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Pat Coldrick

Venue: Beggys Bar
Town: Navan
Date: 1st February
Website: www.patcoldrick.com/

Having cut his teeth on the showband scene some time ago, Pat Coldrick is now forging for himself an enviable reputation as a classical guitarist in Ireland and further afield. His appearances on Youtube are becoming the stuff of legend, so a live gig so close to home-I live 15 miles away- was a no brainer, even on such a cold night.

I got there a little late, but the man and his 6 string were already in full flight, an engaging connection with the audience buoying up a beautiful open style of playing. For close on 3 hours I, and the audience sat enthralled as his own compositions-Lament(very touching backstory) and Orio Sunrise, among others-jousted for position with works by Albeniz, the Brazilian composer Antonio Lauro, and others.

At one point in the evening,by way of introducing Recuerdo del Alhambra, he described it as an example of the tremolo technique" very difficult to get right", but it-and the subsequent piece, Asturias by Albeniz, were the perfect example of a bonding process between a man ,an instrument and the music that he plays.

Clearly, Pat Coldrick is a master of his craft, a fact that was glaringly obvious to those of us lucky enough to be there. All that remains is for some record company to licence the album "Cayendo" which I bought on the night, and world domination, while not a certainty in these times, will surely come that much closer. A triumph in any language.

Oliver P. Sweeney