To set things gliding along, Sheehan, who opened the night, chose John Fahey's Last Steam Engine Train - the "first song he learned to fingerpick." He followed this with Beyond Your Means, an animated tribute to American debt off Modern Man, his second independently released CD. With flamboyant swiftness and an ability to invent lucid melodic variations up, down and across the fret board, Sheehan repeatedly fulfills an avowed musical aim "not to bore listeners" when performing live. He pays close attention to moving the elements of a piece through a variety of harmonic voices. During the evening, Sheehan captured the haunting melody of Earl Hagan's enthralling Harlem Nocturne in an arrangement for solo guitar, stretching the piece's eerie lines across the instrument's range from treble to bass, and sashayed through the vivacious Lord Inchiquin, originally written by Turlough O'Carolan, a blind Irish harp composer who died in 1738. (His arrangement of the piece is featured on Notes From Suburbia.) In addition, Sheehan's set featured a dazzling rendition of his own Jump in the Fire and ended with the Baroque-bluegrass Public Domain, both off his first CD, Instrumental Solo Guitar.

Following Sheehan's set, Tom Doyle, accompanied singer/flautist Sandy Cory on his handmade Doyle electric guitar, for a rhythmically superb set of swing ala Les Paul and Mary Ford. Doyle, who is a longtime friend of Les Paul, backed Cory's interpretations of standards such as Dream a Little Dream of Me and Aint Misbehavin' with crisp picking and punchy soloing. He showcased his ease with mid-tempo melodic playing on Django Reinhardt's Nuages (Clouds) and on Willow Weep for Me, a 1932 song by Ann Ronell. As a bonus, after describing it as "a pisser of a song" Dolye soared through his brilliant original instrumental High Strung with unnerving speed, finishing it off with a growl.

Announcing possible plans to collaborate on a CD, Sheehan and Doyle appeared together at the end of the show to spar on several tunes - among them an instrumental version of Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields' Sunny Side of the Street and Fats Waller's Sweet Georgia Brown (on which John wove triplets against Tom Doyle's groove.) To wrap things up, Cory joined the two in a version of Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train.

Musicians need live access to accomplished performers. Sheehan and Doyle are serious guitarists who can be seen live in intimate settings such as Bodles around the metropolitan area. Anyone with an interest in the guitar who hasn't witnessed them yet should.

Tom Doyle in concert at the Bodles Opera House.

Related Links: For more information on Tom Doyle and the other organizations mentioned please visit the following links -- Tom Doyle

(Originally Published on July 04, 2004)