The Lovers' Waltz
There are faster and flashier fiddlers than Jay Ungar, but he is almost without peer as a composer of fiddle tunes. Blessed with that rare knack for making his melodies move in ways that stir the listener's longings, he is best known for penning and performing "Ashokan Farewell," the evocative theme from "The Civil War" TV series. Ungar's 1997 album with his wife Molly Mason,The Lover's Waltz, takes its name from another striking fiddle theme, a slow-moving melody that seems to trace the rise of romantic desire and its satisfaction in each 32-bar section.Mason accompanies her husband on piano, guitar, and bass, and she sings on four of the album's 16 tracks in an ingratiating alto. For the most part, though, the lead voice is Ungar's violin, which seems to sing in a note-bending, heart-tugging tenor. His melodies can be elegiac ("The Mountain House"), picturesque ("Prairie Love Song"), or spirited ("Tiptoe Alley"), but they are always memorable. The duo is joined by Balfa Toujours for a lively Cajun song, by John Sebastian for a cowboy tune, and by Swingology for several jazz and klezmer tunes. The liner notes try to give the compositions the narrative shape of a badly-written romance novel, but these tunes don't need any help. They can enchant the listener with the sheer power of melody.--Geoffrey Himes