michael keith - arcanum verba (digital, self-released)

a 2015 tail-ender by way of december: self-fuel, self-drop, digital files asking to be excavated. a guitar player history with a history of looking around for other ways to extend out of the trad, to move past guitar or ukulele, transferred to a modded-baritone, and having the mind transfer to three strings in quick-think, letting roll and strike in opportune deep-positioning. 

clasps and riddles and rubbery page-turn develop and fall away and re-form. a wetter book with stuck-letters being free, ancient party-sit in alternating expressive/investigative delivery, strings and fingers dictating the next move, to be sped-up upon, and turned around. 

a beautiful showing of the simplicity in dedication. craft: to be crafty, craft as gifts and to look at them. study them. or record and empty them and think about them. this should be the way teachers teach, pure intuition and an ancient-hold of the idea, pursuit in digging, pursuit through tuned chordage, process the full take-hold and process the full-becoming in being a player. play: to be a player, play to be loose, play to figure things out and forget them later. 

tons of incredible snowballing active clusters present themes before they're cloth-wrapped in ever intricate fingerstyle burrowing rabbit-hole as logical lineage. on three friggin strings. this is boss work and keith could do this at any time in any place i'd bet, and that's the mastery. no tricks. no shortcuts. a man and his alien-bari sounds, like a too-great street musician's sleight-of-hand taking you somewhere else.