Ronn McFarlane & Carolyn Surrick: And So Flows the River
Flower Pot Productions

However much some might associate the lute and viola da gamba with earlier times, Ronn McFarlane and Carolyn Surrick's third album shows their instruments are just as effective when applied to non-ancient musical genres and time periods. Yet while that's a definite takeaway from And So Flows the River, the message is never imparted stridently or with underlying political intent; instead, the impression created is, simply, of collaborators who share a genuine love for a vast catalogue of music and wish to share it with the world.

Recorded across five days in October 2022, the album casts a wide net, ranging as it does from beloved standards and traditionals (“Shenandoah,” “Over the Rainbow”) and classical treatments (Satie's “Gymnopédies,” J. S. Bach's “Sinfonia” from Cantata 29) to originals (McFarlane's “Where the Mountains Meet the Sky" and “Clear Creek,” Surrick's “Greenmount Avenue” and “Liane's Ocean”). An early setting such as John Dowland's 1604 “Lachrymae” sounds perfectly comfortable alongside the performers' own recent compositions. Eighteen pieces strong, the set-list is broad and eclectic but cohesiveness is established by arrangements that, percussion (bodhran, slapjack, udu, riq) contributions from Yousif Sheronick aside, primarily feature the two instruments.

Testifying to the appeal of their playing, something as timeworn as “Over the Rainbow” feels newly born when tackled by the duo. Delivered without fuss and free of embellishment, the song's served up straight, the pair knowing that material so melodically affecting need only be given sincere expression to make its mark. The stark beauty of Satie's pieces similarly resonates in their performances, and the same could be said for much else. There are moments when virtuosity is called upon—see the rapidly flowing runs coursing through “Sinfonia,” for instance—but such displays are required by the material, not motivated by ego.

The album opens with a jolt of energy—“W. Lee's Reel,” a rousing McFarlane tribute to his father—but there are as many, if not more, meditative pieces, starting with the one that follows, “Gymnopédie 1.” Surrick articulates the melody without adornment and, with McFarlane's lilting accompaniment her partner, it and the later “Gymnopédie 3” prove to be as entrancing as ever. In an inspired reversal, the arrangement for “Gymnopédie 2” gives the lead to him, with her soft strums the foundation for his delicate voicings. On the elegiac front, the album features a lovely rendering of John Jacob Niles' “I Wonder as I Wander” and Surrick's “Liane's Ocean,” written when her daughter was young; on the lighter side, there's Henry Purcell's spirited “Hornpipe,” Turlough O'Carolan's “Miss Noble,” and McFarlane's foot-stomper “Clear Creek.”

July 2023