Staff Reviews

Sir Richard Bishop - Tangier Sessions

Review by Russell Warfield

A gorgeous record which gains a great deal from its sharpened focus.»

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Tangier Sessions tells the oft-told tale: while traveling abroad, nobleman meets guitar. Guitar is too expensive for nobleman and, outraged, he departs. Nobleman quietly returns several days later for guitar but still can't bring himself to pay the price. Yet nobleman can't get guitar out of mind - so nobleman buys guitar, travels the world with it, and makes an album while in Tangier! On the lookout for something playable, yet portable, last year while living in Geneva, Sir Richard stumbled into an obscure luthier's shop in a shadowy lane off the high road. At first unable to find what he was looking for, the old shopkeep reached behind an ancient and dusty cabin and produced a model identified only by a tiny sticker inside - 'C. Bruno, New York,' it read. With no other recognizable attributions, it was clearly an old piece - likely made in the mad, final days of the 19th century. The experience of playing it was exquisite, but the price forced Sir Rick to put it down and walk out, empty-handed. A couple days later, he was back, to play it again... and back again a couple days after that, his wallet stuffed fat with Swiss Francs. It was as if he'd been enchanted! Or cursed....Later in the summer, in the company of said guitar, Bishop holed up for a week in a rooftop apartment in Tangier, Morocco. He spent his time feverishly playing; at night, the pieces on this record were improvised and recorded. Alluring from its opening moments, Tangier Sessions unfolds and elongates, chills out and cuts loose in familiar, yet newly unique ways for Sir Richard Bishop. It's a singular listening experience, even in the crowded realm of solo acoustic guitar albums. Nobody plays the guitar like Sir Richard Bishop - and on Tangier Sessions, he's found a guitar that nobody but him plays either.
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