Many  people have said to me over the last year that the TFGA has changed their life. Some say that they hadn't played the guitar  for 10 or 15 years until being inspired by the TFGA to rediscover  their forgotten love of the instrument. Some have found a  new kindred spirit and mentor in one of the players we have  brought here or in one of the other members they have met.  Any one of these stories is enough to justify the existence  of the TFGA.

 David Barrett is one such story. David has toured with well  known Rock acts for the better part of 20 years. The first  time I heard him play, at least knowingly, was at a TFGA Open  Stage a little less than a year ago. My first impression was  that he was obviously a very accomplished musician in some  musical genre but that, Fingerstyle Guitar didn't seem to  be one of them.

However,  never  have I witnessed someone so single-mindedly immerse themselves  in something in order to stimulate their own musical growth  and redefine their musical path.

 The result, so far, of this immersion is Barrett's first  all acoustic guitar solo CD, David Barrett: Music For  Acoustic Guitar. 

 What first strikes you while listening to this CD is that,  although it is obvious that he has an incredibly strong  command of technique at his disposal, Barrett is more interested  in the spirit of the music than he is in "proving that  he can play". This immediately sets this recording  apart from hundreds of others - you can hear Barrett's musical  purpose and you feel invited to come in and share the experience. 

 Of course, Barrett is well established as a composer of  ambient, highly processed soundscapes. However, apart from  some tasteful reverb, he lays his soul on line with just  the sound of the guitar on this CD. This was a wise choice  as his touch on both steel string and nylon string guitar  is enough to carry the day.

 Compositionally, the material is first rate. (Apart from  "Prelude In C-Minor" by Agustin Barrios, and Ava  Maria, there are 12 original compositions.) Barrett has  a wonderful sense of "letting the melody do what it  wants to do". Just listen to the opening phrase of  "Song For Claude". Another one of my favourite  Barrett melodies is "Leaving Nashville", although  I might like to hear it taken at a slightly more relaxed  tempo.

 There is lots of compositional variety here. "The Roots  Of War", and "Hummingbird" are both groove centred tunes which display Barrett's great ability to sound  aggressive and laid back at the same time. "Devonshire"  has a definite Celtic influence, and is the only track to  employ any over dubs.

 One of the most adventurous compositions on the CD is "The  Way Of No Way". This tune is dedicated to the great  John Knowles. When John was here in the Fall, he was telling  us about this idea of mastering all systems so you are not  limited by any one of them. Bruce Lee did this with regards  to the Martial Arts and referred to it as the way of no  way.

 Lastly, I'll say this: once you have bought this CD and  loaded it onto your ipod, I am willing to bet that it will  stay in your current playlist for quite some time.
 
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