Clive Carroll has created a sound world all his own, with influences mined from the delicate cadences of Elizabethan England, to the striking harmonic sensibilities of composers Bartok and Ligeti—with nods to jaunty music hall melodies and Delta blues riffs. This broad array of musical influences places Clive firmly in the footsteps of British guitar legends such as Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, and John Renbourn. Indeed, it was Renbourn who encouraged Clive to record his first album, deemed it “a milestone in the journey of the steel-string guitar”, and took Clive on the road with him. Acoustic Guitar Magazine called Clive “…the best and most original young acoustic guitarist/composer in Britain”
Guitarist and composer Clive Carroll had a long working relationship with acoustic guitar giant John Renbourn, touring with him and collaborating on the soundtrack for the movie, Driving Lessons. Carroll's career has included extensive touring, several solo albums, film work, and teaching. He's taught workshops based on Renbourn's music and undertook this album during the coronavirus pandemic, wanting to create fresh interpretations of Renbourn's music and bring his body of work to a new audience. This wonderful album is the result.
The Abbott begins with "Orlando," originally a hushed Jansch/Renbourn duet incorporating harmonics and a charming call and response section, included on the Bert & John album. Carroll plays it with an ensemble consisting of glockenspiel, harp, guitars, mandolin, and celeste. Carroll plays two other pieces from that album, "No Exit" and "Red's Favourite."
British guitar icon Davey Graham's influence is evident on on "Buffalo," a jazzy blues which Carroll makes his own with staccato attack and aggressive string bends. Renbourn recorded "The Pelican" as a guitar duet, double-tracking to play both parts. Here, Carroll rearranges it for bass clarinet, cor anglais (English horn), glockenspiel, guitar, and accordion. It's a lovely and wistful rendering. A solo guitar begins the stately, Moorish-flavored "Estampie," which develops with percussion, a second guitar playing a single-string line, and flutes.
Carroll sings and plays a lyrical instrumental break on Jackson C. Frank's well-known "Blues Run the Game," which Renbourn often performed live. "Faro's Rag" highlights rapid, classical-sounding lines and motifs within the ragtime form, a genre that became popular among guitarists in the wake of Dave Laibman's early recordings and the soundtrack for the film, The Sting.
Two previously unrecorded compositions, "Intrada/Danse Royale," which Carroll discovered among Renbourn's music manuscripts, show Renbourn's interest in emulating early music, in this instance with recorders, cornet, shawm, dulcimer, bass, and guitar. Carroll also plays "The English Dance," with an early music ensemble, whereas Renbourn crafted it as a driving guitar showcase. Carroll performs "Pavan d'Aragon" sensitively, perhaps even reverently (he regards this as Renbourn's finest solo guitar composition).
Another solo on the album, "The Lady and the Unicorn," comes from earlier in Renbourn's career than "Pavan," and is likewise superb. "O Death," which Carroll sings with his sister, Airavata Carroll, reflects Renbourn's interest in vocal arranging.
The album closes with "Sidi Brahim," a supercharged Indian/jazz hybrid number. While the John Renbourn Group performed the piece as a showcase for its instrumentalists, Carroll uses it to frame an audio collage, inserting new performances by several of Renbourn's collaborators and a snippet of Renbourn's own voice. Wizz Jones, Mike Walker, Rémy Froissart, Jacqui McShee, and Stefan Grossman all appear in the collage, which helps round out the album's coverage of Renbourn's musical world. The Abbott lovingly reaffirms the of breadth and quality of John Renbourn's music. Kudos to Clive Carroll for conceiving and carrying out this listenable and important project.
"The Abbott" Double CD is available at clivecarroll.co.uk
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