CD Review

Since age eleven, Tony Furtado has been a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist, combining a traditional style with Latin, Cajun, jazz, swing and Celtic, to create an ironically distinct musical voice. A tireless performer, his latest release, Live Gypsy, features songs taken from live performances from a West Coast swing in the spring of 2002, and effectively captures both his various approaches and fiery delivery. With Tom Brechtlein on drums, Myron Dove on bass, Paul McCandless on horns, and John Burr on keys, Furtado showcases a band as equally versed, and able to subtly highlight his picks and slides. From the strong jams in “St. John’s Fire” and “The Angry Monk,” to the sultry sounds of “Bottle of Hope” and “Shelly’s Blues,” the album not only offers some of the best songs in the repertoire, but captures the live energy in the sterility of the digital format, something not always easy to accomplish. The closing track, “Waiting for Guiteau” is a banjo explosion that truly rounds out the record.