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5/14/2009
Michael Lipton
Acoustic guitarist/singer Mary Flower is making waves in a style most often relegated to men. An expert guitarist who has twice finished in the top three in the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship” (the only woman to do so) and nominated for “Acoustic Artist of the Year” in the Blues Music Awards, Flower shows off her chops with an easy-going delivery. Like a gentle version of Bonnie Raitt, Flower moves easily between the rolling, bluesy feel of the opening “Rhythm of the Road” to the minor-keyed ragtime feel of “There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears” (complete with tuba). The instrumentation ranges from the vocal-guitar-piano treatment of Bessie Smith’s “Backwater Blues” and the gospel “When I Get Home I’m Satisfied” (with Flower offering fleet picking on a lap steel) to the solo showpiece “Columbia River Rag,” “Temptation Rag” (featuring none other than WV’s own flatpicking champ Robin Kessinger) and “Blue Waltz” (with accordion and the ubiquitous Tim O’Brien on mandolin).