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• Review of Lathrop's Waltz by Gordon Peery of the Monadnock Folklore Society
• Review of The Untamed Grasses
Flutist and whistle player Sarah Bauhan was raised in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, where there is a longstanding tradition of folk music and dancing. Specifically, it's the contra dance that defines the region. A 19th century American folk dance and cousin to the square dance, contra dancing is driven principally by upbeat jigs and reels, performed on instruments such as fiddles and flutes. It's the latter that Bauhan plays with virtuosic skill throughout Untamed Grasses (Alcazar), her second album. It's a collection of both traditional and original instrumental material, and includes reels and ballads that display at every turn the effortless grace and buttery harmony of Bauhan's flute. Accompanied mainly by a spare, spry acoustic guitar, Bauhan is also joined memorably by pipes on the epic "Renn's March/Leaving Port Askaig." As her flute sketches the insistent melody over strums of plaintive guitar, the pipes rise in the background until the triumphant breaking point where the piper fleshes out Bauhan's playing with grace and grandeur. Fiddles and mandolins stop by for "Horgalåten," while the Bauhan original "Angst" takes a contemplative turn, only to flirt with its fluttering melody like a hovering butterfly. The title track too is a solitary affair, until its midpoint when more forceful guitar and the addition of a fiddle amps its urgency like a shimmering flare in the inky night sky. A later reprise of the tune seems to morph into a jaunty waltz with the aid of a piano. Untamed Grasses stands wonderfully on its own. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
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