
3. Smooth One
4. Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance)
5. Emily
6. Out of Nowhere
7. Movin' On
8. St. Anne's Reel
9. Walls of Time
10. Temperance Reel
11. Moonlight in Vermont
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
