While American guitar magazines sadly remain clueless about the (now 5 decades old) harp guitar movement, Europe is on the ball!
A glowing “Clouds” review from our German Akustik Gitarre friends just published (12/4/24), and Harpguitars.net contributor Thomas Nielsen kindly did the translation for us.
(Note that M. Lohr missed the memo some years ago that SB retired my politically incorrect “Pope” status to Knight me instead: HGG10: Surprise No.3 | Gregg’s Blogg ) – Sir Gregory
From Akustik Gitarre, Issue 1-25:
You might have guessed: Gregg Miner, again, is behind this. And, when the Pope of the harp guitar invites us for a third instalment, 20 years after the impact of the first sampler “Beyond Six Strings” and 13 [years] after “Further Beyond Six Strings” – this time (loosely) themed (Clouds) – the best have congregated. Miner himself with “View to a Cloud”, Stephen Bennett (“On the Nature of Clouds”), Don Alder (“If I Were a Cloud”), John Doan (“Wild Geese Above the Clouds”) are household names. But, lesser-known colleagues weave flying carpets on their strings – and if one can even be said to stand out, then it must be Jon Pickard with the gorgeous “Scathach, Cloud Warrior of Skye” on his brand new fretless (!) harp guitar. An almost unbelievable range, technically and stylistically, yet creating an atmosphere of unity thanks to not only consistently stellar compositions but also to the instrument itself: Everyone who has ever played a harp guitar, knows that it compares to guitars like a grand piano to an upright. With no less than 23 tracks, this double CD literally soaks you with sound. For such superlatives of sonority, of remarkable playing technique and of ideas spanning the lyrical, wild, effervescent like rain, innovative or simply beautiful, there is really only one word: intoxicating. And, there is even a 30-page booklet – endlessly inspirational as everything else in this project – available for download.
– Michael Lohr
