Longtime guitarists James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg have announced a new collaborative album; All Gist is due out April 12 via Paradise of Bachelors. The duo have also shared their take on Neneh Cherry’s 1988 single “Buffalo Stance” today, which will appear on the record. Listen to that cover song below.
The idea to cover Cherry’s Raw Like Sushi hit came to Salsburg while he was playing the song for his toddler. “I was struck for the first time (at least since c. 1988) by how fantastic some of its riffs are,” he explains. “I suggested to Jim that we work up an arrangement for two guitars. Jim was initially doubtful – it’s a lot of rapping – but within an hour he sent back a one-guitar demo of most of the constituent melodic elements. It sent me into paroxysms of joy, only exceeded by the eventual thrill of sitting down together and hammering out our collaborative version.”
All Gist will be the third record of guitar duets that Elkington and Salsburg have created together. The most recent, Ambsace, came out back in 2014. In addition to original compositions, the new album also includes several covers: the aforementioned Cherry track, an arrangement by English composer Howard Skempton, and two traditional Breton dances.
Both artists have been busy creating their own work in recent years. Elkington’s latest solo album, Me Neither, and Salsburg’s Landwerk No. 3 both came out in 2023.
Revisit the 2021 interview “How Guitarist Nathan Salsburg Built an Album Around Traditional Jewish Texts” on the Pitch.
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All Gist:
01 Death Wishes to Kill
02 Long in the Tooth Again
03 Numb Limbs
04 Nicest Distinction
05 Well, Well, Cornelius
06 Explanation Point
07 Fears of This Nature
08 Rule Bretagne
09 All Gist Could Be Yours
10 Buffalo Stance