This hour long recording features one improvised song, done in one take, moving through different tempos, moods, passages and styles - constantly unfolding, shifting.

3 MP3 Songs in this album (64:32) !
Related styles: FOLK: Free-folk, NEW AGE: Solo Instrumental

People who are interested in Leo Kottke Jimmy Page John Fahey should consider this download.


Details:
Darrin Kobetichâs The End of One Enchanted Evening

By Ken Shimamoto


Guitarist Darrin Kobetich grew up on Long Island, New York â same place I come from, as a matter of fact â and moved to Texas with his family around the same time I did (although heâs ten years younger). Listening to him tawwwk, youâd never think that he went to Weatherford High School; that accent could only come from Lawn Guyland. A virtuoso shredder, his roots are in the era of heavy metal in between the â60s Les Paul-and-Marshall brigade that pillaged and plundered the blooze and the â80s douchebags with big hair, spandex, and sticky tape on their guitars; heâs particularly fond of German axe-stranglers Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth, both of whom got their start in the Scorpionsâ â70s lineups. In 1989, Darrin joined Hammer Witch, a heavy Nawlins-born trio that ruled the roost at Joeâs Garage and released the cassette-only Legacy of Pain before disintegrating in 1994. Next, he formed Amillion Pounds â thrash metal with a difference, incorporating a plethora of folk and improvisational influences -- with his brother Adam on vox and banjo. Their self-titled 1999 CD shows that even then, Darrin was all over the stylistic map, covering bases from psychedelia to funk to bluegrass to Middle Eastern music.


Amillion Pounds lasted from 1995 to 2004. Since then, Darrinâs divided his time between solo acoustic performances and bluegrass gigs with the Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang and the Blackland River Devils. Equally adept on 6- and 12-string axes, dobro and mandolin, Darrinâs acoustic work shows the influences of John Faheyâs âAmerican primitiveâ guitar, the masterâs acolyte Leo Kottke, slap-harmonics master Michael Hedges, and the folkie side of Jimmy Page, among numerous others. Itâs a sound as evocative of the wide-open spaces Darrin loves as it is of inner space; Kobetich originals like âCottonmouthâ and âPlaying in the Hedgesâ seem to flow from some deep reservoir of sorrow and spirituality. Heâs contributed to Marcus Lawyerâs Top Secretâ¦Shhh album, dueted with ex-El Salvador Birthday Bash percussionist Mike Padilla and Fort Worth Symphony violinist Steve Huber, and survived agreeable four-guitar pile-ups with musically diverse compadres Bill Pohl, Kavin Allenson, and Jimmy Joe Natoli. Recently, Darrin and Hammer Witch bassist-vocalist Wayne Abney regrouped under the rubric Sumassouls, proving that the guitaristâs metal chops are still intact.


With The End of One Enchanted Evening, the eclectic axe-slinger may have painted his masterpiece. The single, hour-long track was recorded at home on Darrinâs Martin D-28 12-string in the wee hours of March 2, 2008, at the end of a day of bike riding, music-making and listening, and star-gazing. Thereâs a book by jazzbo/Berklee instructor Mick Goodrick called The Advancing Guitarist that I used to borrow from Ron Geida when I got into playing slumps. A lot of it is theory thatâs way over my head, but the parts I found useful were about the philosophy of guitar playing and the idea that if youâre involved in any form of creative endeavor, every activity you undertake can feed into it. Some Goodrick advice for overcoming the blahs in re: playing or music: âFeed a loaf (or two) of bread to some pigeons, ducks, sea gulls, or other types of birdsâ¦.Go for a long walk. Cry.â And so on. Point being, there are all kinds of ways of tapping into the sources of creativity.


It sounds as though Darrin was tapped deep into those sources when he returned to his house at the end of that night and switched on the recorder. What came out was an organically flowing extended improvisation that meanders in the best possible way, leaving no tangent unexplored and no idea undeveloped. Youâll hear hints of raga and Near Eastern musics as well as bluegrass, Darrinâs restless, rolling Leo Kottke-like right hand, and a seemingly bottomless wellspring of rhythmic and melodic invention and variation. Follow this musicâs circuitous path and you can find yourself getting lost in its myriad twists and turns, only to emerge amazed at the passage of time at the end of the journey.