Ewan Dobson
Ewan Dobson is having quite a career with the guitar. As a classical guitarist he won local, provincial, and finally national competition. Turning to fingerstyle, he won the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Championship as well as the Montreal Guitar Grand Prix. He then went on to place 3rd at the 38th International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship held in Winfield, Kansas.
I have heard some amazing stories of Ewan Dobson in concert, but not having seen him play live (yet) I will have to limit my comments to his eponymous CD. And what a CD! It is jam-packed with music: 19 tracks of unrelenting virtuosity. And all written (or in two cases arranged) by Ewan Dobson!
From the very start of I Know Your Pain Ewan Dobson demonstrates some of the fastest fingers every to work over guitar strings. The funky beginning builds and builds to his trademark machine-gun staccato of notes, all clean, clear and crisp. Fantastic technique. One interesting feature: he favours a repeated bass in circumstances that many players would use a "boom-chick" alternating bass, which helps to give his style a unique sound.
Level 5 continues on the frenetic pace, now with alternating octaves in the bass and a flurry of arpeggios accompanying a chordal melody. Yes, chords over arpeggios. Did I mention fantastic technique? Just take a listen to the blazing repeated notes between the bass and melody in the middle section. Wow.
Orange is a more happy-go-lucky tune, but with that same amazing technique. In fact, I am running out of ways to talk about fast precise technique that seems to require three hands, so from here on you can assume that each song features some amazing playing. For Dancing With Her there are lighting cascades of arpeggios supporting the melody. 6AM is a skipping sort of Celtic melody that features some nice syncopation.
Happy Hardcore starts out simply enough but soon takes off into Dobson-land, full of blistering repeated notes in the bass that never seem to disturb the finely balanced melodic line. As with most of the other tracks here, this deserves to be called a composition rather than just a song, as the care for form that Mr. Dobson has put into it is clearly audible, and this allows it to retain its interest after several hearings.
Motion Potion begins with some very humorous slide work before settling down into the melody proper. Reminiscences of the start keep popping up, interrupting the driving motion, only to restart with just as much energy as before. Great fun! The fun continues with Jig of the Broken Heart, a light-hearted romp through classic jig territory.
I hope that by now it is obvious that Ewan Dobson is not your average fingerpicker. I can honestly say he is the first guitarist whose avowed influences range from legendary violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini, classical composers Domenico Scarlatti and Mauro Guiliani (a friend of Beethoven), through guitar legends Agustin Barrios Mangore, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai, to Raffi, Super Mario, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Then again, this is guitar playing like never before. So when a track is entitled Paganini's Hip, you know that something very interesting is in store. No, this is not an attempt to channel Paganini, but a sort of homage it seems to me, translating to guitar Paganini's own drive to increase the colouristic possibilities of his own instrument. Here we are treated to such delights as muted harmonics and crossed strings, along with (of course) virtuoso playing.
We are back to more flying fingers with Eurodance, another strongly rhythmic outing with some wonderful muted effects in the middle, along with other surprises. Level 30 returns the thumping bass that began the CD,this time with octaves flying over top. The melody gradually emerges from short motives that give this one an air of suspense, which is underlined by some "mysterious" chord movement between verses.
Blood and Ice is the most extended composition on the CD, starting with a pseudo-flamenco flourish that runs the length of the guitar neck, before giving way to a slinky melody over a mysterious accompaniment. Then things really take off with lightning runs that turn into tremolos. These give way to some really fascinating music, with bent harmonics, exotic scales, and more imaginative accompaniments. The sections are constantly varied, and at any time the flamenco beginning may break out. This one is a highlight on a CD full of highlights.
Time is another light-hearted outing, albeit with the same incredible playing, as well as some nice contrast in the middle section. How many ways can he play that signature style? And from light-hearted on to tongue-in-cheek with Korobeiniki (Tetris). If the melody sounds Russian it is because it is a Russian "folk song" written about 150 years ago. And Tetris? In case your gaming is a bit rusty, Korobeiniki was used in the Game Boy version of Tetris, and has been covered by several different bands.
Angela's Happy is a happy tune that swings along in an almost country groove, with a simple harmonization keeping the sweet melody out front. Things then change up again with Through the Roof, which starts off in the now-familiar syncopated style, adding in some nice percussive tapping and harmonics before returning to a straightforward melody. The background tapping sounds uncannily like a drummer -keeping perfect time of course. In a mood similar to Angela's Happy, Bounce seems to - OK I have to say it - bounce right along, with a charming melody skipping over a fairly simple (for Ewan Dobson) accompaniment. This seems to lead naturally into Jig of the Turnips, another lively jig to get your toes tapping.
The final track is not written by Ewan Dobson; it is Paganini's Caprice No. 5 in a brilliant arrangement by Mr. Dobson. This number certainly takes the CD off on a high note. Leaving behind his signature sounds, Ewan Dobson plays this virtuoso violin piece as if it were written for the guitar all along - in the hands of a virtuoso guitarist. As with any violin transcription, the arpeggios may be a little easier on the guitar, having five fingers to run over the strings, but the blindingly fast runs are much more difficult without a bow! By now, though, you have probably guessed that he plays this one to perfection, leaving us in awe of yet more amazing technique.
This CD has so much incredible guitar playing on it that you really have to hear it to understand how different Ewan Dobson's playing is from anyone else's. Fortunately there are several videos of him playing on YouTube that are well worth searching out. This CD seems to have virtually everything you could ask for in a guitar set, except maybe for a ballad or two. But for those we will have to wait for a future CD, and there is no doubt that Ewan Dobson will be putting out many more!
You can buy this CD from Amazon.com:
Ewan Dobson
or from CandyRat Records: http://www.candyrat.com/artists/EwanDobson/EwanDobson/