I saw Rachel Harrington last night at the Green Note. She is a really superb singer and also nice to look at. She was accompanied by her partner Zac on mandolin, which is obviously a flashier-sounding instrument than her acoustic guitar. He’s a confident kind of guy, and it wound up that he was standing closer to the audience than she was, and even at times holding the neck of the instrument out in front of her, i.e., coming between her and the audience (who had paid to see her). So, although he is a very good player, you could end up wondering who was accompanying who? But the show was still a great success, because she is such a good singer.
So while I tend to agree with Jez and SL, the fact is that the Yo frame is such a strong work of art that actually it can withstand competition from the mere components and the result is still successful, even though there’s a good argument that the components should visually support such a sublime frame, not compete with it for prominence.
As others say, just MPO and I have empathy with all the views expressed.