Amazing week at Bass Hall, McDavid Studio
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Michael Granberry E-mail News tips

For lovers of acoustic music, this promises to be quite a week in Fort Worth. It all gets started Wednesday night, when a trio of virtuoso guitarists (Tommy Emmanuel, Monte Montgomery and Rhett Butler) team up for a show at Bass Performance Hall at 7:30. It carries with it a special $10 ticket offer for students and faculty. But like a fine wine, the week only gets better with age. The Sarah Palin-Joe Biden debate notwithstanding, John Gorka comes to McDavid Studio (across the street from Bass Hall) for one of his one-of-a-kind shows at 7 p.m. Thursday. And then, one of my personal favorites, the great Gretchen Peters, finishes off the week with a show in McDavid Studio at 8 p.m. Friday. Gretchen will be backed up, as usual, by one of the world's greatest piano players, Barry Walsh. For more information, call 817-212-4280 or visit www.basshall.com.

http://musicblog.guidelive.com/archives/2008/10/amazing-week-at-bass-hall-mcda.html

My good friends, The Amber Rose Guitar Duo (Martin Nockalls and Steve Merrett), from Doncaster, UK, have released their tastful version of my song "Exeter Cathedral" on their new CD, Acoustic Axis. It is an eclectic mix of instrumentals, old and new, but great listening throughout. It's available in hard copy from:

www.amberroseguitarmusic.co.uk

and also downloadable from iTunes and other online stores.

Hear Exeter Cathedral on their myspace site at:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=152894195

Here's a youtube clip of Gretchen Peters, Janis Ian and myself doing Wild Horses in Winters, CA on 9/12/08 at The Palms Playhouse- a great venue....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT3n0LbBmiU

From Maverick Magazine (UK), May '08:

Barry Walsh The Crossing( Scarlet Letter Records 207141-2) *** Barry Walsh is probably familiar to a good many Maverick readers, as for the past eighteen years he has played keyboards for Gretchen Peters and accompanied her on most of her UK tours. Now he steps into the spotlight with his solo album of deftly played piano pieces. He plays a Grand piano, and apart from Erik Satie's Je Te Veux, all the tunes have been penned by Barry and several were inspired by his tours in the UK like the delicate and reflective Leaving Newcastle and the more grandiose Exeter Cathedral. Though recorded in Nasville, this has no connection to country music, but just might be of interest to Gretchen Peters' fans.
Reviewed by Alan Cackett

Barry Walsh has been making music professionally for more than thirty years. Most of that has been spent in Nashville recording studios. In recent years he has been touring in support of singer and songwriter Gretchen Peters, and with Alex Chilton and the Box Tops. His past history includes backing up Roy Orbison and Jimmy Webb, and writing songs that Waylon Jennings and The Amazing Rhythm Aces, among others, have recorded.

Thanks in part to encouragement from Peters, Walsh has now gotten around to recording his first solo album, and it has something none of those credits noted above would likely prepare you for. Original, mostly just Walsh and his piano, it is music that draws on both Bach and folk, and remains true to the voice of this artist. Without the first word being said, Walsh speaks clearly and movingly of connection, discovery, love's questions and love's certainties, and the varied landscapes of thought and emotion. David Henry adds masterful cello on several tracks, including the opening title cut, and Mark Selby brings in guitar on Nigel's Blues. The only cover is a twice imagined take on Erik Satie's Je Te Vieux, a piece which Walsh presents as at once somber and seeing the possibility of joy. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the collection.