Article Contributed by Dennis McNally
Published on 2026-08-12
If you're looking for an album of elegant acoustic music shaped by years of collaboration and captured with clarity, Chants of Rain is well worth hearing.
Guitarist Mary Flower and clarinetist Leon Cotter have released a fine collection featuring eleven original compositions for acoustic guitar and clarinet. The range and variety of the material is one of the album’s most enjoyable surprises.
“Trio Around the Sun” offers an ideal showcase for the duo, with each musician leaving plenty of room for the other while ascending and descending lines move gracefully around one another. “Farewell Waltz” and “Strawberry Lane” unfold as beautiful, moody reveries, while “Dauphine” takes a more jaunty and upbeat approach.
“Half Moon” continues that lighter spirit, with its central theme returning in different keys, while “Chain” introduces a mambo-inspired rhythmic feel that adds yet another shade to the album.
Throughout Chants of Rain, Flower and Cotter demonstrate the kind of musical understanding that comes from long collaboration. Neither instrument overwhelms the other. Instead, guitar and clarinet remain in conversation, moving easily between reflection, playfulness, and melody.
The result is an album that rewards close listening while remaining relaxed and inviting from beginning to end.
Chants of Rain is released through Little Village Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit record label created to raise awareness of musicians who might not otherwise have the opportunity to record and release their work. The organization operates on the belief that diverse music can build empathy, stronger communities, and ultimately a better world.
More information is available at LittleVillageFoundation.org,
