Heroes
Heroesfinds the self-styled "New Nashville Cat" playing fiddle duets with 14 of his idols. Although the guests come from the fields of jazz (Jean-Luc Ponty and Stephane Grappelli), classical (Pinchas Zukerman), worldbeat (L. Shankar), bluegrass (Byron Berline and Kenny Baker), hillbilly blues (Vassar Clements), old-timey (Benny Thomasson, Terry Morris and Texas Shorty), Cajun (Doug Kershaw), Texas swing (Johnny Gimble), country rock (Charlie Daniels) and Nashville sessions (Buddy Spicher), there's a bit of country fiddling in every performance. O'Connor is more interested in the similarities between these styles than the differences, and the common ground is American frontier dance music. Ten of the 14 tracks are instrumentals, and as anyone who recognizes the above names might guess, they're filled with some astonishing virtuoso performances. To hear O'Connor, a four-time National Fiddle Champion by the time he was 22, trade licks with French jazzman Jean-Luc Ponty or the "Louisiana Man" himself, Doug Kershaw, is to rediscover what the violin can do as lightning-fast melodies and variations slide by in long legato phrases. Most of the pieces are built atop a chunky rhythm section, but the fiddles are pushed to the front of the mix, where they can "sing" like vocalists. And "sing" they do, for O'Connor has wisely chosen these pieces for their personality and melodic pleasure rather than their technical challenges. Vassar Clements, for example, could certainly play a more complicated and showy piece than the slow blues, "House of the Rising Sun," but it's unlikely he could play anything as expressive. Likewise, Johnny Gimble can play a whole lot faster than he does on his signature tune, "Fiddlin' Around," but he'd be hard put to play anything as catchy and fun. And it would be difficult to find an instrumental as sweet and eloquent as the airy fiddle lines played by the 85-year-old Stephane Grappelli on Rodgers & Hart's "This Can't Be Love" and Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'." Not all the distinguished guests are fiddlers. Mandolinist Bill Monroe and fiddler Byron Berline reunite 25 years later to reprise their composition, "Gold Rush," with Berline's regular partners, guitarist Dan Crary and banjoist John Hickman. On another Monroe composition, "Jerusalem Ridge," O'Connor and Monroe alumnus Kenny Baker are joined by bluegrass legends, dobroist Josh Graves and mandolinist Sam Bush. And the album's best track, "House of the Rising Sun," features Bush, dobroist Jerry Douglas and guitarist Russ Barenberg behind O'Connor and Clements. To hear the fiddles and Dobro bending notes into weary moans and anguished groans on this old song about a brothel is to understand why some songs just don't need a vocal--and why the fiddle is still American music's best link to its past.--Jeffrey Himes