"Probably the best and most original young guitar player in Britain today”  Acoustic Guitar

“Truly a guitarist for all seasons, Carroll is up there with his peers such as John Renbourn and Tommy Emmanuel. Inspirations run from newgrass and fusion jazz to Irish stylings, all cleanly arranged and immaculately interpreted.”   Roots Magazine
 
“...a milestone on the journey of the steel-string guitar”  John Renbourn

Clive Carroll is probably the best and most original young acoustic guitar player and composer in Britain. Clive has been immersed in music since birth. His mother, Jean, born in Clonlara in County Clare, Ireland, plays button accordion; his sister, Becky, plays the guitar and sings; and his father, Mike, also of Irish descent, makes and repairs musical instruments and plays banjo and bodhran.

The level of musicality that Clive displays is truly astonishing, one not automatically present in even the most skilled of professional guitarists. Stylistically, Clive’s compositions rove eclectically and brilliantly through and across genre boundaries. Clive’s composition Aerial Discoveries is an homage to Michael Hedges. “With his use of two-handed tapping, Michael broke down musical barriers.” Carroll says, “allowing a refreshing new range of homophonic and polyphonic textures to evolve.” Carroll’s Farewell is a lyrical creation directly inspired by Clive’s Irish upbringing. This composition display Clive’s superb sense of rhythm, external and internal, and his unerring feel for pace, knowing just when and how to let the music breathe Most of Carroll’s compositions are in standard tuning. Snake Bite Boogie, which he wrote for one of his students is particularly tricky. “Roger’s got this extraordinary ability to learn everything I give him from memory by the next lesson,” Clive says. “So one week, feeling a bit evil, I gave him this and said, ‘Right then Roger, see you next week!’”

Young Clive is quiet spoken, gets on well with his parents, dresses sensibly, drives within the speed limit, and has no desire to be a star, but you’re likely to be hearing a great deal more of him in the future.

Tunes include: The Kildimo Set, Promise Of Spring, Snake Bite Boogie, Carroll’s Farewell (For Chris Berry), Aerial Discoveries, Asturias, J. Dowland Medley: Preludium / The Frog Galliard, Canco Del Lladre (Catalan Folk Song), Black Nile, Angels Of Light, One, Loch Nagcaor, Castle Combe, Traditional Set, Jiffi Jam and Clonlara

Running Time: 72mins

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