Pharis & Jason Romero: A Passing Glimpse – CD Review,

Voice’s David Innes reviews the new CD by Pharis & Jason Romero,  ‘A passing Glimpse’, with more than a passing interest.

Taking time off from building high quality banjos in a British Columbian forest, Pharis and Jason Romero, both already well-known in their own right in North America, release A Passing Glimpse, a delicately simple but emotional debut as a duo.

Drawing heavily on traditional ‘old-time’ sources and with accompaniment unadorned beyond their own instrumentation, A Passing Glimpse is a triumph of melodic and harmonic simplicity.

Their own compositions, credited largely to Pharos, including the outstanding ‘Forsaken Love’ and ‘Lay Down In Sorrow’, stand tall alongside those of The Carter Family, Leadbelly and others.

In delivery, the harmonising is resonant, intuitive and made to sound effortless, never better than on Dottie Rambo’s gospel ‘It’s Me Again Lord’. Limiting the instrumentation to guitar and banjo and featuring Jason’s considerable picking skills in tight, disciplined solos and an inspired instrumental attack on ‘Cumberland Gap’, adds to the back porch organic atmosphere of an album which has been an ever-present in American and Canadian roots charts since its release.

PHARIS & JASON ROMERO
A Passing Glimpse
(LULA RECORDS)
www.jasonandpharis.com