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A magical blend of differing sounds and styles By Deborah Crandall hen classical violin meets elecâ€" tric guitar, anything is possible. Everything is possible. Case in point â€" Vox Violins, a St. Catharinesâ€" based duo that has, over the past 14 years, left no musical waters _ Mark Cliifford and Beth Bartley‘s muse cal backgrounds are disparate in every who has toured Britain with the London Youth Orchestra and performed with the Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island symphonies. He‘s a guitarist who spent hsimnauveyeaswmmggg'as- sive rock bands, and who, in 1990, took top honors at the Niagara Regional Guiâ€" tar Wars competition. Together. they make up a duo that is, oddly enough, folk oriented â€" and as diverse as they come. ~Ethereal and placid one moment, raunchy and bluesy the next, Vox Violins : Vox Violins runs the musical gamut. "I‘ve been thinking about why our music is so varied," says Bartley during a recent telephone interview. "And | think it‘s because we‘re both instrumentalists. 1 come from a classical background, but I‘m really in love with Gypsy music and tangos and Down East fiddling. I just love all that. And Mark is a schooled blues player. So the two of us put together makes for a wide range of stuff." Ciifford and Bartiley met in 1980 while both were performing at the London Home Country Folk Festival, and have been a team ever since, both professionâ€" Through many years of performing $75 CREDIT *with the purchase blazer of your choice â€" Flagstaff will give aq";:?oo credit towards any purchase of ’ m coâ€"ordinating trouser or shirt and tie at regular price m BLAZERS BY CAMBR.DGE, AUSTIN REED & BAUMLER < l lack, navy, green & burgundy, single & double breasted _ Mon:Th together and living together, Clifford and Bartiey have developed a "second sight" on stage. One compliments the other, with Bartley‘s soft, highâ€"pitched vocals providing a striking contrast to Clifford‘s deep, oftenâ€"gravely voice. "We have this unspoken communicaâ€" tion," Bartley says, "which | think comes from living together â€" from being marâ€" While Vox Violins has released a couâ€" ple of independent recordings, the duo has spent much of the past 14 years performing at folk festivals and on the pub circuit. The latter can be a bit diffiâ€" cult on a duo, especially when club ownâ€" ers and goers are expecting the type of sound a full band produces. But, some how, Vox Violinsâ€"manages to come through with a full, rich, extraordinarily unique sound. $ "It comes from 14 years of playing together.It comes from getting out there and performing a lot, and having the challenge of h;;?'lging for a crowd that‘s expecting a sound, so you try harder. We‘ve gotten a little bit more aggressive and tighter as a unit," Bartiey says. "We‘ve really tried to make our music sound like a whole band. Mark‘s a very percussive player. He hears in his head what a whole band would sound like, and he tries to imitate that." 7 Clifford and Bartley‘s music is clearly influenced by blues, rock, jazz and classt cal music â€" cover tunes they perform include everything from Eric Clapton‘s Lay Down Sally to Patsy Cline‘s Walkin® After Midnight to Kate Bush‘s Babooshk® to the Doors‘ Aiders of the Storm. And their original music is equally diverse. Li piinenine * (Continued on page 20)