Journey to the New World

Here Sharon Isbin follows her lifelong passion for folk music on an engaging artistic sojourn that spans four centuries and an ocean. The journey begins with a stately quartet of Isbin-arranged Renaissance lute works and spirited performances of the familiar English traditionals "The Drunken Sailor" and "Wild Mountain Thyme." But it’s Isbin’s admiration of American folk legend Joan Baez (whom the guitarist touts as her first musical hero) and country fiddle virtuoso Mark O’Connor that inspire the album’s accomplished focal points. John Duarte’s "Joan Baez Suite" was arranged specifically for Isbin, and the guitarist’s world-premiere recording here emphasizes the subtle, sophisticated contours of the folksinger’s muse, before Baez herself takes a welcome guest turn on the melancholy "Go ‘Way from My Window." The album’s historical/artistic arc concludes with a spirited delight: O’Connor’s expansive "Strings & Threads Suite" (in another premiere recording), where Isbin alternately backs O’Connor’s own sprightly fiddle playing and bridges the country-classical gap with her fleet fretwork.