Gypsy Noodle

The exciting new album by Zoe McCulloch featuring five selections by composer Mason Williams including the title track.

I first saw and heard Zoe play at Nokie Edwards' Annual 4th of July Guitar Festival and Car Show in the summer of 2003. I also saw her again a week later at the annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society event in Nashville. I was captivated by her playing and by her presence on stage. She appears to be very delicate, but she plays the electric guitar powerfully. This paradox is intriguing to behold. Add in the fact that she's only 17 years old and she's a compelling performer, not what you'd expect.

Beautiful guitars and cars are the big passion in Zoe's world. She plays customized Stratocasters and drives a Baby Jag. So, music and cars come together in her world. In 1976 I was a writer on a TV special for Rolling Stone Magazine. It was a 10th Anniversary celebration. I was asked to define what I thought the essence of rock and roll was. My answer also brought music and cars together. I said, "If music is a car, most of the time you just like to get in it and go somewhere." But in rock and roll, you also want to see what it can do you like to burn a little rubber musically, so to speak. I don't think there's any musical instrument that burns rubber better than the electric guitar.

Zoe, at 17, has already been to a lot of popular places musically. She's put out two CDs. She's paid her dues; she's played the hits. This time around she's going for more original stuff, out of the way places uncharted territories.

With her manager, Pat Terret as well as Al Steel and all the other great musicians behind her, shes got a finely tuned (super-charged) engine that's built on talent and experience, fuelled by a rich mix of love and inspiration, they're ready to go. How she gets there is, of course, up to Zoe. she's driving! I'm just thrilled to be along for the ride!

Zoe's CD represents a step in a new direction for me. She's a new artist; I'm a composer of music for the guitar, and/or guitar with orchestra, Classical Gas being the major hook I hang my hat on. I've got about a hundred instrumental pieces in the larder to start with and I'm composing new pieces all the time as well. One reviewer even thought that Gypsy Noodle has the potential to become as big a hit for her as Classical Gas was for me. She is an amazing player and, although still young, her chops are great and musically, she already seems to possess the depth and maturity of an experienced player. She is a joy to work with, and as her recordings show, she does her homework. Zoe has expressed interest in recording an entire album of my music if she can find a major label that is interested in the project.

Scroll down for a great review of Gypsy Noodle by Pipeline Magazine (the premiere rock instrumental magazine in Europe).

Track Listing:

1. Gypsy Noodle
2. Canto Alla Vita
3. What it is
4. Largo Deluxe
5. Big River
6. Forever
7. Baroque-A-Nova
8. Cardiff Bay
9. Sacha
10. Santa Fe Souvenir
11. Sailing to Philadelphia
12. He's Gonna be with Me
13. Classical Gas
14. My Secret Hiding Place
15. Sultans of Swing
16. Moonshine

www.gypsynoodle.com www.zoemcculloch.com

GYPSY NOODLE -REVIEW
Written by Dave Burke-Editor
Pipeline Instrumental Magazine - Autumn 2004
Mustang Music 005 UK 2004 63min

I have to confess that previous Zoe McCulloch Cds have passed me by without even a hint of an impression. Pitched towards the provincial chicken in the basket audience and relying on the common currency of familiar hit vocal tunes for material, Zoe has pursued a path somewhere near to those sterile market-survey constructed Shadows albums of the mid-eighties. Not exactly bad, but not exactly exciting either.

  Now before Zoe and her manager Pat Terrett set the dogs on me let me swiftly add that this new cd is terrific! Kicking off with Gypsy Noodle, a recently found composition from Mason "Classical Gas" Williams, Zoe shows us that all the recent globe-trotting and rubbing shoulders with some of the world's great guitarist has not been wasted. She plays with great feeling, one minute gentle and restrained, the next exploding with power and incorporating all those neat little touches that separate the ordinary guitarist from a slick professional. Canto Alla Vita follows and is another great track. It has a warm summery, Latin feel, vaguely jazzy but mixing in Welsh sounding vocal chorus - so it's like LA via Aberystwyth!

  Mark Knopfler's What It Is, is an inspired choice with Zoe's sweet-toned guitar ringing as well as old Knoppie himself is wont to do, which is no mean feat. And then another great Mason Williams tune titled Largo Deluxe where Zoe demonstrates masterful Marvin - like control of the volume pedal as she injects real emotion into this beautiful synth - swathed melody, which is also adorned with a tender acoustic guitar and piano. Big River, written by Jimmy Nail of all people, provides Zoe with another diamond track, full of a delicate, subtle pathos, she wrings every ounce of emotion from this surprise winner.

  And just as you think that this standard can't be maintained, she goes and surpasses it! Forever, packs a huge emotional punch - grand opening chords and a melody that sneaks into your sub - conscious, then deep sad notes which suddenly reach for the skies as drummer Brent Keefe lays down a subtle blend of cymbals, snare and toms that has Zoe soaring. Whew!

  And the great tracks keep coming. Mason Williams' Baroque-A-Nova begins in a restrained way and then builds to a driving, air - punching climax while, in complete contrast, another Williams tune, Santa Fe Souvenir, has a rootsy Cajun atmosphere complete with squeeze - box accompaniment (probably a cunningly disguised synth!).  Similary Mark Knopfler's Sailing To Philadelphia has a strong, earthy, emotion - ladened feel - regret for leaving but a tinge of expectation too and Zoe conveys these subtleties splendidly
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  Bass player and second guitarist Al Steele contributes three original and perhaps inspired by the high quality of material on display here, lifts his game considerably. I do detect vague echoes of other tunes in his compositions and Zoe and the band's fine performance elevates them still higher. Cardiff Bay is another deeply satisfying track, with Zoe's poignant lead set against a dark and moody acoustic line, with sensitive piano work and ponderous rhythm support pushing the lead guitarist to some expressive and moving soloing. Added to this are excellent versions of a trio of well known classics: a faithful treatment of Hank's Sacha, a fiery reading of Mason's Classical Gas, and a lightly swinging Sultans Of Swing.

  So why is this cd such a huge leap forward? Mason Williams material is undoubtedly a real plus, and added to that are a host of lesser - known but absolutely inspired choices, which lend the whole cd an air of freshness. Not only that, Zoe has blossomed as a guitarist and fits seamlessly together with her band. The whole cd is of consistently high quality and there simply isn't a duff track to be heard anywhere. I never expected to be saying this, but Zoe's album has to be a contender for Pipeline's best album of the year. http://www.pipelinemag.freeserve.co.uk/