Toulouse Engelhardt’s New CD Mind Gardens Comes Alive at Alvas

Review by B. Noel Barr, Music Writer Dude

Twelve-string, finger-style guitarist Toulouse Engelhardt returns to Alvas Showroom Nov. 21 for a concert supporting his new CD Mind Gardens.

Engelhardt’s Mind Gardens is a work of sublime beauty and grace. Each track takes one into the world of acidic neo-folk music. He subtitles this recording as “13 Novelettes of Space, Time and Contemplation” is not as odd as it may sound.  It is a musical story played with a dramatic whimsy of surrealist tone poems, which have a beginning, middle and end.

His opening track, “Nierika,” is a textured piece that places the listener in a contemplative mood for a journey to your mind. Where in the“Theme to The First Annual Bluebelly Lizard Roundup,” the 12-string maestropicks up the pace with a delightful frenzied round up of critters that one could only imagine.

Track 10, “Lady of The Light” is about the tale of a lighthouse keeper’s wife who died or a woman who committed suicide along the cliff’s at the Point Vicente Lighthouse. There are various stories on the sightings of this woman in a white dress with long, wet, black hair. Here we have a song with emotion and wonder.

Engelhardt as  “The Segovia of Surf” doesn’t fail us with his version of Dick Dale’s “The Wedge.” Its wild Gypsy rhythms cutting through the air like a surfer switching back and forth on the waves along the Palos Verdes coast. Totally bitchin’ bro!

The closing track is a duet with an alto flute, “Dialogue With An English Rill” is a gorgeous song dedicated to his British bride.

Mind Gardens  is a sonic treat for acoustic guitar lovers, Engelhardt will be bringing this album to life at Alvas Showroom on Nov. 21.

Details:www.alvasshowroom.com