A Game of Chess
Dirty Linen: Folk & World Music, #114 October/November 2004
Lehto & Wright [New Folk Records 3760 (2003)] Guitarist Steve Lehto and guitarist/bassist/vocalist John Wright aren't yet household names, but they're among North America's best practitioners of Anglo-Celtic folk-rock. The third CD from this Minnesota duo (augmented by drummer Matt Jacobs) again features wonderfully intricate, powerful guitar-driven music based on traditional songs from the British Isles, utilizing both acoustic and electric instruments to create some sonic marvels. The duo is equally at home interweaving scintillating acoustic guitar riffs with bass and drums on the English boy meets girl narrative " The Long Peg and Awl" or blasting out a stunning electrified version of the Irish ballad "The Curragh of Kildare" theat's full of sharp, skirling, Richard Thompsonesque fretboard jumps and melodic spins. Wright's wiry voice has the perfect sort of raw edge fro these gritty arrangements. If you're a fan of electric folk or just great guitar playing, Lehto & Wright are worth your attention. (TN)
Dirty Linen: Folk & World Music, #104 February/March 2003
Finally for this month, one more to rock out with. The Minneapolis duo Lehto & Wright has recorded another mighty collection of well chosen British and American songs and dance tunes called The Further Adventures of Darling Corey. Steve Lehto is a master of assorted electric and acoustic guitars, with a raucous, skirling style on the former and a contrastingly delicate, harmonious touch on the latter. John Wright plays ominous-sound bass, often as a second lead instrument, as well as acoustic guitars and percussion. Wright is also the duo's potent, girtty-voiced lead singer. They growl and bang their way through the Irish song "Arthur McBride and the Sergeant" in a manner remiiscent of fellow Minnesotans Boiled in Lead, give Pete Seeger's "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" an angry reading influenced by Dick Gaughan, and blast through "The Monaghan Jig" with a bass lead that gives way to guitar pyrotechnics. There are some quiet tracks too, like Lehto's eloquent, mournful acoustic arrangement of "The Lament of Limerick." Highly recommended for anyone who's not afriad of the effects of amplification.
Froots
All too often Americans who claim British electric folk as influence end up making a half-cocked noisethat they'll boast is Celtic rock. Most of the decent crews - Boiled in Lead, we Saw the Wolf, Cordelia's Dad - are either defunct or semi-comatose. They may not be quite in such exalted company just yet, but you can add Lehto & Wright to that roll call before long. A huge thumbs up for A Game of Chess, that takes all kinds of familiar bits and bobs, stripping them right down to a skeletal guitar, bass and drums, then going for broke. Why should you love this? For one thing there are no cod accents; for another, there's a general absence of things like fiddles and squeezeboxes, just good old rock hardware. And there's only a couple of predictable choices in the track selection - though what they do with "The Curragh of Kildare" will have you grinning from ear to ear, especially if you like loud, voluminous guitar solos. You can imagine them mulling over a stack of old import folk albums, wondering how to deflower the next chestnut. well worth hunting down. www.lehtoandwright.com will have details of this and their earlier offerings as yet unheard - by these ears at least.