All Gist

All Gist, the third album by duelling acoustic guitarists James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg, is an eminently enjoyable, ten-track collection of compelling original compositions and imaginatively reworked covers. Working in the tradition of exploratory artists like Jansch & Renbourn, John Fahey and Daniel Bachman, Chicago-based Englishman Elkington and Kentuckian Salsburg are keen to push the fingerstyle repertoire into fresh territory. All Gist begins with the sweetly ebbing flow of ‘Death Wishes to Kill’ (a phrase from a novel by eccentric British author T F Powys), featuring the guitars in splendid accordance, soon complemented by Palestine-born Wanees Zarour’s exquisite violin, which swirls in raga-like harmony around the theme. ‘Numb Limbs’ showcases the duo’s superlative songwriting skills, fingerstyle chops and simpatico artistry. ‘Nicest Distinction,’ a three-part ballad, walks a delicate melodic line that upshifts into a mellifluous revelry graced by Wednesday Knudsen’s ‘ethereal woodwinds.’ All Gist’s three covers consist of a suitably elegiac performance of Howard Skempton’s ‘Well, Well, Cornelius’; a marvellous intertwining of two traditional Breton dance tunes titled ‘Rule Bretagne’; and a remarkably winsome rendition of ‘Buffalo Stance,’ Neneh Cherry’s 1988 pop chart topper.