Have you ever heard music so good you not only get the welling tears of joy and choked up feeling but also have the sense that you are in the midst of a moment that will partly define the remainder of your life? Three of the original tunes (Oddville Cupola, Wind In The Hills, and Waltz For Anita Bartley) on KGB's second album, Volga Notions, are that sort of music. Julie King (piano), Claude Ginsburg (fiddle, viola, concertina), and Dave Bartley (mandolin, cittern, and percussion on mandolin-back) wisely enriched this disk with original material: of the 24 tunes, 17 are originals and only 2 (Sligo Creek and Jig of Slurs) are often enough played by other bands to be considered "standards" of the contradance music genre. Two of the cover tune renditions (Sligo Creek and High Reel) also "grabbed and shook", so a total of 5 tunes pushed my happiness meter up to 9 or higher on first listen ‹ Wow! As well, some of this is "grows on ya" music. I'm in the middle of about my 50th listen (really), and keep falling in love with little bits I hadn't previously noticed.

This music is of the "Northern" variety (New Englandy, not Appalachany) but with Balkan, blues, tango, and Viennese feel here and there. The album is sequenced like a contradance evening (a few contra medleys, a waltz, a few more contra medleys, another waltz) and the tracks are long enough to contradance to (5 to 8 minutes), which is a nice service for people who wanna dance but don't have any musicians handy, and for beginning contradance callers.

To my ear, KGB's best pieces are those in (1) minor keys, (2) that roll back and forth between major and minor, or (3) are modal (hard to tell whether major or minor). Some of their major-key tunes are a little too cheerful and Š well Š cute for my current tastes. I can listen to a minor tune more times without getting tired of it ‹ I don't know why. Still, there's only one track I would have asked them to replace (Frenchie's/Habañera), partly because of the cheerful-cute factor but also because these are both nonoriginal tunes (cute originals might have been easier to swallow). I also would have requested they swap the order of tunes in the second track; I found jarring the transition between the entrancing and unusual rhythm and modal feel of Oddville Cupola and the bright smileyness of Paddy On A Bun. Oddville Cupola cuts new ground in the contradance music field: I'd never heard anything like it!

Only one of the medley tune transitions was super exciting for me; the piano drops out at the beginning of High Reel and the mandolin does a "chumpf-chumpf" chord thing while the fiddle belts out the new melody real strong. Most of the other tune transitions were fine or good, but several of them might have been better if two of the instruments dropped out at the end of one tune to let just one instrument play the opening of the next tune (I'm a big fan of this tune-transition trick of launching the new tune into open space). There is only one solo instrumental passage on the album (in the beginning of the first waltz, Flight), and I thought the paucity of solos a missed opportunity. Solos, even of only, say, eight bars, would have been especially appropriate for the first track, as introduction of the musicians.

Guest instrumentalists appear in the second track (Liz Dreisbach on recorder) and in one of the waltzes (Wind In The Hills, Barry Foy on whistle) both to excellent effect, though one of my favorite aspects of this album is that most tracks contain only three instruments; this allows for pleasing open space between the notes and lets the listener hear the subtler aspects of the interpretation, which is important when listening to musicians of this caliber. Claude and Dave both have very distinct styles and are true masters of fingering, timing, dynamism, and arrangement. For this and previous albums Julie has composed several of my favorite waltzes, and she is one of very few contradance pianists who "turns my crank."

Though great music would have been enough, the original tune names, art, photograph, and liner notes are all fun, humorous, and give away that these guys are part of the international web of friendships and community spirit among lovers of contra and other folky dances and music. The album thus feels like basement tapes of homemade music for dear friends, except that the musicianship, production, mixing, and mastering are excellent.

Dave says that on their next album they will have more guest artists. That might be fine, but I would rather hear Dave, Claude, and Julie do more with other instruments. For instance, I've wondered whether harpsichord would "work" with this kind of stuff. I bet Claude could play cello, and I want to hear more of his concertina and viola. Dave plays guitar really well, and more cittern would be great.

Volga Notions is a contradance music milepost; a number of KGB's originals go right to the heart, and you'll find yourself humming them after only a couple of listens. Prepare to float, twirl, bop, sway, swing, smile, marvel to, and cherish the rooted but forward-looking creativity, fun diversity of styles, and inspiring instrumental talent of Seattle's best contradance band!