Ken Hatfield and Friends
To Be Continued…
mPub music.
By George W. Harris

Last year, guitarist Ken Hatfield released an excellent instruction book/cd of Etudes. This time around, he shows that he’s not just an ivory towered teacher, and gets down to street level on this well-rounded collections of tunes written by composer Bill McCormick, who took up composing after having his performing career cut short by a shoulder injury.. Staying with acoustic guitar throughout this disc, Hatfield makes the music sound fresh and lithe. Together with Jim Clouse/ts/ss, Hans Glawischnig/b, Steve Kroon/perc, and Dan Weiss/dr, he creates an open and brisk musical atmosphere. Tunes vary from the straight-ahead (“The Spirit Of The Soul”) to the bohemian title track, with a bit of abstract interplay thrown in for good measure. Most successful are the la tin-tinged pieces; “Memories Of A Dream” and the samba-ed “The Persistence of Saudade” have an attractive breeziness to them, with Clouse’s soprano sax dancing around Hatfield’s strings most eloquently. The closing “El Camino Wes” chugs along like Cruise Night on the Boulevard, as the rhythm section holds on and never lets go, while Hatfield does some amazing fret work. Nice disc, and cudos for an all-acoustic sound.