Essex born Clive Carroll got the Walton’s Guitar Festival of Ireland underway at Crawdaddy, with a truly remarkable display of acoustic guitar virtuosity. The genre-hopping musician flitted from one style to another like a fickle teenager – from moody Irish airs, to the classical pieces of John Dowland, to traditional Irish music, taking in Johnny Cash and Seattle grunge along the way.
However, the set was comprised mainly of his own compositions, with gems like ‘Aerial Discoveries’ and ‘Dance At Dolans’ demonstrating the scope of his compositional skills. The highlight for this writer, though, was ‘Asturias’, a stunning tribute to the guitar-playing in The Doors’ song ‘Spanish Caravan’.
The charming and humble Carroll attributed the inspiration for ‘Route 73’ to ‘Under The Western Freeway’ by the now sadly defunct Grandaddy, while also mentioning that the melody came from a jam he had with Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow at a party thrown by Madonna and Guy Ritchie! Not the kind of names one would expect to be thrown around at such a niche gig!
For the encore, Carroll invited onstage a busker called Stefan, who he explained he had met just met that day. The duo proceeded to perform an excellent rendition of ‘Summertime’, a unique and heartwarming way to finish a gig from an extraordinary talent. Make sure to catch him when he plays a free gig as part of the Walton’s Guitar Festival Of Ireland in Temple Bar on June 27.