STEVE GILLETTE and CINDY MANGSEN
Home By Dark
Compass Rose 13

www.compassrosemusic.com
 

After some twenty albums between them, including four prior duo albums, premier songwriters and song interpreters Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen give their individual muses rein on Home By Dark. The result is a rewarding combination of traditional songs, instrumentals, new compositions, and even a children’s song. The title song is pure Steve, a story that he’d been nursing for several years that shows how busy parents, and not only their children, should be home by dark.” Steve also contributes the lost-love train song “California Zephyr.” Cindy adds a haunting ballad based on the Seal Harbor fable, prefaced with Kipling’s “Seal Lullabye” set to music, and also her “Birdsong,” about the lessons to be learned from the singing of birds. The collection also includes inspired interpretations of traditional songs “The Two Sisters” and “Sur La Route De Dijon,” two instrumental medleys, and “The Gnu,” a spirited patter song by the British comedy-revue duo Flanders and Swann. Steve and Cindy are joined by friends including Scott Petito on double bass, Pete Sutherland on piano, and Jack Williams on guitar.

— Scott Sheldon