Spins: Darol Anger and Mike Marshall, The Duo

I recently had the pleasure of catching the latest ensemble led by fiddler Darol Anger, the Republic of Strings. The basic concept is to take a string quartet, replace the viola with guitar (Scott Nygaard), and steer the group all over the place--Texas-style fiddle tunes, twisty neo-trad Swedish music, Brazil choro, bebop... Superb.

Meanwhile, Anger's 1983 album with Mike Marshall, The Duo, has been reissued by Rounder and spending a lot of time in my CD player. All the hallmarks of their music, together and separately, are here: stellar acoustic playing, giddy eclecticism (Bach to folk to funk), with a sense of both adventure and humor.

Find out more about Darol Anger and Republic of Strings.

Read a short review I wrote of a previous Anger and Marshall album, At Home and on the Range: The Duo Live.