CD: The Baltimore Consort: Gut, Wind and Wire.

You Renaissance music aficionados out there no doubt know what a Baltimore Consort CD adds to your collection. I've been accumulating an unbelievable stack of those Dorian CDs for some time: The Mad Buckgoat, Bright Day Star, even The Art of the Bawdy Song, and much more. In fact, I have a weakness for Dorian CDs in general, given the label's devotion to the early music repertoire.

So I was extremely pleased to find not only the Dorian label but the Baltimore Consort represented among the new releases at Olsson's, this time in the form of the CD Gut, Wind and Wire (known far and wide, apparently, as Gut, Wind and Fire). The disc provides both a pleasing retrospective (and some new releases) of the group's instrumental music.

If you liked An Early American Quilt, you'll surely warm to this recording. There's even some overlap in the choice of composers -- works from John Playford appear on the two albums -- and musicians, with Mark Cudek at the ready with cittern and period guitars for both groups.

The CD clocks in at under an hour of music, with 36 selections, a few of which are a minute or two long. It's utterly charming material, much of it from the Renaissance era, and beautifully played. As you might expect, there are a quite a few Irish, Scottish, and English tunes, timeless in their appeal. Listen too for the works by Michael Praetorius, as well as some delicately lovely Italian pieces.

Expect your favorite Baltimore Consort performers -- Mary Anne Ballard, Cudek, Larry Lipkis, Ronn McFarlane, Chris Norman -- plus guest instrumentalists Edwin George and William Simms. It seems rather a poor effort on my part to just string those names out together like so many beads, for these are music educators, composers, and performers whose festivals, recordings, and concert tours have been part of the early music scene, both here and abroad, for many years.

What about that puckish title that is causing all the confusion? Well, perhaps you remember what Benedick had to say about the power of music in Much Ado about Nothing. When his best friends, including the lovestruck Claudio, are about to be serenaded, Benedick observes:

Now, divine air! Now is his soul ravished. Is it not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?

Benedick is sardonic and graphic enough here, but he's actually right in the spirit of Gut, Wind and Wire: beguiling melodies do emerge from stringed instruments, plucked or bowed.

Benedick doesn't mention wind instruments -- and if he had, there would no doubt have been a rude joke attached -- but they too are party to some magical music-making. On this album, crumhorn and recorder belong as much to the mix as do viol and lute. But however much you may enjoy the skill of the individual lutenist or flutist, it's the seamless blending of the performances that makes each track exquisite.

Even the cranky Benedick admired excellent musicians, and he certainly could be lured into spending an hour listening to such a masterful ensemble as the Baltimore Consort.