A to Z Album and Gig Reviews
The third studio album from this award-winning Scottish traditional group comes a mere two years down the line from their well-received second, Fortune's Road, and as you might by now expect brings another sparkling, well-chosen and admirably even-handed collection of songs and tunes (six of each). But there's much more to the CD than that, for good though Fortune's Road was, Luminosity brings a significant advance in maturity and insight that's almost comparable to that between Crucible's first and second CDs. Unlike some of the young trad-based ensembles on the current scene, Back Of The Moon have a major selling-point in that they have within their ranks no less than three very good singers who are all more than capable of taking the lead - fiddler Gillian Frame, pianist Hamish Napier and guitarist Findlay Napier (the latter's a pretty good songwriter too, if his Ship In A Bottle, a CD highlight, is anything to go by). And there's something rather special about the spark and rapport between the musicians and their attitude to and respect of each other's abilities, whereby the lineup's instrumental complement never resorts to auto-pilot or a formulaic "arrangement by numbers" but brings an imaginative and thoroughly delicious spontaneity to each track. The band's fourth member, whistle & pipes (and bodhrán) man Ali Hutton (only not mentioned earlier because he doesn't sing - and hey, no offence intended!), brings a full-bodied tone to the group sound and arrangements with his forthright playing that in its intelligence ideally matches the contributions of the others. Each of the four bring some self-penned tunes to the mix to counterpoint examples both traditional and by the likes of Gordon Duncan and Phil Cunningham. The songs range widely for their sources too, with a dramatic rendition of the "happy ending" ballad Glenlogie sitting well alongside the Scott-collected murder ballad Nine Stone Rig (which Gillian credits to Linda and Teddy Thompson - hmm!) and Archie Fisher's pensive, bleak Final Trawl nicely contrasting with the upbeat tale of The Brewer's Lad. All the songs are blessed with effective arrangements that utilise both accompanying instruments and backing voices to best advantage. A handful of tracks (including Glenlogie and Hamish's fine slow air Joey Beauty's) see the band augmented by some more unusual sounds - the trombone of Rick Taylor and/or the cello of Christine Hanson - and the extra depth these elements bring to an already rich tapestry is quite remarkable. All told, though, and whether for songs or tune-sets, Back Of The Moon always demonstrate an innate and enviable understanding of texture and dynamics, and this canny and highly spirited collection is definitely their best yet.
www.backofthemoon.co.uk
www.footstompin.com
David Kidman
This talented young Scots four-piece brings a real smile to the visage and a tap to the toes on this neat selection of songs and tune-sets (six of each). Fortune's Road, the band's second studio set, proves if anything even more attractive than their debut, the playing even more accomplished after honing their performance skills much of late at prestigious festivals (including Cambridge) and a further tour of Canada (their third). The ensemble work is superb, credibly combining the instrumental accomplishments of front-liners Gillian Frame (fiddle) and Simon Mc Kerrell (border and uillean pipes, whistle) with the decidedly non-plodding sibling rhythm section of Hamish and Findlay Napier (piano and guitar respectively). As is the bright, clear recorded balance (a triumph for producer Jonny Hardie). Back Of The Moon easily show that they don't have to play fast to impress (for instance on the slow Karma Rules and the duet Skye Air), although their Mrs Maclean set is a tour de force on its own terms. As for the songs, again three out of the four group members contribute lead vocals, and the choice of songs is less mundane than before, thus scoring an extra welcome. Maybe I'll Be Married, which Gillian learnt from the singing of Alison McMorland, is probably the highlight among the songs, though Findlay's thoughtful rendition of the maritime song Heilan' Laddie also has considerable merit. The whole album has a commendable unity of purpose and achievement.
David Kidman
Liverpool's alt-country/roots supremo Mike Badger, founder member of the La's and The Onset, has just released this retrospective, which showcases the variety and versatility of his output since 1988 yet concentrates on the more country-flavoured examples of his work. Around half of the collection is directly sourced from the solo album Double Zero and the original Onset albums The Pool Of Life and The Pool Of Life Revisited, the rest being newish recordings from 2007 and 2008 aside from one live cut from 1991 (nothing from Volume or Lo-Fi Acoustic Excursions, though…) Mike's always had a clever way with lyrics, on which he employs curiously apt twists on themes that are the staple diet of country (barroom romances, cowboys, prison etc), while he also takes on ecological themes on They're Animals and Trees And Plants. Mike has a keen feel for the various modes of musical expression from solid twang, punk-country, steamin' rockabilly, honky-tonk and rock'n'roll. You can hear variously the spirits of the Mekons, Gram Parsons, Hank Williams, Steve Earle and Johnny Burnette in here, all affectionate and knowingly referenced, while Mike also turns in a neat cover of Roky Erickson's Clear Night For Love. I rather like the quirky, slightly ramshackle DIY ambience of Mike's music-making generally, which should not be taken as an adverse criticism but a positive quality. All in all, this disc is a useful catch-up vehicle for anyone not familiar with Mike's music.
David Kidman January 2009
In recent years there's been a plethora of albums that have taken one genre of music and reinvented it in the style of another. Hayseed Dixie bluegrassed metal, Nouvelle Vague turned punk and new wave into bossa novas and most recently Hellsongs turned metal classics into lounge. Punk gets a makeover again here, recast (appropriately enough in sociological terms) as folk music from a line up featuring Fairport and Tull veteran guitarist Maartin Allcock, Toss The Feathers fiddler Andy Dinan, Iona's Uillean piper Troy Donockley and Ade Edmondson. Yes, that Ade Edmondson from The Comic Strip, The Young Ones and Bottom. But, as well as being a comedy actor whose most memorable past musical excursions have been as part of rock parody Bad News, he's actually an accomplished musician (his voice isn't bad but he plays mandolin better than he sings) with a clear interest in folk music. After all, his daughter is Ella Edmondson who recently made her own impressive debut.
So, what you have here is a collection of (mostly) punk classics performed in a Celtic folk stylee intercut or expanded with a hefty clutch of trad reels and jigs. Thus the opening I Fought The Law fires up on fiddle and launches into the Donockley-penned Cockers At Pockers while London Calling segues into Allcock's Manchster Calling,Teenage Kicks is sandwiched between three trad tunes, including Whisky In The Jar, and a mandolin sprung, spoken God Save The Queen heads out down the trad Mountain Road.
The songs lend themselves surprisingly well to the rearrangements and there's splendid interpretations of PiL's Rise, the Jam's Down In The Tube Station At Midnight (bringing out the bleakness of the lyrics), Once In A Lifetime and even Kraftwerk's The Model, transfigured here into a moody mandolin and pipes lament.
And, just to reaffirm they're not a one-trick novelty, the title track is their arrangement of a rousingly fiery set of four trad tunes that embraces Coppers & Brass and Rip The Calico in a manner guaranteed to get any folk fest crowd bouncing along. Apparently they also do a great version of All Around My Hat. As a punk number. The album title, by the way, comes from the traditional numeric phrase used to count sheep by shepherds in northern England and southern Scotland. Thought you'd like to know.
Mike Davies May 2009
How Sweet The Sound is the American Masters PBS TV documentary which celebrates Joan's 50-year career. An edited version is being broadcast on the BBC series Imagine on 8th December, but the DVD component of this package presents the complete film, along with bonus features.
The "main feature" is a straightforward and naturally conceived yet insightful 84-minute documentary, taking the form of the first comprehensive portrayal of both Joan's public career and her private life and conveying both the compelling presence and personality of Joan herself and the sheer strength of her political convictions. It contains some tantalising rare performance footage, as well as extracts from candid interviews with David Crosby, Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn and Joan's ex-husband David Harris, and we do in fact get to know much of the inner Joan in the process of chronicling her journey through 40-odd years as, effectively, the conscience of a generation (indeed, she has often been content to let singing take the back seat to her activism).
We learn of Joan's early love of R&B preceding her discovery of folk (via Harry Belafonte, Odetta and Pete Seeger), and of her panic attacks during the formative years on stage (which comes as quite a surprise considering the assured and composed nature of those early performances); we also see and hear Dylan waxing lyrical about Joan's heart-stopping voice and that he especially admired her guitar playing. We also gain salutary reminders of just how different things were in the 60s, especially with regard to segregation, and of Joan's bravery and passionate conviction from a very early age; these observations are supplemented on the bonus segment of the DVD by a series of one-on-one conversations with other individuals (Vaclav Havel, Dar Williams, a particularly loquacious Steve Earle, and Bill Fegan & Bishop Ernest Palmer from "Alabama's most integrated living room"), and some interview outtakes offering further insights into early life and career choices.
Also on the bonus segment is a priceless pair of vintage-1958 performances by the teenage Joan at the Club 47 coffee-bar in Cambridge Mass. ... mesmerising is an understatement... Further archive footage involving Martin Luther King, film of Joan's controversial visit to North Vietnam during the period of heavy bombing of Hanoi, and a revisit to the location of Joan's 1993 Sarajevo trip: these are but three other crucial episodes within the Baez story that receive prominent coverage in this film.
The attendant audio CD is just fine as far as it goes, in that it presents - in their complete form - 15 songs from the soundtrack (although during the course of the documentary there are probably almost as many again that are unrepresented on the audio CD). Two-thirds of the 15 are of never-before-released status, and happily include the aforementioned 1958 Club 47 performances. Then there's a host of live concert recordings – three from a 1965 BBC broadcast, one from Dylan's 1976 NBC Hard Rain/Rolling Thunder show, followed by hauntingly intense recent accounts of Diamonds And Rust and Day After Tomorrow (from two different 2008 concerts) and finally two numbers (Love Song To A Stranger and Jerusalem) taken from a February 2009 gig in Durham, NC with a backing band (John Doyle, Dirk Powell, Todd Phillips and Gabe Harris). The five remaining cuts are taken (one apiece) from the existing albums One Day At A Time, Blessed Are…, Joan Baez In San Francisco, Carry It On and Live At Newport.
A fitting celebration of Joan's musical and political passions, then, from a variety of perspectives and all housed in a convenient package.
David Kidman December 2009
David Kidman June 2009
Fifty years on from beginning her residence at Boston's Club 47 and a career that's seen her at the front of the civil rights movement, organising resistance to the Vietnam War, inspiring Vaclav Havel, and standing next to Nelson Mandela for his 90th birthday celebrations, Baez arrives at her 24th studio album, and her first in five years. And while her mezzo soprano may have mellowed and grown lower and warmer, she's sounding as good now as when she sang We Shall Overcome, Silver Dagger or The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, ably supported by musicians that include Tim O'Brian, Kenny Malone, Darrel Scott and Viktor Krauss. At 67, it's not too surprising to find her reflecting on matters of mortality and the beyond with songs veined with religious imagery and allusions alongside themes of hope and homecoming.
Indeed, the album opens with the statement of faith that is God Is God. Melodically it sounds like vintage Baez, but it's actually purpose written by Steve Earle who also takes masterful charge of the album's understated and sympathetic production as well as playing guitar.
He contributes two more, the all new mandolin tumbling folksy I Am A Wanderer and, from Washington Square Serenade, the closing Jericho Road, a handclap-accompanied a capella spiritual worksong that could have come straight out of the slave plantations.
In fact, a reminder of her impeccable good taste as musical curator ( she did, after all, introduce the world to Dylan), as with the previous Dark Chords On A Big Guitar, the whole album consists entirely of other people's songs which Baez invests with her own gravitas and passion and makes them completely her own.
Eliza Gilkyson provides two, the trad folk sounding Rose of Sharon and, in keeping with the Biblical notes and featuring Earl on harmonium, Requiem's hymn to the Virgin Mary. The stirring, martial beat acoustic anthemic call to resistance Scarlet Tide is penned by Costello and T-Bone Burnett, Patty Griffin contributes Christian allegory Mary and from country songwriter Diana Jones there's the haunting miner's deathbed farewell of Henry Russell's Last Words sounding like a slow Hebrew funeral march.
Reviewing Thea Gilmore's Liejacker album, I noted that The Lower Road could have been a Baez number. Appropriate then that, having duetted on Gilmore's version, she's recorded it herself here with Thea returning the compliment and providing harmony. It's almost the album's finest moment, only nudged into second place by the stripped back (Baez on acoustic guitar), emotionally tremulous cover of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's title track letter from Iraq. "We all knew we were part of something special," says Earle of the recording. You should be too.
www.joanbaez.com
www.myspace.com/joanbaez
Mike Davies September 2008
This long-deleted live album, vintage 1995, is now re-released in a special two-disc collectors' edition with the addition of six previously unreleased tracks and a much improved booklet containing brand new comprehensive liner notes by Arthur Levy and full personnel performing credits. The genesis of the original Guardian label issue was an occasion in April 1995 when Joan and her guests (Mary Black, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Joan's late sister Mimi Fariña, Tish Hinojosa, Janis Ian, the Indigo Girls, Kate & Anna McGarrigle and Dar Williams) "took over" the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village, NY for the recording of what turned out to be Joan's first live album in two decades.
1995 was an important staging point in Joan's career, coming three years after her studio album Play Me Backwards (on which she'd recorded songs by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Janis Ian, inter alia) and pre-dating her key Gone From Danger set. Around half of the songs on Ring Them Bells are performed by Joan as duets with one or other of the guests - and there are some wonderful moments here, not least the spellbinding combination with Kate and Anna on Willie Moore, the duet with Janis on Jesse and that with Mary Chapin Carpenter on Diamonds And Rust. Additionally poignant too is Joan's duet with Mimi on Swallow Song (her husband Richard's composition).
The extra six previously unreleased tracks are better than fillers; they include Mary's Stones In The Road and three fine solo performances by Joan alone (You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, Geordie and the rarely-outed Love Song To A Stranger), all well worth having in order to complete the record of what was a unique series of shows. Shows where all the songs she was performing self-evidently really spoke to Joan directly. The presentation and packaging of this re-release is superb too, and I suspect it won't just be "collectors" who'll want to own a copy.
David Kidman 2007
Instead of delivering a new studio set, Joan now brings us another in the parallel strand of live albums which she's taken to releasing at crucial moments in history as "critical barometers of our endlessly troubled times". Bowery Songs fulfils Joan's stated objective of spanning as much of her 40+-year career as possible, from her arrangement of the traditional Silver Dagger (which had appeared on her 1960 debut LP) to no less than three selections from Dark Chords On A Big Guitar (Joan's well-received 2003 opus). The "carrot" - and a juicy one, it turns out - is the inclusion of four songs never before recorded by Joan, including a very fine rendition of Dylan's Seven Curses (counterpointed by some very skilful guitar playing, incidentally) and an acappella rendition of Finlandia. There's also Dink's Song, which Joan had originally sung with Dylan on the 1976 Rolling Thunder Revue, and a stirring version of Steve Earle's Jerusalem. But probably more so than the shadow of Dylan, it's the spirit of Woody Guthrie that looms largest over the whole of this new live album (and not just in the obvious sense that it includes his Deportee, and the honourable mention in the lyric of Steve Earle's Christmas In Washington!). There's a freewheeling spontaneity, a genuine emotional and political response to contemporary events (here the 2004 Presidential election week), that marks this live set (compiled from two nights at the Bowery Ballroom, NYC). Generally speaking, Joan's on good form, and these performances won't disappoint her many fans, although not every one of the 14 selections comprises an essential performance that must be added to the existing Baez collection - a few are quite efficient but do not really add anything new to her interpretations. But Bowery Songs carries on, with credibility, Joan's deliberate policy - nay, tradition - of releasing good-quality, and representative, live recordings, and as such cannot be but welcomed.
David Kidman
Joan Baez - Dark Chords On A Big Guitar (Sanctuary)
Her first album in six years finds the legendary folkie in excellent form, her keening voice as resonant and distinctive as ever, and while she may not have penned any of the material herself her choice of songs and writers is impeccable. With the vague exception of Natalie Merchant (the dark and potent America the lost number Motherland), all the songs are by Americana artists, Greg Brown providing both the opening track with Sleeper (a tale of putting wild flings behind in favour of a steady life, transformed into a classic Baez number evocative of her work in the 70s) and lost dreams lament Rexroth's Daughter, from which the title line comes.
Still sounding like If I Needed You, Ryan Adams's In My Time Of Need gets a simple yearning treatment while his former Whiskeytown cohort Caitlin Cary supplies Rosemary Moore, its encouragement to the widow to go out and grab another slice of life given a bluesy repetitive drone guitar mood by Duke McVinnie with George Javori's brushed drums accentuating the late night torchy mood.
A chugging train rhythm blues gospel approach to attempted rape murder ballad Caleb Meyer is the first of two songs by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, the second an equally scratchy, shrugging swampy (as opposed to country) blues and twangy bass treatment of Elvis Presley Blues. Which leaves Joe Henry's King's Highway (an upbeat rocker reminiscent of Dylan's funkier periods), the spare acoustic cover of highly praised upcoming young Idaho singer-songwriter Josh Ritter's melancholic ballad Wings from his new album Starling and to close, reminding that Baez made her name getting the establishment hot under the collar, a gentle resigned and weary cover of Steve Earle's timely rueful political lament Christmas In Washington.
It's typical of Baez to choose to showcase so many of her talented - and in too many cases unsung - fellow artists while hitting the mood of the moment, and with this accomplished, often musically adventurous return to the recording scene, they, she, and most of all us, should be well satisfied beneficiaries.
Mike Davies
Vanguard have done a really good job with these enhanced reissues of Joan's earliest records, all six being generously topped up with interesting bonus material either recorded concurrently or closely thereon. Space doesn't permit detailed discussion of these, but suffice to say that together these six albums will furnish you with almost all the early Joan Baez you're likely to need (I for one can do without Noël), and probably rather more. Just as the traditional song repertoire has itself provided Joan with much of her source material for these records - especially on volumes 1 and 2 - so these albums themselves have formed the basic source material for generations of singers coming new to the folk scene. Forget that they've spawned countless imitators - everyone has to start somewhere… Recorded over 40 years ago (believe it!), the first two albums may be primitive in concept, but they still sound fresh today, and should be in your collection, if for no other reason than to revel in the gorgeous purity of Joan's soprano and its delicate throbbing vibrato (though I know there are some who find the latter trait infuriating). For many folkies, hers are pretty much the definitive versions of many of the songs she tackles here. This latter comment can also apply to the Dylan songs she recorded on Farewell, Angelina, and, on 5, classics such as Phil Ochs' There But For Fortune and Richard Fariña's Birmingham Sunday, both of which pre-dated the composers' own recordings by some time, also curiosities such as Villa Lobos' Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5, complete with ensemble of cellos. Finally, the pair of In Concert CDs were taken from recordings made at various live shows between October 1961 and Spring 1963 by Maynard Solomon, then co-owner of the record label, for the dual purpose of documenting material and testing its suitability for future studio releases. These albums contain some very fine performances, which form a useful addendum to the studio albums while duplicating less material than you might expect. Altogether, a very worthwhile set of reissues, which look set to become the definitive packages, hopefully remaining in print for some time to come.
David Kidman
Baggyrinkle is the name given to the octet of Swansea-based shantymen led by Dave Robinson, who for the past few years have hosted the Swansea and Mumbles Festivals while gaining an increasing reputation at major shanty and maritime festivals throughout the UK and Europe. Their individual approach combines sufficiently lusty lead and chorus parts, with three-part harmony singing a particular speciality. As for those shanty enthusiasts who consider harmonies anathema to the spirit of those work-songs, I'd urge them to listen again without prejudice, for they may well be pleasantly surprised at the musicality of Baggyrinkle's renderings. This CD, a studio recording, complements the group's earlier tape release (A Pound And A Pint, which was recorded live), in capturing both the vitality and textural strengths of the crew's singing, although it must be said that you can't always feel the actual weight of eight voices even when they're all used together. The chosen leads are well varied and characterful in delivery, although one or two of the selections may possibly seem a little matter-of-fact when set alongside more celebrated recordings; however, taken on their own terms, virtually all of the selections are creditable versions worthy of a place in the collection of the maritime enthusiast. The choice of material is an enterprising one too, for classic shanties old and modern (from Roll Alabama Roll and the Irish/Negro Old Moke to Peter Bellamy's Roll Down and Tom Lewis's Last Shanty) are set alongside choice forebitters and a few sea-songs (including Bill Meek's Time Ashore, the Welsh-language Codi Angor and the traditional Pleasant And Delightful). And another plus - (unlike some shanty crews) Baggyrinkle don't need to force the pace to make an impact. That factor alone should enable their work to be appreciated by any lovers of folk music who are sitting on the proverbial quayside and considering dipping their ears into the maritime repertoire. Yes, this attractive and well-planned programme does Baggyrinkle credit.
www.baggyrinkle.freeservers.com
David Kidman
Believe this... last time I reviewed an album by this particular Mr Bailey (Ian), I coincidentally was also reviewing a CD by another Bailey. And by that same quirk of fate, here I am reviewing Ian's own followup CD at the same time as one by yet another different Bailey - Glyn ! But back to Ian: his followup is an even more assured effort than his eponymous debut, with equally fine production - again from his long-time friend and collaborator Gary Hall, a man with a super-keen ear for doing the material real justice. Again, the majority of Ian's songs are built up from a solid and interestingly scored acoustic base, and he displays a keen intelligence in arrangement. Stylistically, it might seem at first that Ian doesn't seem to quite make up his mind whether to aim for being a rocker or a balladeer, although he convinces on both counts - and more consistently so than on his debut. First off, he tries to remain One Step Ahead Of The Blues with a convincingly tough and catchy Lindisfarne-ish strum-and-slide-led opener, then shows his soulful passion on the sax-bedecked slowie You Stop Me From Falling. The deceptively gentle-sounding Communication has a distinctly Dylanesque demeanour - an impression reinforced no doubt by the melodic structure of the first half of each verse bearing such a marked resemblance to The Times They Are A'Changin'. The tender and winsome chamber-folk-pop of Don't Throw It All Away, Listen Closely and Love Song (replete with luscious yet understated string settings) and the mournful Late Night Lament together comprise another attractive facet to Ian's musical personality, and these moments contrast big-time with the pounding, angry rock gestures of The Big Lie, the strident, organ-led Satellite and the slightly pompous Walk Away (whose setting inescapably reminds me of Magazine's Permafrost). It's good, too that Ian's taken the hint from last time and included his perceptive lyrics of love and loss in the booklet (this is an attractive presentation, whose only, miniscule, fault is an incorrect juxtaposition in the tracklisting on the credits page). Ian's certainly a very gifted fellow, and this new album should bring him further into the limelight of recognition. And it's a bit of a grower too, which is always a good thing..
www.myspace.com/ianbaileymusic
David Kidman February 2009
By a strange and perplexing coincidence, two completely different CDs bearing just "Bailey" as the artist name have arrived in my review pile within a few weeks of each other. Even more coincidental is the fact that both cite both Nick Drake and Ray Davies among their respective influences! Hmm… Well, this resolutely eponymous CD is the work of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ian Bailey, and was recorded under the guidance of Gary Hall; it appears on Preston-based independent label Northern Sun. Bare facts aside, though, it inhabits an altogether lusher musical world than the other Bailey CD mentioned, at least for parts of its 55-minute length. Ian Bailey seems determined to prove himself as a musical chameleon, but ends up ultimately, I feel, as more of a jack-of-all-trades and closer to being a true or complete master of none. That shouldn't imply creative or musical ineptitude – far from it – but Ian's diversity doesn't in my opinion include a distinctive enough individual voice (writing or singing), or musical identity, to carry the album as a unified whole. The musicianship is of a high standard though, and there are certainly plenty of moments to treasure here, although you have to pick around a bit to find them. The opening track Reach Out For Today is a luscious ballad, featuring some truly beautiful string playing from Richard Curran, but it's almost completely spoilt by some obtrusive and quite sickly keyboard-generated twittering noises; an overdose of synthy spacey sounds detracts from These Are Days too. However, track 4 (Unsteady Beat) proves that with a bit more restraint in the musical arrangement Ian can put across a ballad with real sensitivity and taste. Ditto with Autumn Leaves, where the Ray Davies namecheck came readily to mind (at least in the vocal tone and phrasing). Ian handles the thoughtful, stripped-down Clive Gregson-style acoustic ballad Behind Disguise and the standout folk-rock troubadour ballad Aching And Waiting with considerable credit too. Elsewhere there are some well, what I might term vaguely sub-Coldplay moments, but they don't offend the sensibilities at all. Punctuating the ballads, there's some brief moody instrumentals and a couple of defiantly "chalk & cheese" rockers – the Pettyesque Better Man (good) and the punk-metal thrash Suicide Bullet Train (makeweight) – and a neat Mex-inflected Be Here To Love Me (with some lovely guitar tracery from Mark Wilkinson). And then there's the distinctly strange Wounds Of Craving, which has a child's voice (José Bailey) reciting one of Gary Hall's poems against a psychedelic and partially programmed backbeat – a bit like "America is pregnant with promise and anticipation" in its impact, and quite impressive on its own terms. There's much to admire in Ian Bailey's work, and it really does repay investigation, but in my opinion he should ditch the synths and stop trying to prove too much. Oh, and it would've been nice to have the lyrics in the booklet.
David Kidman
This particular Bailey brings forth an album that's only just over half the length of the CD by the other Bailey I reviewed this week. David Bailey is described as a 26-year-old singer/songwriter from Cambridge who "performs his own songs in a soft (baritone) voice, complemented by his classical guitar playing". Sounds a bit dull from that tag, perhaps, but much of his work is actually rather attractive in a post-Nick-Drake kind of way (School and Song Of The Lighthouse Keeper probably stick in the memory most on initial acquaintance). The downside is that his quietly rippling guitar style gets a trifle monotonous after three or four tracks, and when it's almost the only instrumental accompaniment used on the CD you need a proportionally higher level of interest in the lyrics to compensate and keep the listener's attention. The problem here is that David tends to fall back on a kind of singsong metre and a rhyme scheme that's obvious to the point of seeming more trite than they actually are (Hospital Bed and the Smiths-like Could Have Been A Sign being particular cases in point). As the title track postulates, this may be self-evidently "the way that things are done", but there's insufficient dynamic or colour contrast between the individual songs for the most part, despite occasional judicious tinkering with piano, melodica, mellotron and glockenspiel. The somewhat Donovanesque (Gift From A Flower-inspired?) Princess Of The Sea, though wave-swamped, is a welcome contrast around halfway through the CD. Summing up then – a work of intermittent promise that doesn't quite succeed in capitalising on its laudable "lack of digital jiggery-pokery".
David Kidman
Very strange, especially coming from the Fylde (Lancashire) - one might well say! But this is a record that grabs attention right from the start, with its surfeit of invention, ideas and imagination. At various points Glyn invokes Scott Walker, Robyn Hitchcock, Nick Cave, Jacques Brel, Echo & The Bunnymen, Divine Comedy and Leonard Cohen, but most especially David Bowie (vintage early and pre-Scary Monsters)… and yet he remains a curiously original voice. Glyn's music is difficult to get a handle on at first, with so many first-impressions forming a bewildering headlong rush through the ears. The kinda spaghetti-western-smalltown image that might readily be conjured up by the album's title is one that translates into the slightly cheesy musical idiom Glyn adopts on Yahoo! And The Crow. And, in keeping with those tales of the old West too I suppose, Glyn's writing displays a strong sense of narrative too, as proved by the eight-minute epic Ballad Of Deano. Basically, Glyn can't resist drawing attention to himself by means of undeniably impressive, powerfully crafted musical settings and lyrics that passionately and eloquently embrace entirely justified criticism of the unforgivingly corrupt corporate world in which we try to survive. Also, you can't ignore Glyn's acute and well-developed feel for bright and bold instrumental colour and creative texturing: it seems that he plays almost everything himself (aside from electric and bass guitars, for which he drafts in Phil Senior, and there's a couple of guest musicians on The Crow). If you take things at sound-face value, there's quite a feelgood aura to the album generally, notably on the bouncy sunshine-pop of Down Amongst The Living and the iron-clad stompsome beat of School Reunion, and even on the more sinister numbers like The Doomed Ship Allegory and The Clown (a very Bowie-esque portrait of a paedophile). Payback-time comes (quite literally) on Groomed, an examination of coercion and abuse, which comes on like a breathless cross between The Cure's Love Cats and the Hustle theme tune. A first hearing of tracks like Kafkaesque World can be distinctly overwhelming, with its potent juxtapositions (lavish musical setting with smooth crooning delivery to voice the thoughts and words of a torturer). Elsewhere, perhaps, it can be all too easy to get the feeling that Glyn is deliberately setting out to make an Impact (capital "I"!) with his neo-rock-cabaret stance. Yet, just as with any situation where there's a definite brimming-over-surfeit of artistic creativity, this eventually involves an element of excess that needs trimming - or at least channelling: a process with which Glyn's still, clearly, feeling his way a bit. In addition, and in spite of the strong sense of integrity that permeates Glyn's lyrical and musical vision, I can't altogether escape a feeling that pastiche is lurking not too far away at times; and this can leave an often desperately unsettling taste. But then again, as with much music that unsettles, to whatever degree, it's perversely compelling, and against initial expectations I've found myself both returning to a good deal of this disc and keen to explore Glyn's two previous albums..
David Kidman February 2009
Well, Roy's "retirement" CD, Coda, was actually meant to be his last recording wasn't it?!… but then along came Sit Down And Sing… And then, as we all know, far from retiring into a frail shell, Roy's continued to stimulate and inspire us all through his passionate live performances, unflinchingly discovering and bringing onto stage (and thus into richly deserved wider circulation) great new songs that challenge and provoke in the best possible traditions of folk, confronting our preconceptions and beliefs for there are many lessons still to be learnt. So I guess a further release was inevitable! Hence the so-aptly titled new CD, which firmly casts the spotlight of destiny on folk songs which (in Roy's own brilliantly chosen words) "circulate unhindered by the formulaic demands of commercialism, their strength (lying) in their being outside the mainstream – from being below the radar". And let me say at the outset that it finds Roy on finest possible form: at 73, still singing with deep and natural compassion and a tremendous intensity and conviction. Roy's renewed vigour is the stuff of legend, but I could say it's right there in the grooves of this record for you to reach out and touch (Andy Seward has done a splendid job in capturing both the joy and strength of Roy's singing). And of course in his choice of songs: uncompromising and perennially relevant. Pride of place this time round goes to the four stunning songs from the pen of Seattle-based Jim Page, whose effective and resonant utilisation-cum-paraphrasing of borrowings from traditional and contemporary folk songs clearly strikes a chord in Roy (while also recalling the comparable skill of our own Ray Hearne). But Roy keenly embraces the sentiments of each and every song he sings, whether it's George Papavgeris's all-encompassing and life-affirming anthem Friends Like These or Ian Campbell's epic and darkly prophetic Old Man's Tale. Here Roy also brings us a contrasted pair of fine songs by David Ferrard: the charming love song Take Me Out Waltzing Tonight and the powerfully reflective album closer Visions Of Our Youth. Continuing Roy's own personal tradition, there's a song apiece by Si Kahn and Leon Rosselson (well, the latter's Leon's setting of Charles Causley's Timothy Winters), while "actual" tradition is represented by a lovely version of The Road To Dundee and a fine rendition of Handsome Molly, on which one of Roy's backing musicians is Martin Simpson, whose own recording of the song is considered a benchmark. Roy's other instrumental collaborators here - John Kirkpatrick, Andy Cutting, Donald Grant and Andy Seward - give of their very best, playing with spirit and commitment throughout in lovingly-contoured, full-toned yet light and sensitive arrangements. Every track is both memorable and relevant, a further demonstration of Roy's total integrity, and the whole set forms both a cause for celebration (of half-a-century of bringing folk music to a wide audience) and yet another high point in Roy's illustrious career.
David Kidman May 2009
Roy's last full-length album, Coda, was definitely going to be his last, no question, he said … but though he fully meant it at the time, new songs persisted in coming his way (as they would!). So, under the all-pervasive influence of the boundless energy of John Kirkpatrick and with the additional catalyst of the arrival in Roy's "family" of a ready-made accompanist in Martin Simpson, Roy's earlier decision "simply melted away"! Cause for rejoicing, indeed, I say. Here on Sit Down And Sing, Roy performs at total of 15 songs - 13 of them he's recorded for the first time. In the cases of several of these, Roy must have got tired of being asked "which CD's that one on?" and not having an answer that would satisfy the eager punters! After all, Si Kahn's immensely powerful statement of exploitation and personal need Go To Work On Monday and Holly Near's defiant gospel-chant-inspired I Ain't Afraid have featured in Roy's live sets for some years now. Labouring Man has been around Roy's repertoire since he learnt it from Alistair Hulett when depping for Dave Swarbrick on a tour with Ali a few years ago. And Roy had wanted to record Dick Gaughan's A Different Kind Of Love Song for a long time, and I'm so glad he's finally got round to doing so, since it's one of the strongest tracks; here, John Kirkpatrick provides superb instrumental backing (Anglo concertina in this particular case). Another standout is Eileen McGann's No Country's Law, a potent commentary on the "new mantra of global economy", not an easy subject to address in song. No Roy Bailey release would be complete without a Robb Johnson song, and so a riveting version of More Than Enough, sparsely yet tellingly accompanied by Martin Simpson, concludes the CD. Of the two re-recordings here, Leon Rosselson's Palaces Of Gold (of which Roy had first recorded a version on his eponymous Trailer LP in 1970!) continues to demonstrate hefty contemporary relevance, while the new recording of Ray Hearne's Song For David, with the benefit of some particularly moving guitar work from Martin in counterpoint with Roy's own guitar, for me effortlessly eclipses the Stalking Horses live version on the no-longer-available CD Never Leave A Story Unsung. So how does the 2005 Roy measure up? Well you can still trust Roy to unearth some fine songs; he's always been an inspiration to singers seeking fresh and meaningful material. And vocally, though he now displays a slight fragility at times, this carries with it an indomitable strength born of the absolute conviction in what he's singing and the total integrity that has always characterised his singing. His knack of choosing apposite accompanists is unerring as ever, as can be heard in the superlative contributions of Messrs Simpson (all but three tracks) and Kirkpatrick. The only small glitch in this wonderful package is a curious and slightly disconcerting disparity in recording level between some of the tracks, whereby a few (including Perspectives and Sheffield Grinder) exhibit an arguably greater presence and immediacy.
David Kidman
Roy Bailey & Tony Benn - The Writing On The Wall (Fuse Records)
This collaboration between the two eminent and respected traditionalists has always been a popular touring show which regularly brings both participants new admirers; a 1995 performance of the show at Leicester's Phoenix Arts Centre was originally released on a double-cassette (and this is still available on Fuse). Now, Roy is releasing a CD recording of the show, confusingly bearing the exact same title but of a different performance entirely, that which was recorded live at the Cambridge Folk Festival of 2000 (with a standing ovation from 9000 people). The basic structure of the show has remained the same, but inevitably, as Roy says, "as time passes the content changes with the times". So this high-profile festival performance was a special occasion in many senses, so this new CD is still worth having even if you already have the tape version. Of its 61 minutes' duration, just over half is devoted to Tony Benn (a short introduction and two more lengthy but intense spoken discourses of political history laced with good sense). The rest is Roy at his best, solo, singing some of the material he's been regularly associated with over the years; the songs include three celebrated examples from the acutely-sharpened pen of Leon Rosselson (History Lesson, The World Turned Upside Down and Abeizer Coppe) and two contrasted chansons by Robb Johnson (Winter Turns To Spring and The Ballad Of Vic Williams). It's been a very long time since I attended a performance of the whole show, and I wasn't at the 2000 Cambridge performance so can't vouch for its absolute completeness or otherwise, but although it all hangs together fine it feels as though there's still something missing – and that's my only quibble about this valuable release. If you have any sympathy at all with folks of integrity and political song with a small but important P, then you definitely need a copy of this CD.
David Kidman
These are affectionate, genial, commendably polished and admirably conservative (though not especially sedate) renditions which make a virtue out of their intrinsic Irish character and its lovable honesty. There are no discernible flaws in execution and no crass misjudgements or lapses in taste, but that's as far as it goes really, for equally there's not anything much to wildly excite herein (that's not to say that many of the actual songs themselves, or the conventional alternative – the rabble-rousing rough-house-rowdy approach of the Clancys/Dubliners school – would necessarily excite me much either). Apart, that is, from an empathic take on A Song For Ireland itself and a particularly thoughtfully-turned version of The Ould Triangle… these, more than any other tracks, make it clear that this project is rather a labour of love for Michael and Anthony, who are companionably accompanied on their worthy mission by guest musicians Paul Gurney, Noel Carberry, Aoife Kelly and Johnny Duffy (on piano, bass, accordion, fiddle, banjo, uilleann pipes and whistles) in straightforward and unfussy arrangements. Hereby refreshingly stripped of the customary layers of ages of grimy pub, club and showband sentimentality, these renditions of the songs that represent the Irish psyche together form a classy, and in the end likeable enough, tourist's-ear-view of popular Irish song, I'd say.
So if you want to hear, and own for posterity, these reliable, pleasing and sufficiently definitive versions of such hoary old traditional and composed "Irish standards" as I'll Tell Me Ma, Rocky Road To Dublin, Star Of The County Down, Peggy Gordon, The Wild Rover, Sullivan's John, Mountains Of Mourne, Black Velvet Band, Rare Ould Times, Fields Of Athenry, Spancil Hill, Raglan Road and Danny Boy, together with efficient renditions of songs which have been eagerly (if contentiously) adopted by the Irish as part of their own modern tradition (Fiddler's Green, Dirty Old Town)… then this generous 76-minute compendium will satisfy, to be sure.
David Kidman July 2009
Aly Bain - The Best Of Aly Bain Volume 1 (Whirlie)
Now in his 40th year as a professional musician, Aly's one of those folks who's always been right there in the forefront of Scottish traditional music: both as an active front-line participant (one of the country's finest fiddle players, period), and as a significant contributor to (or at the very least beavering away in the background on) other artists' projects. So in many respects, the time is now ripe for a suitably comprehensive overview of Aly's career to date. And barring a Free Reed box-set, a goodly series of "best-of" discs should be the next best thing.
So here's volume 1(the title I hope being a genuine indicator of Whirlie's future plans), with 16 tracks carefully chosen by Aly himself. Although it's not sequenced strictly chronologically, the disc does begin sensibly with a typical set of reels from Aly's very first solo CD, recorded in Lerwick back in 1984, with Aly's dashing bow-strokes equally dashingly accompanied by the wonderfully sympathetic piano of Violet Tulloch and the guitar of Willie Johnson. And from even earlier, there's a track from The Silver Bow, the mid-seventies Topic disc with Tom Anderson which did so much to bring Shetland music into public consciousness after years of commercial obscurity. Elsewhere, the disc travels around (much like the itinerant Aly himself!) with a cavalcade of examples of Aly's instrumental dexterity, his mastery of many styles and traditions - many if not all of which can in context be heard to share a common wellspring if not exactly a common heritage - and, not least, Aly's enormous flair for getting the best out of fellow-musicians in a collaborative scenario, for he's been fortunate in getting to work with a great many of the world's finest. As an instance of this, we need look no further than the legendary Transatlantic Sessions projects, of course, and a sparkling Waiting For The Federals from Series 2 is included here; but then not everyone knows that the even more legendary Channel 4 series Down Home was TS's precursor, and this disc includes no fewer than four brilliant tracks from the recording sessions for the series (hopefully as a taster for the release of the whole shebang on disc soon, please!). Hearing Aly firing away in the company of illustrious fiddlers from anywhere on the planet is always one of the deepest joys that can be experienced, and for me the "session" could go on all night and into the next week and I'd still want more! So it's de rigeur to include tracks where Aly spars with such luminaries as Mark O'Connor, Tommy Jarrell and Buddy MacMaster, as well as a rollicking Shetland Sessions set featuring Hom Bru and Aly's long-term musical partner Phil Cunningham and a spicy Doucet-Savoy collaboration from Aly Meets The Cajuns.
Then, to balance these euphoric moments, the disc presents several of the thoughtfully considered slower compositions and arrangements in which Aly has also always excelled. One standout is his lovely 1997 treatment of Margaret's Waltz, hitherto only available on an obscure Norwegian release, whereas other heart-stopping moments come with the pair of beautiful Bear Waltzes from Skåne and from Aly's recordings with the Scottish Ensemble, notably the Follow The Moonstone piece Till Far. Finally, no Aly Bain collection would be complete without one of his many recordings of the traditional Shetland air Da Day Dawn, and he's chosen one of the very finest, the 1995 one with the BT Scottish Ensemble.
This is a cannily sequenced 48-minute collection that's pretty comprehensive in its own right and works well as an independent listening programme, but on the other hand it can't help but leave me with that niggling feeling of incompleteness. Because I just know there's so much more out there in Aly's impressively exhaustive discography, and many of the original albums aren't all that readily (or any longer) available. I suppose it's rather like the tip of an enormous iceberg floating in the ocean between Orkney and mainland Scotland, the catch being that the majority of the rest of that ice-floe may well be destined to remain beneath the surface. OK maybe I'm being needlessly pessimistic here - let's hope I'm proved wrong, and there now ensues a veritable flood of Aly Bain reissues!
David Kidman January 2009
Best known for Keep Your Hands To Yourself and Battleship Chains off their debut album, Southern barroom rock outfit The Georgia Satellites never really managed to capitalise on the initial impetus. Baird quit to go solo in 1990 but after the first two albums, Love Songs For The Hearing Impaired and Buffalo Nickel, his career's been somewhat patchy. However, batteries recharged and with Jason & The Scorchers guitarist Warner E. Hodges now onboard, this marks something of a return to form.
There's no envelope pushing going on, but what you do get is solid, beer-swilling, swaggering Southern country rock n roll with cranked up ringing guitars, rolling riff-packed melodies, throaty twang vocals and air punching choruses. You could hear a Faces era Rod Stewart belting out Damn Thing To Be Done and Well Enough Alone or Tom Petty sinking his teeth into Two For Tuesday and She Dug Me Up while Just Can't Wait is exactly the sort of number you'd imagine Dave Edmunds crawling from the wreckage to cover in his rock n boogie days. It won't change your life, but pour a cold one and crank the likes of Lazy Monday and Runnin' Outta Time up loud, and it could well make your evening.
www.danbaird.net
www.myspace.com/danbaird
Mike Davies November 2008
This is an unusual record by any standards. It's an intimate, by-request set of ten songs composed by Amazing Blondel's guitarist/songwriter Eddie Baird, and performed entirely solo by Eddie with just his trademark troubadour-style acoustic guitar for company. It can be considered doubly unusual, in fact, since Eddie's normally been responsible for the more spaciously arranged Blondel pieces - although it's not widely known that Eddie's been pursuing a parallel solo recording career for the past ten years (he's released four solo CDs including a compilation, but none have been nationally distributed). The first four songs on this disc are simply-conceived outings, initially displaying a quite jazzy demeanour, recorded close-up and live in front of an appreciative small club crowd by the sound of it. Best of this quartet are the gently reflective Memory Lane and the distinctly Tilstonesque Tramp. These are followed by a medley (Sailing/Young Man's Fancy) taken from a 2004 live Blondel concert, and finally a clutch of stripped-down-to-basics studio recordings. Listeners coming new to Eddie's work will wonder, on the strength of these songs, why wider commercial success continues to elude Eddie. Songs like Compromised and Funny Old Life carry a laconic laid-back feel comparable to classic John Martyn, and Almost Gone has a canny grasp of delicate melody-line that recalls Clive Gregson. Eddie's individual voice is exposed well on this brief set, ditto his deft guitar work, a talent which should be more widely appreciated too.
David Kidman January 2010
Dear Companion is a lovely, intimate album sung and arranged by nu-folk outfit Espers' vocalist and songwriter Meg Baird: a collection of songs that are very close to Meg's heart, it mixes original material from the early 70s with two of Meg's own compositions and a significant handful of traditional songs, though the overall mood of the set is very probably determined more by the latter than the former, at least in its early and late stages. The genesis of the actual project came in an invitation to create a solo release for Philadelphia's Tequila Sunrise label, out of which nothing but a 7" single appeared and the entire LP - recorded in spare moments during the sessions for Espers II - was never made available at the time... thank goodness Wichita have seen sense and are releasing it for public consumption now, for it's a wonderfully simple yet compelling listen. It's typically minimalist in terms of backing (just Meg's own guitar or Appalachian dulcimer in the main), and Meg's clear-toned singing has never sounded more truthful and beautiful - of that I'm convinced - for she gives her all in terms of passion and conviction in "doing a really good job" of communicating these songs which evidently mean so much to her personally. Forced to pick some highlights: well, Meg's own Riverhouse In Tinicum is outstanding, as is her folk-inspired Maiden In The Moor Lay and her appealingly fresh take on the traditional ballad Barbry Ellen. Add to that an enchanting version of Sweet William And Fair Ellen, an attractive, rippling waltz-time rendition of Willie O' Winsbury (and yes, it works!), and exquisite covers of Jimmy Webb's Do What You Gotta Do and John Dawson (NRPS)'s All I Ever Wanted. The final track is a gorgeous acappella rendition of the text of the opening (title) song (as learnt from the singing of Sheila Kay Adams), bringing the experience deliciously full-circle. This record is seriously sublime, and should (if there were any justice) be embraced wholeheartedly by the folk community as well as by Meg's Espers fanbase. It may be Meg's debut solo album, but I do so hope it's not her last.
David Kidman December 2007
Baka Beyond is the seminal world-music fusion outfit founded by Martin Cradick and Su Hart, which started out on its global music exchange some 10 years ago; Rhythm Tree can be seen as the culmination of their work to date, even though after all this time we're in danger of losing the power to surprise from the juxtaposition of seemingly unlikely musico-cultural bedfellows. The recurring constant context in which the various musics are brought together is the music of the Baka Pygmies of south-east Cameroon - hence the group name. The Baka tribe, who are masters of dance, bring an amazingly energetic spectacle to the BB live act, yet much of the uplifting quality and sheer exuberance of that collaboration also comes through on a purely audio level through the performances of the core eight-piece band you hear on this CD, notwithstanding its inevitable lack of visual distraction which as a bonus allows for greater concentration on the subtleties of the musical mix. Here, the heady brew of Celtic, Gaelic and West African musics is so persuasive that you often have to listen really carefully to separate the strands, and in this respect I'm convinced this is the Baka's most successful marriage to date. Musically, Rhythm Tree is a landmark in cohesive exploration of different musical cultures. I love the way in which the musical framework shifts continually withjn individual tracks, while at the same time I can appreciate the impact of specific textural or thematic elements which inform and characterise these tracks (eg Su Hart's rendition of the Gaelic waulking song which forms the basis for Sad Among Strangers, the and Paddy Le Mercier's weaving violin arabesques on several of the tracks). Distinctive African rhythms are to the fore on tracks like Bokissa and Kobo, but the music never gets stuck in one particular groove and there's always a keen sense of development - for instance, on La Londé, the way an indigenous Baka children's song transmutes into a fiddle reel is particularly enchanting, and on Shimina the relaxed sense of onward progression is enticing. Later on, the device of alternating the sung language on the version of Hush, Hush, enables Baka Beyond to intriguingly draw parallels between the plights of the different peoples; like the mélange of musical and ethnic flavours on the album as a whole, it's a mix that perhaps ought not to work - but it does. The Baka tribe's contributions to the album were recorded "in-house" either "in the field" or at the Music House, the purpose-built recording studio in the tribe's village (funds for which were raised by the band). One minor point, though, is that I'm not altogether convinced of the need to constantly reinforce the listener's sense of place quite so many times by interpolating natural sounds from the Baka rainforest, supremely evocative though the ululating quasi-yodel of the singer's Call Of The Forest (which frames the rest of the album) undeniably is.
David Kidman
Richard "Duck" Baker is on the face of it a musician of contradictions: he's one of the most highly-regarded fingerstyle guitarists of his generation, yet he considers his main influence ragtime piano stylings, is especially drawn to jazz yet unlike most jazz guitarists doesn't use a pick, and he prefers nylon to steel strings (he plays swing on a flamenco guitar). His expertise extends right across the fretboard of musical genres, and over the course of his 30-year recording career so far he's made a frightening number of solo albums, encompassing not only jazz and swing, but old-time and free improv, Irish and Scottish folk tunes, and O'Carolan to Christmas carols. Not to mention guitar instruction videos, and heaps of music criticism, and duo albums with all manner of respected musos from experimentalists John Zorn and Henry Kaiser through to fiddler Kieran Fahy and traditional singer Molly Andrews. His most recent CD, The Expatriate Game, a splendid collaboration with Maggie Boyle and Ben Paley, has proved difficult to wrench from the CD player whenever it's got back there (see review in the NetRhythms archive)! So you'll gather that Duck's latest recording is eagerly welcomed in this house. It's a project which has "been in the works for years", sort of evolving from a response to something people have been demanding for a while: a collection of early jazz and swing tunes. That means a scintillating trot through some immortal classics like Benny Goodman's Stompin' At The Savoy, Hoagy Carmichael's Georgia On My Mind, and the old spiritual Just A Closer Walk With Thee, by way of I'll See You In My Dreams, Scott Joplin's Pineapple Rag, Old Fashioned Love (from the pen of stride pianist James P. Johnson), and an elegant rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame on 12-string! And that's just the impeccably played, yet far from soulless, solo items on the disc, the remaining half of which is given over to some sparkling duet performances. Four of these are with Hawaiian steel guitarist/ukulele hot-lick maestro Ken Emerson (the pick of which for me is the delicious uke-rich Up A Lazy River, though the sublime steel-soaked title track runs it close and the gentle sparring on Do That Messin' Around proves a perfect showcase for the pair's keen sense of humour), and three with acoustic jazz guitar ace Will Bernard (there's some especially stimulating fingerpicking interplay amongst the gutsy pounding rhythms of the Django Reinhardt standard Honeysuckle Rose). An absolutely masterly set – and so what if a few numbers are revisits of stuff Duck's recorded before on long-deleted or obscure vinyl LPs, for they all come up totally fresh here. It's probably a very old joke by now, but if you don't respond to Duck's brilliant playing then hey, you must be "quackers"!
David Kidman December 2006
Duck Baker, Maggie Boyle & Ben Paley - The Ex[atriate Game (Day Job Records)
This under-promoted gem of a CD should need no recommendation if you know any or all of the three artistes involved. Its title is a clever wordplay on the well-known Dominic Behan song The Patriot Game suggested principally by the equally well-known tendency of musicians to carry their tunes to foreign shores. Its equally underselling subtitle (Traditional Irish And American Music) simultaneously reflects the performers and the repertoire. Should you need a quick pen-picture: American-born, London-based Duck is nothing less than a definitive premier-league fingerstyle guitarist, whereas both Ben and Maggie were born to families who emigrated to England (Ben's father's that celebrated old-timer Tom Paley, and Maggie was reared in the musically vibrant London-Irish community of the 60s and 70s). Ben's a fabulous young fiddle player who readily immerses himself in activities as diverse as Scandinavian music, revivalist oldtime (with his father in the New Deal String Band) and the vibrant acoustic thrash of McDermotts 2 Hours and the Levellers. And last but definitely not least, Maggie's a damnably fine flute player as well as quite simply one of the loveliest singers in the entire world. Further connectivity is assured when you realise that Duck, shortly after moving to London in the late 70s, had been responsible for introducing Maggie to Steve Tilston, sparking off one of the most wonderful collaborative partnerships of the British folk scene from the late 80s through to the mid-90s. So trust me, the aforementioned three musicians working together give us something truly special on this CD. Their empathy is remarkable; rarely do you hear such miraculous attunement between performers of ostensibly disparate musical disciplines or experience (though anyone with a deeper knowledge of the musics concerned would argue that qualification in any case). It's a heavenly partnership, which first trod the boards of a select few local West Yorkshire venues a mere 15 months or so back (if my memory serves me rightly), and just had to spawn a studio recording! They clearly have a real good time making their music too, as you'll see from the joyously nonchalant cover photo, and in their music-making much play is made with the tension between the Irish and American senses of rhythm. A specially noteworthy feature of the performances, though, is the way in which the extraordinary talents of each of the three musicians as individuals, normally utilised in a solo situation, are adapted so very naturally to the group situation. Duck's essentially soloistic approach, his tremendous facility for playing both melody and either countermelody or bass line, is given full rein in this unusual context of his arrangements of the tunes on this CD. And Maggie's use of the Irish flute on indigenous American old-time tunes is somewhat of a ?first? for that repertoire, while Ben's own facility for, and considerable experience of, different musical traditions informs his approach to playing or accompanying music originating on both sides of the pond. Ben's Swedish-style harmony playing on the well-travelled The Blackbird is an unusual but effective touch, while his intense accompaniment of Maggie's excellent rendition of A Youth Inclined To Ramble is a CD highlight. This is one of just five vocal items on this CD (happily, no fewer than four of these are Maggie's, yet the fifth, Rye Whisky, brings Duck out front on an all-too-rare excursion to the vocal mike). The faster tunes trip by abnormally lightly and fleet-footed - pieces like Poll Ha'penny (which many of us first encountered as the final leg-slapping tune of the original Fairport Dirty Linen set) and the closing banjo tune Robinson County are both vital and sprightly - while on the other hand the slower (well, more measured!) selections still manage to embody a joyful sense of pacing that, though relaxed, never gets the chance to rest long enough to become in the slightest bit ponderous. Finally a word of praise for the booklet, which manages to convey a lot of information on the tunes and songs and the performers' sources in a succinct and readable manner together with supplying the full song texts used. The recording, a homespun production by Mike Hockenhull, faithfully reflects both a deep feel for the music and a deep knowledge of, and trust in, the musicians and their capabilities. An exemplary release this, everywhere exuding a loving attention to detail alongside the equally exemplary musicianship. Do track it down, you'll not regret it.
David Kidman
This is a long-overdue reissue of an important Tradition LP which presented field recordings, made in 1956, of the playing of Etta Baker and other talented musicians of the Southern Appalachians who had never previously been recorded. Obscure they may have seemed, but uncommonly fiery is the playing, with a raw edge and unbridled vitality for whom the word "enthusiasm" might have been coined. Since those heady days, when even specialist folkies hadn't heard anything like these musicians, other recordings have surfaced featuring fiddler Hobart Smith (notably those made for the Library Of Congress where he backed his sister, singer Texas Gladden), but the rest of the musicians on this collection have remained little more than names on a discography, although the influence of their playing has pervaded that of countless aspiring traditional-style guitarists, banjo players and Appalachian dulcimer exponents ever since. Even at a temporal remove of over 50 years, you can't fail to be moved by the tremendous power of many of the performances collected here, especially the fiddle tracks. And as well as fiddling vigorously, Hobart Smith also contributed one track on which he removed all the frets from a borrowed banjo before playing! The rest of the musicians were all recorded in their native North Carolina, and are drawn from the family and friends of guitarist Etta Baker; they play timeless popular tunes from the tradition such as Cripple Creek, Soldier's Joy and Shady Grove as well as a few less well-known pieces. Etta's rendition of John Henry (played with a jackknife blade!) is astounding by any standards, and her other four pieces on the disc are similarly invigorating. I also enjoyed Richard Chase's harmonica tunes for their cheery quality and his insistence on carrying the melody along rather than forcing you to listen instead to his technique. The sound quality of the disc is raw and forward, primitive by today's standards naturally, and some of the guitar pieces are rather clangy, but it's all still perfectly listenable. In fact, a very enjoyable disc that's also of considerable historical and heritage interest. Full liner notes are reproduced, as always with the Tradition reissues. Pretty much essential I'd say.
David Kidman January 2007
Etta Baker is the grand old lady of the blues and I'm sure she won't mind me saying that she is 91 years of age. She has influenced many a guitarist and Taj Mahal has said that she is the greatest single influence on his guitar style. This album of songs recorded between 1956 and 1998 shows that she is a force to be reckoned with. There are two parts to the recording, the 'now' section which covers the first 11 songs and the 'then' section covering the final 7.
Opening with 5 songs accompanied by Taj Mahal, Etta introduces us to her gentle style on the oft covered John Henry, the beautifully played Crow Jane, the wonder that is Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, the first self-penned track Madison Street Blues on which she airs her electric guitar and outshines guitarists half her age and the country blues of Railroad Bill. She picks up the banjo for Cripple Creek, and this is a foot-tapper, and then continues the country theme on Johnson Boys. This is my favourite and is what music is all about – it makes you happy – and the inclusion of Wayne Martin's fiddle is a bonus.
Going To The Race Track, a gentle acoustic blues, starts off a run of three songs and a poem featuring Etta on her own. Her dexterity is so astounding on Lost John that you will swear that you are listening to the playing of someone far younger. Dew Drop is slower than most of the others but you can just imagine the drops of water falling from the spring flowers. Poem is exactly what the title says. It is a four line poem that perfectly sums up growing old. The final track of the 'now' category is Comb Blues and features the comb and paper as an instrument. Taj Mahal is back for this and is joined by Algia Mae Hinton. This is a slow blues that harks back to the very beginning of the genre.
In the 'then' category we are treated to seven songs that were recorded in July 1956. One Dime Blues, one of the three songs on the album written by Baker, sounds so contemporary that it is hard to believe that it was recorded nearly 50 years ago and it shows that she was an extremely good guitarist in her time. Etta's father Boone Reid plays the banjo for Sourwood Mountain and there is just something about banjo music when it is well played. Etta returns for Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, which is played in a faster Robert Johnson style, and Railroad Bill, which also features in the 'now' section. This is a wonderful example of finger picking and, although age may have slowed her down a tad, there's not too much difference in the two versions. There's a second offering from her father, a different version of Johnson Boys. The banjo playing is excellent again but having heard the later version with added fiddle I have to say that I preferred that one.
To finish off, Etta comes in with a strong version of the classic John Henry with excellent slide guitar and Bully Of The Town which is played in a gentle, acoustic Piedmont blues style. Etta Baker is a remarkable woman and Music Maker deserves our thanks for allowing her to record again.
Music Maker page for Etta Baker
David Blue
The first album, Mercy, sought to address the blast and the random manner in which some died and others lived. In 2007, Pretty World offered meditations on gratitude, obligation and beauty. Now comes the final part, an exploration of the price of forgiveness and the cost of clinging to anger, told through songs that pivot around the homeless and helpless, and of love found, lost and held together with tape.
On the bluesy title track we meet a field hand hoeing cotton "for the rest of my life" like the father that walked out on his family in despair, Mennonite tells of a religious kid from Mexico who, wearing his new 'pearl snap shirt', found love dressed in a "short short skirt' in a bar room and left the Lord behind, while, Palestine II (and its prequel Palestine I) unfolds the tale of a marriage that began with teenage passion in a travelling preacher's tent and has had to hold together through a tragic accident, hard times and history repeating itself with their daughter running away "with the boy selling bibles."
Speaking more than singing his narratives, Baker's dust and gravel voice variously recalls John Prine, Dylan, Steve Earle, Tom Waits and John Trudell, his sparsely arranged American songbook music hewing to southern backwoods folk (disarmingly beautiful on the two step fiddle call and response swayer Who's Gonna Be Your Man) and Texan country in the vein of Van Zandt and Kristofferson.
Opening with a brief snatch of Dixie, sung in the round by a female voice (its 'look away' refrain returning to bring bitter resonance to the dark night guilty secrets of Moon) and closing on the poignant Snow with its metaphor about being lost and emotionally frozen in a drift of your own making, it is both melancholic and life-affirming.
It's hard not to be touched by the snapshots of the disenfranchised and losers who populate Signs, by the Waits-like Angel Hair where, on Christmas Eve, the singer recalls a fatal traffic accident on black ice a decade earlier, or by the unwanted pregnancy of Not Another Mary and the girl who "could not say I love you too." Even the aching piano instrumental Say The Right Words can break your heart. But, at the end of the day, between the tears, Baker reminds you that, even if you're only getting by, life is worth persevering with and far better than the alternative.
Mike Davies August 2009
When musicians appear at one of our Mr Kite Benefits, I often ask about what they are listening to and who they would recommend. Gurf Murlix, producer/musician extraordinaire, has worked with Slaid Cleaves, Lucinda Williams and many more. So, you might imagine that his ears are well tuned to fine music. So, it was that I was recommended to Sam Baker. I believe Bob Harris also had his ear bent about Sam too. Indeed, if your ears don't get wrapped around his music soon, I'll be mightily surprised.
Guests like Kevin Welch and Joy Lynn White lend their support on this first record suggesting that he's already attracting the attention of the great and good. But, it's the music that is the star attraction. From the opening track, 'Waves', with its vivid imagery of walking down to the sea and writing a loved one's name in the sand just to see it washed away, I'm hooked. Sam's lyrics are painting pictures like this all the way. From 'another bunch of boys, another blue sky' as he contrasts a baseball game and a war zone to the car 'full of baby junk' that sit on the backseat of a homeless mum's car. There are 'barbers with no nose', 'drunk cops', men 'in their underwear drinking beer', 'skinny boys with their rifles fighting door to door' and characters galore in his stories In fact, there is so much colour in his lyrics that the one word song titles are enough. Hear one song and you'll be drawn in to hear the rest.
Sam's voice adds to that colour with its gravely lived-in drawl reminding you of John Prine or Todd Snider. As my wife says, you'll be immediately won over if you're a sucker for the gravely voice. Put that next to those lyrics that present social commentary whilst painting all sorts of pictures in your mind and I'll be very surprised if a major label doesn't pick up this record.
Steve Henderson, March 2006
www.mrkite.org
David Kidman
Long John Baldry - Remembering Leadbelly (Stony Plain Records)
"Most of the songs in this collection have been part of my life since I first started singing in the mid-50's. Because they are so familiar to me I was able to record my vocals and guitar work in one 'take' for most of the tracks." What better way to start an attempt at a review than in the own words of the artist?
Long John Baldry has been a great catalyst in the evolution of the blues music form of the 60's & 70' in The U.K - something he tends to be very self-effacing about, as those who have seen him live at any point will recognise. I know of no other headliner who gives his sidesmen such accolades whilst backing off from centre stage himself. This character trait is reflected in the bonus interview track on the very end of this CD, and the liner notes acknowledge Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan and a host of other influences
As to the content of the CD itself, well, I was amazed at the number of the tracks I knew so well whilst not having any Leadbelly in my record collection, nor, indeed, in compilation blues CDs - something I need to rectify but meanwhile LJB manages to cover this void magnificently.
This album is worthy of repeated playing, which may well have something to do with the sparseness rather than the 'over production' tendency found on so many of today's CDs. This is a tribute CD, acknowledging the input of Leadbelly, but with the unique Baldry interpretation. His vocals going from the deep huskiness, for which he is so well known, to the lighter, smoother shades of his marvellously rich voice. There were, for me, moments of goose bumps when he sounded like Alexis Korner - but then they both inspired each other way back when. LJB's voice is a musical instrument in it's own right. His guitar playing needs no accolades.
What amazes me is how perilously close he came to the possibility of not being able to perform anymore. That was back in October 1998. Having not seen him for about 20 years I was taken to a gig by a friend on a whim to The Mill at Banbury. John was not well. He managed the first half without anyone realising the levels of pain he was experiencing. He then nearly collapsed during the second part. We took him to the hospital where they had great difficulty believing that he had played a concert that night. His finger joints were severely swollen despite being soaked in a bowl of water with all the ice from the bar during the interval. The promoter at the venue was prepared to pay back any punters the cost of their tickets. Not a single one did. A case of 'actions being stronger than words'. John has every intention of returning to UK and Europe again next year. At the moment he is about to go on the road in Australia and New Zealand. Catch him if you can.
This CD has been played with great frequency since I got it when LJB toured the UK with the Manfreds back in June, 2002, but I still find it virtually impossible to point the listener to any particular track. From the marvellous sound of the pump organ backing on John Hardy, I want to go back to Take this Hammer and Go Down Old Hannah and then back again to Good Morning Blues. The only solution is to just play the whole CD again and again. Just go order the CD for yourself and you can decide!
Miranda Ward 2002
Before I start, I'll make my position clear - I am not a fan of Long John Baldry. Deep Purple, Fairport Convention, you get the idea - that's where my allegiances lie.
So, let's improve my position a little. I'd been privileged to meet John twice, on the occasion of his sadly aborted 1998 UK Tour. A close friend of mine knew John during the sixties, hadn't seen him since he'd moved to Canada, persuaded me to take her to the opening night in Banbury and I ended up putting this particular blues legend in hospital. If you're really interested, mail me and I'll tell what is, at best, a very dull tale.
That evening, musically the gig bored me intensely. Sure, the guys were all very proficient, technically adept at what they were doing, but I just didn't get it; Long John's style of blues just ain't for me.
So, I find a copy of Johns 2000 Hypertension release 'Evening Conversation' before me, requiring a review. I'm not exactly the best person for the job because, as I've said, I just don't buy this particular style of music. The man, however, I like a great deal; he is hysterical and great fun to be with. We only spent a couple of hours in each others company and I was gratified to learn that, when he was in the UK towards the end of 2000, he inquired of said friend as to my whereabouts.
Needless to day, I was chuffed that he remembered me, and more than a little peeved that when he was in my home town, I'd opted to be in Hong Kong following folk rockers Little Johnny England. And having a damn fine holiday with my daughters. Oh well, some things are just not meant to be.
I've had this release on the go for a while now, and I'm almost embarrassed to say that it has not grated the nerves once. Either I'm getting old or this music isn't quite as bad as I'd first feared.
On first listen I recognised only one tune - Morning Dew. It took a while, but I finally twigged that this was the number opening the sixth Blackfoot LP some 20 odd years previously; a quick dive into the archives confirmed the authors as Tim Rose and Bonnie Dobson. Yep, it's the same piece, wake up ears. It just sounds a little different, like the difference between the late John Lee Hooker and Black Sabbath although, to be fair, Blackfoot were closer to Lynyrd Skynyrd (and the lead guitarist of the former is now a member of the latter).
Johns partners in crime on this release are Butch Coulter, whom I saw in 98, on harmonica and guitar and Matt Taylor on electric & acoustic guitar. Christina Lux, guesting on 'Black Girl' completes the cast of this September 1999 Hamburg recorded CD.
Many of the songs are Baldry arrangements of numbers written by that most classical of composers, Trad Arr. Together with the aforementioned 'Dew, we also have here numbers from Randy Newman, Tom Waits and a Stewart/Woods/Lane composition - Flying, as well as an instrumental from Butch Coulter. On two (Waits, and a Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee composition) Matt Taylor takes the lead vocals, which just proves that LJB is a generous host to his support band.
I think that, if you're a fan, you'll enjoy this release. You may well have a lot of the numbers already in the studio, but this is a live album, and there is always something that little bit different - special? - about live recordings. I'm sure that you won't be disappointed by your purchase.
Am I converted? Well, I just don't know, but I'll be playing CD this some more. And I will go to see Long John when he is next in the UK. If he comes close enough to home that is.
Denis Bird
One of a pair of new releases from Scottish songwriter and storyteller Jackie Leven, this is a disc of monologues rather than songs, and is conveniently split into two sections. The first of these is a recounting, by Mr Leven's twin (=fictional alter-ego) Jackie Balfour, of episodes from his doomed first job upon leaving school, that of cub reporter on notorious local Fife newspaper the Glenrodent Gazette in the mid-60s. These vary from gently observed vignettes to some more overtly amusing tales of provincial life and newspaperdom, and are delivered in an initially quite low-key and diffident manner but also with evident affection; within them we meet the various characters that people the new town of Glenrodent and its newspaper offices and gain a whimsical insight into their lives and preoccupations. The episodes are punctuated with brief but attractive piano interludes (composed by Michael Cosgrave and inspired largely by Scottish dance forms). The second section of the disc brings three choice stories of Jackie Leven's own concoction: the first of these, the infamous Sting's Dead, was recorded live in front of an anything-but-humourless German audience, while the second, Stupid Local Boasts, is culled from the double album of the two-hander show at the 2004 Edinburgh Festival which united Jackie with author Ian Rankin (the latter playing the role of straight man). The final tale, Sex Tourist, was recorded at a club in Sydney in 2001. It matters not that all three of these tales have been released previously (albeit the first and third only on not-easily-available Haunted Valley label discs), for they well complement the storytelling of the Jackie Balfour episodes. Even so, I'm not sure there's a particularly wide audience (in terms of potential record sales, I mean) for this aspect of Jackie Leven's art, beyond the "occasional entertaining listen" status that inevitably accompanies spoken-word recordings, however good.
David Kidman January 2008
An Austin five-piece featuring three vocalists and writers, Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and Colin Brooks, they picked up last year's Best New Band at the Austin Music Awards and now follow up with their debut album. Produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard and mastered by Gulf Morlix (both of whom also guest along with Stephen Bruton), it's fairly blueprint southern barroom rock country with pumped up guitars, mouth harp, swaggery rhythms and bluesy acoustic honky tonk ballads. There's no frills just good time rocking country with hints of r&b and certainly Drive By Truckers, Little Feat and Huey Lewis fans alike will appreciate the likes of a Heart On My Sleeve, Unsleeping Eye, the dobro and harmonica wailing Jackson Station and the lap steel swaying Maple Tears with its Patty Griffin harmonies. They're not doing anything new, but they're as reliable and easy to slip into as an old pair of shoes. The release also comes with a Live At Antone DVD which serves to show where they shine best.
www.bandofheathens.com
www.myspace.com/thebandofheathens
Mike Davies September 2008
Band of Two is exactly what it says on the tin - a band comprising two musicians. The pair in question are Croydon man Pete Fyfe and Garry Blakeley, from Hastings - two musical souls who met by chance ten years ago, discovered an affinity in their tastes and have built a great rapport and a catalogue of songs, jigs and reels that guarantees a great evening's entertainment when they play live.
Decade, the duo's second album, is packed full of high-quality songs and tunes, all played with an obvious love of the material and an infectious enthusiasm that will put a smile on your face and have you singing along. With a distinct leaning toward the Celtic end of the British musical spectrum, it's not surprising they elect to kick off with "Farewell to Ireland", a no-holds-barred instrumental workout that immediately displays the fine fiddle-playing of Blakeley and some furious strumming on the guitar by Fyfe - a tremendous opener. "Blackleg Miner" is a traditional song outlining the hatred for, and treatment meted to, the scab worker of the title. Fyfe relishes the lyric, giving his vocal a menacing edge as Blakeley's fiddle ducks and weaves around it and the guitar.
One of Van Morrison's best-known songs gives Blakeley his first chance at the mic, his voice a pleasing contrast to Fyfe's deeper tones. Fyfe's playing on "Have I told you lately" comes to the fore as he overlays deft mandolin fingerwork on Blakeley's guitar. A sparser arrangement than Morrison's original but all the better for it - lovely. "Decade" features two sets of tunes - "Made in Sligo" and "Scottish set" - which give both musicians the chance to show off their dexterity with some inspired, and inspiring, playing. One of the (several) stand-out tracks is the pair's reading of "Fairytale of New York", the original of which featured another child of Croydon, the late Kirsty MacColl. Two people could never, of course, hope to make a bigger noise than The Pogues at their best, but, like the Morrison song, this version loses nothing for its simplicity - well, it's such a good song, how could it fail?
Ireland gets a look in again when the pair tackle the old standard, "Danny Boy" and the delightful "Blarney roses". "I wish I was single again" is the lament of a man who regrets his marital status as he tells us: "Well I got me a wife, she's the pain of my life, I wish I was single again." A sentiment shared by more than a few, no doubt, It's a worthy sister song to "I wish that I never was wed", sung with great relish by Gay Woods on Steeleye Span's "Horkstow Grange" album - folk compilation album compilers, take note. "Decade" is neatly wrapped with nigh-on seven minutes of the "Skiffle set" - a skilful stringing together of eight songs which were so popular among the skiffle bands of the '60s.You might remain tight-lipped through "Irene goodnight" but your resolve will begin to slip during "Comin' round the mountain" and, by "Worried man blues" you'll be singing along as it segues into a "Pick a bale o'cotton", "Swing low, sweet chariot", "It's a long way to Tipperary" and "Pack up your troubles" before the set's wound up with "Knees up Mother Brown". It may sound a little naff but, believe me, it works.
Two nicer blokes you couldn't hope to meet and "Decade" is an album they are quite rightly proud of. It's a belter.
Fred Hall
Following six independent releases, the hirsute ashram-friendly psych folk Venezuela raised, California based singer-songwriter finally makes his major label debut with a collection that, produced by Paul Butler from A Band of Bees, is eclectic while remaining firmly rooted in the hippie folkster landscape.
Can't Help eases you into proceedings with marimba ripples and a tropical island sway that might make Jack Johnson sound like explosive punk before his Incredible String Band affections rear their head with Angelika where his phrasings echo the young Robin Williamson before the song suddenly mutates into a jazzy piano led bossa nova and Banhart apparently turns Puerto Rican. There's a Latin blood in the veins of Brindo too, another bossa nova croon only this time sung - or rather seductively whispered - in Spanish.
Skipping around the influences, Baby varnishes a Smokey Motown soul groove with a light reggae hiccupping and a suitably playful lyric that talks of choo choo trains in a manner that recalls Jonathan Richman. Then it's a trip down to Graceland with the easy lilting kwela tinged folk Goin' Back To The Place while the more intimate moods of Paul Simon - and the lost soul purity of Jeff Buckley - would also seem to cast their shadow over the melancholic building piano pulses of First Song For B and its immediate acoustic guitar accompanied sequel Last Song For B which sounds like a musical close companion of Bookends.
He does like to keep your ears on their toes. The oddly titled Chin Chin & Muck Muck starts out as a lyrically reflective ("when I was a young boy, I had a lot of young boys and we taught each other dearly how to love" sounds a lot like the memoir of some aging gay 'old hand') excursion into late night jazz cellar blues with brushed drums and trumpet before slipping 'clang bang wang' into another dose of sunny puttering, la la laaing ISB folk briefly interrupted by an echoey piano lounge crooner interlude before resuming with what might well be steel pan and a reference to a 'gibbous rainbow'.
And if that doesn't catch you sufficiently off balance, then 16th & Valencia is a Roxy Music glammed rocker, Rats summons the stoned soul lysergic lizard king spirit of Jim Morrison, Maria Leonza and Meet Me At The Lookout are dreamy 60s West Coast psychedelic tripping and Foolin' closes up shop with a full on bubbling Marley meets Toots and the Maytals style ska workout.
Will it see him embraced by a wider, mainstream audience? Probably not, but his devoted following is certainly going to be passing round the pipe in celebration.
www.myspace.com/devendrabanhart
www.devendrabanhart.com
Mike Davies November 2009
Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow (XL)
With a sleeve photo that suggests you're in for an expanded version of the Polyphonic Spree, the bearded Banhart's fourth outing sees him building on his past foundations of 60s harmony pop, trippy dippy Indian drones, bossa nova and blues. Fleshed out into full band arrangements but retaining his eccentric whimsy (I assume he's being whimsical when he sings of being a lonely sailor ogling young lads on the frankly barking Little Boys), he recorded this in Woodstock, clearly on a creative roll since it features no less than 22 tracks.
As such, it can prove a tad wearying if you're not totally submissive to his merry skewed charms as evidenced on something like the bizarre The Beatles which starts out namechecking Paul and Ringo and then inexplicably finds him crowing in Spanish while folk whoop it up behind him. But if you're prepared to pick around for favourites then the tripped out sitar drenched latter-day Donovan meets Bolan blues of Lazy Butterfly, the soft whispery Queen Bee, lollopping jugband Some People Ride The Wave, guitar instrumental Sawkill River, the lazy warbling driftalong Koreak Dogwood and, in his Spanish mode, the sun kissed Santa Maria Da Feira and a melancholic cover of Venezuelan Simon Diaz's moody Luna De Margarita repay the effort of juggling with the skip and play buttons.
www.younggodrecords.com
www.xlrecordings.com/devendrabanhart
Mike Davies
Devendra Banhart - Nino Rojo (XL)
Current darling of the new folk movement, Texas born Banhart was apparently named by an Indian mystic his hippie parents followed, grew up in Caracas and LA, and dropped out of the San Francisco Art Institute to live the bohemian life in Paris. A bunch of four track recordings came to the attention of former Swans frontman Michael Gira who released them as is through his Young God Records, thereby setting into motion a growing cult following. Recorded in the same sessions as the previous Rejoicing In The Hands, this 16 track collection pretty much sums up everything you need to know. He plays acoustic guitar, has a high pitched, quivering vibrato that makes him sound several decades older than his 23 years and which prompts regular comparisons to Tyrannosaurus Rex period Marc Bolan and the early days of the Incredible String Band. Oh and of course, Syd Barrett.
Deliberately naive in his sound, which straggles warbling folk, ragtime, bluegrass and blues but here embracing arrangements that involve brass, piano and strings in addition to trusty guitar, his narratives frolic cheerfully in the fields of playful whimsy with lyrics that include tales of psychedelic squids and the cloven hoofed offspring of a man and a pig.
Dotting around at random, you'll find a bluesy reading of Ella Jenkins' folk song Little Sparrow, fingerpicked spooked lullaby Ay Mama with its mournful trumpet, the arpeggio folk blues tumbling Little Yellow Spider about, well take a guess, a vaguely pop inclined At The Hop (no, not Danny and The Juniors), an ominous Horseheadedfleshwizard where he sings about hosing down the dead before they die, backporch good timing The Good Red Road and the closing drunken swayer round the summer evening Hawaiian bonfire strummer Electric Heart. Taken en bloc it can get a touch wearying, but sampled at intervals you'll be convinced his people really were fair and had sky in their hair.
www.younggodrecords.com/Artists/DevendraBanhart
Mike Davies
The follow up to the acclaimed High Tide, Bannister's second album since leaving The Bushbury Mountain Daredevils, teams him with fellow West Mids singer-songwriter and ex Bushbury Eric Barlow. Primarily built around their twin guitars, it's a simple acoustic affair, with no ambitious productions, but it leaks honesty and a passion for the music they make. As in Bushbury days, American bluegrass back porch mountain music remains an influence, most evidently so on the naggingly catchy Mousetrap, a jug band of a number with Bannister on mandola that could have slotted easily into the Oh Brother soundtrack without anyone suspecting anything out of place. But there's more than hillbilly going on. Opening track Long Slow Day is a gorgeous tropical lilt designed for laying back and watching the sky while the spellbindingly lovely I Will Go With You brings to mind the better, less bombastic moments of Chris De Burgh and mixes it with Art Garfunkel. Art's also in the mix for Soon Be With You, although the melody harks to a mix of McTell and May You Never. Art's old sparring partner also comes to mind on Barlow's The Hippy Song while elsewhere you might hear hints of Iain Matthews or, on Maggie Lee, the early years of Harvey Andrews. A mix of tub thumpers like Let Love Find Me and Get On Board and the more, and better, reflective ballads, lyrically it's largely either love songs or about dreams pursued/unachieved, though the excellent harmony acapella is a dust to dust hymn to, the loving arms of well, mother earth. Not sure about the closing number, a bluesy Superman's Lasergun that doesn't really come off, but otherwise this can only serve to further boost Bannister's reputation among the faithful as one of the most distinctive voices and writers on the UK roots scene.
www.brianbannister.onlineidentity.com
Mike Davies
If you've not yet encountered the wonderfully original music of this perennially dynamic and talented young Whitby-based trio, then now's the time to start, and this new album, taken together with Galata Bridge, should provide the perfect starter pack. Like the band's five-year-old début CD release Home Before The Sky Breaks, Living By Stories largely (though not exclusively) turns its back on the trademark crazy, manically angular fast-driven dance sets ("Transylvanian rhythms from Bram Stoker country"!) in order to showcase the gentler side of the Banoffi universe - a veritable Delta Quadrant of lusciously lyrical creations lying in wait to envelop you. The band have taken their recent cautious experiments in layering of sound textures from Galata Bridge and the Bluebells EP on to new levels of accomplishment, and this is strongly in evidence on the trippy opener Go To Dreams, but to their credit this aspect is never overdone, and the defiantly individual characters of the three individual musicians is always foremost, with the quality of the recording attaining a new level of engineering expertise here. Quiet Fire is a truly beautiful creation, with Dave Moss's sinuous, enticing vocal line poignantly inhabiting the idyllic landscape of Bluebells.
Other songs show Dave's increasing penchant for the more pensive turn of thought, ranging widely from the eerie, economically-expressed pacifism of The Fight and the compelling title track to the quasi-catechism of Bless with its curiously effective neo-calypso setting. The instrumental tracks that punctuate the songs on this album are sensibly sequenced to follow them, in that (like the Eastern European dance-forms on which they're modelled) they often begin slowly then build in tempo or intensity. They can therefore appear slow-burners by comparison with some of the band's earlier, wilder efforts, though it still takes a fair bit of digital dexterity to get your feet round the almost wilfully complex time-signatures! As ever, Tim Downie's guitar work (which, admirably, is clearly audible throughout) is a model of subtlety and embellishment that might come as quite a surprise if you've ever witnessed his string-breaking exploits in live performance!), while Ian Hulme's prowess on various whistles, doumbek and bodhrán is unassailable as ever, sensitive in all the right places. My only (minor) complaint about this release is the near-unreadability of the text on the neat digipak sleeve, due to insufficient contrast - that latter tag certainly doesn't apply to the varied music on display on this exhilarating album.
David Kidman
This disc has been long in coming, but hey, it's been worth the wait. It's a natural confluence of two of our finest singer-interpreters who have discovered an equally natural kinship; they have much in common, not least some important formative influences. Each of them has a background to die for - both were "kid folkies in the (proverbial) sweet shop", growing up being involved in, and understanding and appreciating, folk music. For them, standards were set at an early stage, and both were introduced to major figures on the folk scene at a tender age almost as a matter of course. They met and became friends quite early on, but then for several years they followed independent courses: Mike mostly singing with his siblings (in The Wilson Family group) and Damien launching his own professional solo career after attaining the finals of BBC's Young Tradition Award in 1989, then going on to mastermind the groundbreaking Demon Barber Roadshow. They'd talked about trying some songs together, but it was not until around four years ago (to my recollection) that this idea bore fruit on a tentative foray into the clubs armed with an embryonic joint repertoire developed under the influence of the generous folk artists whose own repertoires form the thread that now binds this disc together. The folk artist whose figure looms largest over the whole set, inevitably (but entirely justifiably), is the mighty Peter Bellamy (whose own performances provided the inspirational source recordings for several of the songs chosen for the disc), closely followed by Ewan MacColl and Dick Gaughan. The vital combination of attitude and respect is an essential one for any song carrier worth his salt, and it's one which Damien and Mike closely share and keenly display throughout their work together. Each of them is passionate and distinctive as a solo singer, with a rich-toned and sturdy delivery. Mike here employs quite a bit of decoration in his solo passages, while not getting in the way of Damien's trademark throbbing vibrato, and the two voices sit well together generally (not always the case with two voices which share a roughly similar range). It's important, therefore, to retain plenty of textural variety during the course of a joint CD, and this is managed by virtue of Damien varying the accompanying instrument between English concertina (seven tracks) and guitar(three), the remaining brace of tracks being performed acappella. In the latter category we find one of the disc's highlights, a particularly enterprising choice (and the only item not associated with any of the previously notified "influences"): the cryptic and elusive A Fable From Aigge, composed by Nick Burbridge (and taken from the brilliant McDermotts vs Levellers album Disorder). The second acappella item is a runthrough of Shiny O, a shanty obtained from Stan Hugill. Damien's deft, rhythmically inventive guitar playing provides an ideal foil for Mike on three contrasted songs including The Green Linnet and MacColl's My Old Man, while his concertina provides sterling accompaniment for both solo and joint vocal outings as well as a notably poignant counterpoint to MacColl's Joy Of Living. The actual form the "duo act" takes can vary in approach: five songs are performed solo by Mike with Damien accompanying (these include Joy Of Living and Now Westlin Winds), Andrew Rose (sourced from the singing of Tony Hall) has Damien solo with Mike joining him on the chorus, whereas other songs (like On Board A 98 and Nostradamus) are taken "turn and turn about" (alternate verses each, with both harmonising on the chorus), which by and large works well (although Down The Moor feels a tad overloaded and its intimacy thus mildly compromised, and some of the harmony work seems a mite tentative at this stage). The "odd track out" is Jim Jones, which is a solo performance by Damien with concertina. Yes, both in terms of repertoire and performance style, Damien and Mike have chosen well for representing their duo activities on this CD. Finally, an honourable mention for the disc's presentation: a keen and attractive (digipack) package, its design embracing a montage of related relevant memorabilia and enclosing within a well-coordinated booklet wherein Damien and Mike each provide a nicely discursive personal reminiscence in chummy conversational mode spiced with the occasional did-you-know biographical nugget (for example, that it was Peter who originally bequeathed the nickname The Demon Barber on Damien!). Influences and inspirations are freely acknowledged, generously granted and openly encouraged (in my turn, I've been well "under the influence" of both Damo and Mike, and "The Family" ever since I myself started singing). Sure thing, Mike and Damo have done themselves proud here, and it'll be interesting to see how this musical partnership develops in due course - let's hope we don't have to wait five years to find out!
www.damienbarber.co.uk
www.thewilsonfamilyalbum.co.uk
David Kidman February 2009
This Canadian songstress (singer-songwriter to you!) won Best Album and Best Female Solo categories at this year's East Coast Music Awards, which should mean something! She played over here in the UK last autumn as part of the Twisted Folk package tour (along with Tunng), and is set to return for a handful of dates next month including the Green Man Festival. Jill's been tagged "alt-cabaret", and listening to For All Time, her second record, it's hard for me to get that tag out of my mind. I think it's her singing style and the tonal quality of her voice more than anything else that justifies that tag: smooth and velvety-sensuous, with an impressive quality of assurance that not all singer-songwriters can command. Her writing, too, is warmly heart-on-sleeve rather than introspectively angst-ridden, and the musical idiom within which she operates occupies that timeless jazz/country/folk crossover zone with a wide potential appeal. In its gentle energy, this album has a direct, up-close feel which reflects the method of its actual recording (live-off-the-floor), with individual instruments perfectly selected and balanced within the overall spare-but-rich sound-picture.
The canvas is quite broad as far as instrumental colours are concerned, with almost every one of the eleven songs being differently scored: guitars, mandolins, piano, vibes, organ, harmonica, violin, cello, bass, percussion, even a mellotron at one point. Multi-instrumentalist Les Cooper has done a fine job with the production, and other musicians appearing include Bob Packwood, Spencer Evans, Blake Manning, Stew Crookes and Blue Rodeo members Bazil Donovan and Jim Cuddy. You might find the album easier to get into after the first three tracks, which aren't really typical; the opener Just For Now is a chunky old-style ballad with a torchy country-gospel feel, then Don't Go Easy is easygoing steel-driven country, and When I'm Makin' Love To You is a cheeky swing-jazz piece set to a perky clarinet and piano backing. Ashes To Ashes is both delicate and stately, a measured and considered reflection, Hard Line has a subdued funkiness in its driving Motown vibe.
Variety and contrast notwithstanding, the standouts for me are the title track and Goodnight Sweetheart, both good examples of the kind of beautiful, simple little time-honoured love songs that you feel you've always known, and Legacy, whose generous, measured pace allows full rein to Jill's expressive vocal qualities. Jill's probably at her tremulously confidential best on the closing Starting To Show, while on some of the other songs, like the tender Two Brown Eyes, Jill reveals herself to have a sexy vocal presence akin to Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins. On the evidence of this CD, I can understand why Jill has made such an impression thus far, and can imagine her special brand of intimacy working much to her advantage live.
David Kidman July 2007
Brighton-based duo Kevin Barber and Mark Taylor are one of those totally-together acts that sound for all the world like they've been playing and singing together almost from birth. Typically they play an attractively melancholy brand of acoustic-based, guitarsome bluegrassy Americana, with around two-thirds of their material self-penned and the remainder made up of respectable (if not consistently outstanding) covers of (on this, their third CD) songs by Albert E. Brumley, Woody Guthrie and Paul Simon (gripe: it's a shame they didn't choose some more appropriate covers like the Gillian Welch and Iris Dement stuff they perform live), and Robert McCreedy (his Two Seconds, the best by far of the covers here). But I liked this record a lot, and even though it's primarily the vocal harmonies and tight arrangements that make the impact on first hearing the songs stand up to scrutiny and grow on repeated listening. Standouts for me included the opener My Old Friend The Moon, the somewhat Kieran Halpin-like The Price Of Freedom, and Lighthouse (coincidentally, these are all Kevin's compositions). Generally there's a very satisfying ambience about the duo's music, and it's couched in an accomplishment that's easy-going yet not without a quality of thoughtful depth and immediacy of inspiration. With top-flight recording quality reflecting the duo's close, intimate yet dynamic live presence, this is a treasurable release that deserves wider recognition.
David Kidman
I suspect that this CD will divide listeners (it even divided me at the start!). First some background: Durham guitarist John Steele and Canadian singer Rebecca Barclay have been collaborating as a duo for around five years now, yet this would appear to be their first CD together. On it they illustrate their common interest in performing (predominantly) traditional songs from both sides of the Atlantic - this diverse selection presenting songs from standard English sources (including The Cruel Mother, Lovely On The Water, Factory Girl and MacCrimmon's Lament) alongside three of French Canadian or Newfoundland origin (all sung in French), topped up with a brace of contemporary songs (by Dick Gaughan and Stan Rogers). So far, so straightforward; but initial aural encounter proves not quite so. John's guitar work is very skilled indeed: both exuberantly intricate and understated, gentle and yet percussive, not exactly drawing immediate attention to itself and yet intensely satisfying to listen to both in isolation and in the role of accompanist when providing the intriguing instrumental backdrop for Rebecca's singing. And there we come to what for many listeners may be the sticking-point: for Rebecca has a quite remarkable and very individual singing style that I couldn't get on with easily for the first couple of playthroughs - and I still find it somewhat of a barrier on a few of the songs, while all the time I'm trying to assimilate (and explain) its overall positive impact on the duo's music-making. Describing the features of Rebecca's style is not an easy task: her voice is dark-toned, with an attractive hint of deep mystery, and she evidently responds deeply to the texts, but her languidly moulded expression of the melodic contours involves a large degree of (what may appear overblown) swooping and diving and contorting of vowel sounds (and occasionally too much vibrato) which will strike some listeners as at best over-stylised, and at worst mannered and indulgent in the extreme. But I came round to celebrating Rebecca's individuality of style, her distinctive brand of passion - although I'd acknowledge that it doesn't work equally well on every song she tackles (Blackwaterside and Both Sides The Tweed, for instance, sound laboured and out of kilter as interpretations). But when it does work, close listening is rewarded by a mesmerising experience, a kind of pindrop immediacy that startles in its simplicity - which in turn is informed, I'm sure, by Rebecca's study of the vocal traditions of other world cultures. Finally, although this is a duo record, Rebecca and John benefit from some subtle augmentation from friends playing (variously) fiddle, flute, accordion and percussion on a small handful of songs. The basic duo will provide an intense and intriguing live experience, one which I'm now quite keen to sample.
David Kidman February 2008
NOTE: Rebecca & John's CD Launch Concert is at The Ship, Middlestone, Co. Durham - Friday 7th March.
Britain's foremost R&B label, Note, has a roster to die for and The Barcodes epitomise the quality on offer. Bob Haddrell, Alan Glen and Dino Coccia are the current incarnation and the guest stars compliment them perfectly. Opening with Taj Mahal's Paint My Mailbox Blue they produce thirteen tracks of British R&B that is rarely matched. Val Cowell and Paul Cox guest on vocals and their voices fit together very well on this sultry blues along with Papa George on slide guitar and Roger Cotton on Hammond. There are only four covers on the album and the second, Mose Allison's I Won't Worry About A Thing, shows a bunch of top musicians on top of their form. This is played in Allison's jazz/blues style and the newest member, Bob Haddrell, effortlessly shows his keyboard skills. However, it is Alan Barnes on sax that is the standout. The first of the originals is a result of many hands and Back At The 4 Aces is an airy instrumental that takes in jazz and a little bit of reggae. Jim Mullen adds his considerable guitar talents to this one. Great British blues musician Alan Glen is a much lauded guitarist, harmonica player and songwriter and his Petunia is next. This is slinky jazz of the highest order and has Glen written all over it, as you can tell from the guitar work. Everything Or Nothing is another Glen song and he showcases his harmonica this time - British blues from a British bluesman. He teams up with Coccia for Halfway To Nowhere, another good British R&B topped off by Zoot Money on vocal and Hammond.
It's a full band effort for the instrumental Blues For Judy which is on the jazzy side of the blues again, with Glen's guitar shining through. Can't Hold Out Much Longer is a Little Walter song but the understated vocal lets it down a bit. I also thought that Glen would have given the harmonica part a better treatment. Coccia and Haddrell team up for the first time to write Time, Talk 'n' Trouble, a slow methodical blues that doesn't really get anywhere. The Snitch is a band effort again and is plain and simply well played, British jazz/blues. They stay in the jazzy vein for Coccia & Haddrell's Undercover Lover. Although it has the added extra of Nick Newall on flute it's really nothing out of the ordinary. The last of the covers is a laid back version of Peter Green's Watch Out. It's jazzed up a little and I'm sure that it's not what Green had in mind when he wrote it. It's a low key finish with No Light In My Life. Well played, as are the others, and in the jazz vein which is a side of the band that has come out more than I'd hoped.
David Blue January 2007
The Barcodes - Keep Your Distance (Note Records)
The Barcodes latest offering on the excellent British blues, soul and jazz label Note Records raises the standard for blues tinged jazz for those who choose to follow. This opens with I Got News, which is played in a nightclub blues/jazz style. Alan Glen manages to get his guitar to sound like a Steely Dan track and the saxophone from Nick Newall is very slinky. Thick Cut is the first of the instrumentals and whilst the organ flurries from Bob Haddrell are excellent, they fall into second place after Alan Glen excels on guitar and harmonica.
Crazy Life is smooth blues tinged jazz and Glen's harmonica is on top again. The Barcodes Theme is mainly a showcase for the saxophone Nick Newall but the others get a look in too. This is a well-played jazz instrumental. Things take a turn on A Little Bit More, a jazz track on the rock side, which has Alan Glen's guitar singing. The title track is jazzy blues, pretty much akin to the rest of that ilk on the album and they get a little funky on the blues groover, Tell Me The Truth.
The wonderfully named Splanky is an organ-led instrumental. Jazz, of course, that gives the main protagonists a chance to show off again and Dino Coccia's drums are the perfect foil for the rich guitar and organ sounds. We finally get a real blues on That's Alright. The slow guitar intro added to the harmonica fills, organ and electric piano makes this a favourite. The blues theme is continued on the final track, the Sonny Boy Williamson classic, Eyesight To The Blind. However, this jazzy, up-tempo version does not do much justice to the original and the vocalist doesn't really get out of first gear
The Barcodes are excellent musicians but their singing does not come up to the same standard. Make yourself a four piece with a vocalist that adds a little power to the songs and you'll be in the higher echelons of British blues/jazz.
www.note-music.co.uk
www.thebarcodes.co.uk
David Blue
This legendary guitarist's first solo album in almost 20 years should be a cause for celebration, and it is. It's also a happy set that was self-evidently as much fun for the musicians as it is for us humble listeners. Ever since Russ made that classic 80s album Skip, Hop & Wobble with Jerry Douglas and Edgar Meyer, he's wrapped himself up in a fantastic variety of other projects- most notably the Transatlantic Sessions, for which he's been a key member of the house-band. Only now has he felt the time right to return to recording, and When At Last certainly has the feel of an easy-flowing, relaxed 40 minutes of music-making. The compositions may themselves be necessarily tautly structured, but the playing - from Russ himself and his collaborators alike - is wonderfully flexible without going overboard on the improvisation angle. In fact, it's Russ himself (especially his guitar playing) who seems quite unobtrusive, almost too self-effacing, at times! Stylistically, the eleven pieces making up When At Last move from the gentle newgrass of Little Monk to the smiling, swinging Fat Mountain, the softly driving "Irishy" Pleasant Beggar to the deftly funky Dixieland-cum-Hawaiian vibe of The Man In The Hat, the bluegrassy hoedown On Milo's Back to the curious limping almost-slow-cajun waltz of The Drummers Of England and the altogether more atmospheric repose of the title track and A Dream For Sophie (from which we're rudely awakened after less than two minutes). And all without any feeling of forced bravado or unduly showy virtuosity - Russ and his chums have it all sorted, and work it all out between them with consummate musicianship. You can, of course, expect no less from the likes of Stuart Duncan and Ruthie Dornfeld (fiddles), Jeremiah McLane (accordion), Viktor Krauss & Dennis Crouch (basses), Kenny Malone (drums, djembe) and (naturally - you can't keep the man away!) dobro maestro Jerry Douglas. If you want a pleasing and thoroughly satisfying sequence of entirely unassuming and wholly natural music-making in the spirit of those Transatlantic Sessions, then this joyous album's for you. (And you don't have to be a dog-lover to appreciate its delights!...)
www.russbarenberg.com
www.myspace.com/russbarenberg
David Kidman August 2007
Fans of the London based British bluegrass outfit are in for something of a shock when they lay hands and ears on their fourth album. While still fronted by the banjo playing songwriter twins Jake and Sam Barker, they've stepped back from the microphones and the lead vocals are now totally handled by Nella Johnson, who originally joined four years ago as backing singer.
Johnson has a relaxed delivery, her voice honey with a streak of pepper that can do yearning and spit with equal effectiveness. By moving her into the spotlight, while keeping the bluegrass bubbling the music's taken on a twangier Nashville sound. It's evident from the get go with 'y'all come' Southern country boogie opening track It's Goodbye, and again on the bluesy stomping, harp wailing clatter Cut You Down and the fiddle scraping, train time rhythm of the closing Make Him Stay, a track which, were it for the fact it's discreetly not mentioned on the credits, I'd swear rides along on a choogling electro pop synth backing.
The single, Don't Want To Remember, takes the mood down to a bass and violin groove that underlines the band's pop sensibilities while keeping the dark folk-country tones. Like penultimate track Die Tonight, it wouldn't sound out of place in a Stevie Nicks set list.
However, the bluegrass on which they made their name hasn't been relegated to a token musical influence, the line dance friendly The Way I'm Feeling, the Dillards dappled fiddle and banjo good timing Good Place To Run with its singalong chorus hook and the leg-slapping Heaven's Bell (a kissing cousin of I Saw The Light with the banjo in full head of trad steam) all guaranteed to get the joint jumping from Acton to the Appalachians.
And, since no bluegrass album is complete without a death waltzing mountain music folk lament, then Death Meets Me Here fits the bill perfectly with Johnson's aching voice and the tears-weeping mandolin and fiddle conjuring the vintage days of the Gram and Emmy.
I've a lot of time for the band's previous releases, but the brothers' decision to put Johnson upfront certainly makes this by far their best yet.
It's unfortunate then that I have to add that they've been possessed by a self-destructive impulse when it came to the artwork. The album cover is, quite frankly, terrible; its drawing of a jealous spurned woman using mental powers to cause 'the other' woman's insides to explode from her body looking more like something you'd expect from a C-division heavy metal outfit and certainly not one to attract casual browsers through the country music racks.
Likewise, while they may also reflect the lyrics' themes of anger and hurt stemming from a broken relationship, the booklet's comic strip revenge fantasy illustrations of the songs featuring severed limbs, ghouls, meat cleavers, chainsaws and its heroine splitting open a whale with a martial arts punch just strike me as cheap, nasty and utterly at odds with the music. Silly puckers.
www.barkerband.com
www.myspace.com/thebarkerband
Mike Davies April 2009
I don't like to take issue with a band whose music I've enjoyed so much but in this instance I have to.
I hear that The Barker Band are a little concerned that The Night Ain't Over may be a little too rock n roll, well as the late great Terry-Thomas might have said 'what rot". Believe me it isn't just the mixing desk that has got the balance just right on The Night Ain't Over.
What the band has done is build on the solid foundations laid by its eponymous debut and excellent second album, The Lonesome Waltz. This is the third of many for the Barker Band, it has no need to revisit the first.
What hasn't changed is that you still have to stop and remind yourself that this is a band that learnt its trade on the mean streets of London, not the dusty highways, byways - and even dustier bars - of the Southern states of America. Much of the Night Ain't Over carries a one horse town barroom joy with it.
Mind you a band is at a distinct advantage when it can call on Nella Johnson to provide a heart-stopping moment like It's Too Late. Spellbinding on CD, goodness knows what feeling it will generate live, but I wouldn't mind finding out. With songs like It's Too Late, Johnson offers a contrast to the rollicking She Ain't The Law and the combination shows all facets of The Barker Band off to best effect.
Nowadays, there's almost a prerequisite to apologise for describing a band as 'only' country rock, as if a postscript 'with a touch of' is required.
But that's what The Barker Band is, country to its core, Sam, Lenny and Jake Barker along with Tom Wright and Laurie Sherman write great country songs, songs with a big heart and something to say. The band then takes these gems and breathes a unique life and energy into them, the result is pure joy and I can't see why anyone would need to apologise for that. It also brings a wonderfully free feel to the likes of No Matter How Bad It Gets, the album is full of songs like it, songs that have a twinkle of mischief in their eye.
That slightly rebellious air comes to a head on Anna Lee and Rolling Only With You. It's almost as if the band was content to provide the spine of the album and then allow old friends to drop in and make loving contributions. A thought that is not too fanciful when you scan the list of contributing musicians While it is a novel approach it keeps everything crisp and fresh sounding.
But like all great country bands - and you can put aside the normal measures of success, this is already a great band - there is a subplot to The Night Ain't Over. The album's not just for show and the songs just rollicking melodies, Rolling Only With You raises a wry smile for more than one reason but who am I to give it away?
The Barker Band too rock n roll? If you can finish your album with a song called Acton Breakdown and make people think it's Acton Texas you're not far wrong.
As long as it remains true to what brought it to the is point, time and talent will take care of the rest for The Barker Band. As for its third album, well if you enjoy a bit of spirit, the night won't be over for some time.
http://www.barkerband.com
www.myspace.com/thebarkerband
Michael Mee September 2007
The Barker Band - Lonesome Waltz
Every once in a while a band produces a debut album that captures and bottles the essence of the music perfectly.
The Barker Band's eponymous release fell smack bang into that category and I have to admit I doubted whether they would be able to live up to the promise it showed. However just a year later they're back and, with a second album that weighs in at just under 30 minutes. On The Lonesome Waltz, the band proves that you don't need to bang on for hours, when you get it this right, this quickly, quit while you're ahead.
While that eponymous debut will always be special, Lonesome Waltz is a true second album, any expectations have been exceeded.
The Barker Band shows the confidence to allow each song to develop organically. Instead of force feeding them in the studio, songs like Boy Got Killed In Town, flourish with little or no outside help, the song is built on the twin foundations of a haunting banjo and some memorable vocals. The Barker Band is quite capable of looking after its own brand of country bluegrass.
Mind you, not many bands are fortunate enough to have twins Jake and Sam Barker driving them on. The pair share singing duties and each adds subtle shades that make the vocals seductive instruments, The Lonesome Waltz coaxes and convinces rather than rants and raves. Beware the power of the quite men because on Never The Same, there is a tender desolation that becomes bottomless as the song progresses. Together Jake and Sam Barker make a formidable writing and performing combination.
Although it's not a long album by any means it has an unhurried, rolling gait. The Barker Band realises the strength of their own songs and are making sure that the listener is given every opportunity to savour the beauty.
It was always going to be difficult to build on that debut but instead of an albatross around the neck, it became the springboard for the excellent The Lonesome Waltz.
Michael Mee
The Barker Band - The Barker Band (2004)
It all started when the Barker boys started playing bluegrass, may sound like one of Waylon Jennings' prologues for an episode of the Dukes Of Hazzard but it is how one of the most exciting new bands began life. Barker also happens to be their real name and not some attempt to forge a link with Ma.
But these boys come from south of Watford not the Mason Dixon line and part of the band's promise is that they haven't tried to recreate the deep south, they have stamped their own personalities and environment on the album. Alongside Jake and Sam is father Lenny, a successful TV comedy writer; guitarist, co-writer and skateboarder supreme Laurie Sherman; Ted Sherman, Laurie's brother and Top of the Pops session musician; bass player Tom Spencer and alternative bass player Ricky McGuire who is also one of The Men They Couldn't Hang. And in just over a year they have become a band that, largely because of live performances, have generated a great deal of interest. If the effect of their debut album is only halfway replicated on stage then that 'buzz' is well warranted.
The spine of the album is the kind of melody driven country that hasn't quite jettisoned it's folk roots, it's bitingly honest, heartfelt and real. But it also has a distinct edge of danger lurking over it. These are not naïve country boys (and girls) playing after a day's work in the fields, love and death walk hand in hand. Aided in no small part by vocals that suggest dark family secret's are being revealed.
With an accompaniment of banjo, fiddle and guitar The Barker Band expose their music to the harsh glare of a single light, songs like You Ain't Broken My Heart, Little White Lie and Sorrow Calls cast dark shadows that only intensify the impact tenfold.
In a short space of time The Barker Band have reached a point many never reach. They have produced a collection of wonderfully emotive and emotional songs. They have also woven together strands of bluegrass, folk, country and blues to create a subtlely ornate tapestry, stirring and rumbling the soul along the way.
Should you see The Barker Band's name on a poster, take note. It could be the invitation to the gig of 2005.
Michael Mee, Editor, The Hawick News
Taking a leaf out of the Bill Jones Book perhaps, Charlie's a "she" not a "he"; that's the first thing to get clear – not that the cover shots of a good-looking, fresh-faced young blonde lass would leave you in any doubt! And her wide-eyed expression also belies any feeling that she'd ever be caught "sleeping" ...! So, having dealt with the question of image, let's proceed to the music on this, her debut full-length CD (there was an earlier demo, New Horizons, which you may have read about in these pages, which contained two of the same songs that appear on this new CD but in differently-arranged versions). This 19-year-old singer-songwriter (a Sheffield music student and classically trained cellist) sings her chosen repertoire with a maturity beyond her years, if at times still a little plainly/in the approved manner. In that her intrinsic purity of tone and expression betrays shades of Alison Krauss (especially on The Lighthouse's Tale) or Nanci Griffith (an obvious influence too), Charlie might easily be mis-identified on a "blind listening" exercise. Half of the ten tracks are Charlie's own compositions, firmly in the contemporary acoustic folky-Americana mould familiar to admirers of Lucy Kaplansky, Nanci Griffith, Janis Ian and Dar Williams, but without (yet) quite displaying comparable depths of insight - give Charlie time, and I might predict an interesting future. As for Charlie's choice of covers, these are generally better than reliable, with Jay Turner's Naked coming off particularly well and her treatment of the ubiquitous Fields Of Gold giving Eva Cassidy a run for her money interpretation-wise; only Nanci G's Outbound Plane I thought a bit under-characterised. Turning from the voice to the musical import now, I really liked the uncluttered settings, with arrangements all by Charlie herself - just over half of the tracks use only Charlie's own simple acoustic guitar, some of these gently boosted by her cello, with on the remainder some subtle and well-controlled augmentation from Kerfuffle members Sam Sweeney (whistle, fiddle, drums) and Chris Thornton-Smith (mandolin or additional guitar). The recording's another triumph for Chris - admirably clean in the best BPAS manner, although the sheer clarity of the sibilances in Charlie's voice can intrude where they sometimes feel too close or mildly over-emphasised. So there you have it - I'm sure we're destined to hear more from Charlie in years to come as she develops more individuality in both her performance and her writing.
David Kidman
Recorded live in a Norfolk barn with Gill Sandell, Jo Silverston and Anna Jenkins, aka string and woodwind trio The Red Clay Halo, over a snowy Easter weekend, taking its title from a Robert Graves poem the Australian born former Low Country singer's follow up to Photos.Fires.Fables is another lovelorn excursion into spooked Americana and old school backwoods trad folk that will conjure thoughts of Gillian Welch, Laura Veirs, Be Good Tanyas and, on Breath especially, the golden age of Emmylou.
Opening on woozy harmonium notes for the reflective Nostalgia, Barker quickly sets the standard for what's to follow. Most immediately is All Love Knows which adds Natalie Merchant to the comparison tally and, with its image of wind bending the poplars, perfectly captures the wintry but warm mood of the album. Given the previous album had a song called On A Winter's Day and breathed the same frosty air, it would seem to be her musical season of choice.
The spare musical framework is given more muscle on the dark veined moss hung full blooded sound of Disappear with its single plucked banjo note and scraping fiddle. Along with the slow waltzing reawakened by love song Breath, it was recorded during the first two days as a quartet featuring double bassist Tom Mason and drummer Dan See. They'd have done more, but apparently the freezing conditions played havoc with the instruments and fingers.
It would have been interesting to hear how the other songs might have sounded with full band treatment, but there's certainly no disappointment with what did emerge at the end of the sessions. Certainly not with Anna Jenkins' fiddle taking control of the tempo gathering jig If It's All Night Long, one of the album's two instrumentals, Storm In A Teacup with a spooked banjo providing an underpinning pulse, or Barker navigating the sometimes troubled, sometimes soothing waters of love on standouts like Sideline, the Shaker hymn-like Oh Journey and the appropriately sunny Bright Phoebus.
Two numbers perfectly illustrate the organic nature of the recording process. During a tea break on the last day, Barker began picking out Bloated, Blistered, Aching Heart, an old number she'd had no intention of recording. Gill joined in on upright piano, Jo grabbed a saw and the engineer hastily reorganised the microphones. The weekend over, they were coming down from the intensity of the recordings when, by way of closure, Barker picked up her acoustic guitar and, rummaging through her memory of old songs, started to sing into a solitary microphone. The result was The Greenway, one of the finest, purest moments on an album full of fine, pure moments. Here's hoping for another spell of bad weather next year.
www.emily-barker.com
www.myspace.com/emilybarker
Mike Davies October 2008
A bit of a double edged sword this. It's sad news if Cambridge based UK Americana leading lights The-Low-Country have fallen by the wayside after two stunningly good albums, but there's radiant light in the gloom with the release of this limited edition solo debut of melancholic, heart-aching songs by their Western Australia born singer and songwriter.
Band drummer Ian Pickering remains in the ranks, but for the remaining core instrumentation she's enlisted The Red Clay Halo comprising Gill Sandell accordion and flute, Jo Silverston on cello, Anna Jenkins on violin and Rebecca Goldsworthy on bass while various songs are fleshed out with pedal steel, harmonica and brass. Musically, there's still strains of the spooked Americana of the Junkies and hints of Gillian Welch to such numbers as This Is How It's Meant To Be and On A Train but there's also an old school flavour of backwoods acoustic folk country in evidence on things like the ripplingly lovely Blackbird and Fields of June's spare folk ballad duet with Steven Adams from the Broken Family Band, both tracks seeing Barker strapping on a banjo.
Beautifully arranged throughout and produced with a keen ear by Ruben Engzell, there's an air of winter frost and gypsy blood to Orlando and dark woods folk impregnates the strings and oboe hued The Photo, while elsewhere references might well also hark to Emmylou, Nanci and the Tanyas on the likes of the brass waltzing Mystery, On A Winter's Day, Under These Bruised Skies and the wonderful Reason For The Rain.
The closing If Love Could Save finds Barker alone with an acoustic guitar, a simple, unadorned five minute aching folk blues that perfectly underlines just why this has already earned a place on my best of 2007 list.
www.emily-barker.com
www.myspace.com/emilybarker
Mike Davies January 2007
Les Barker's dogged persistence in mining the rich seams of musical humour in conjunction with the well-turned spoken word has paid off once again in this latest collection of musical parodogies and much more besides. Of course, the Mrs. Ackroyd Band stage act is aurally represented here in terms of its personnel (Les himself, Alison Younger, Hilary Spencer and Chris Harvey), but deliberate and reasonable use is made of the studio facilities too where appropriate. The Band turns in some fine performances here, no question, but, just as on previous Mrs Ackroyd discs, the tracks I enjoyed the most tended to include those involving the engagement of guest artists (some well-established folk performers) – and that's not just because I appreciated the various in-jokes. Here, that marvellous duo Cloudstreet present a wonderful character-play version of the ballad of Mrs. Groves and the determinedly "un-PC" tale of The Cruel Motherboard, John Tams treats us to an impassioned On And On (aka Rolling On With CB&S) and June Tabor tackles the tale of The Maid Of Melrose Town with due precision and not a knowing nuance out of place! Messrs. Pint and Dale have a brush with destiny in then shape of the loathsome ballad anti-hero Sensodyne; oh, and Jez Lowe cannily posits that You Won't Like Tom Jones; here and on the following House Of The Rising What?, the keyboard production, brilliantly inventive though it is, sometimes drowns the ends of sung lines and you have to listen very carefully to try to catch all the jokes. The non-guest items also bring some of Les's more recent classics to life: pick of these has to be the album's would-be closer, Alison Younger's delicate rendition of The Farting Lass (and yes, it Burns if you set fire to it!), but Les's doleful recitation of The Marie Depreste and the two cheesy disco hits (Hip-Hop Hamlet and the ladies' Mitsubishi Brick Shogun) are suitably well-drilled. The disc actually ends on Cariad Ar Goll, a distinct curiosity for non-Welsh-speakers – or at any rate those outside W-Rexham (Les's newly-adopted home-base). In all, I won't be dogmatic and say that Dark Side Of The Mongrel is Les's best, for (as is often the case) the one-liners often score over sustained comic invention; but it comes doggone close at times, with some priceless moments.
David Kidman August 2008
At long last, a further helping of the wit and wisdom of the brilliant Les Barker, again to raise funds for the BCAB (British Computer Association Of The Blind). This time it's a two-disc set, stretching to a generous two hours' playing-time, on which assorted musicians and celebrities deliver renditions of Les's songs and poems.
Les himself appears on two of these - on a solo live performance of Sex Is Better Than Poetry and on Hip Hop Hamlet (fronting the Mrs Ackroyd Band); I think (but couldn't totally swear to it) that these recordings are taken from existing available CDs. The remainder, however, appear to be new recordings made specially for this venture, although some of the actual musical parodies herein have been recorded before for earlier Mrs Ackroyd releases (in the case of My Husband's Got No Porridge In Him, by the same artist - Norma Waterson, but in virtually all other cases by different artists). Never fear, for it's good to hear alternative renditions, the originals can take it (and so can you!).
Roy Bailey and Wheeler Street raise the roof (and the stars) with their Ben Kenobi space-shanty, the Haley Sisters deliver an authentic Roseville Fair; Dan & Gene ship on board the enigmatic Sloop John A, Nonny James exhorts us to Send In The Cones and Fairport Convention are roped in to portray Quasi B. Goode. One or two of the latest reinterpretations don't quite measure up to earlier recordings for me - Jill Grant & Alan Berry being no match for Martin Carthy and June Tabor on Hunting The Cutty Wren for instance.
Musical items heard here for the first time include Jez Lowe on You Won't Like Tom Jones (you'll see!), Isla St. Clair on The De'il's Awa' Wi' The Exercise Bike, Chumbawamba cheerily driving their Four By Four Four Door Fortress and Keith Donnelly's manic Cat-Nav, although I can't really warm to Nik Kershaw's multitracked solo rendition of Les's more serious side (What Is), which may be a fault in my taste rather than the performance.
The spoken-word pieces are aptly characterised in the main, comparing very favourably with earlier instalments in the series: particularly well-suited to their tasks I feel are Richard Briers (Why Don't They Write It On The Side?), Jeremy Taylor (Shi Tsu), Bernard Cribbins (Odd Socks), Bernard Wrigley (Beef Dripping), and Charles Collingwood (Je Ne Sais Quoi), while Bob Harris whispers meaningfully through The Nine Banded Armadillo and we even hear from the Archbishop Of Canterbury (in both English and Welsh!) regarding The Lost Elephants Of Denbigh.
As with the cutting-edge technology on which it is based, the Cat-Nav device may occasionally lead you astray or into a bit of a cul-de-sac, but it's rarely a totally wasted journey. And it makes an ideal Christmas (or unbirthday) present, needless to say.
www.mrsackroyd.com
www.bcab.org.uk
David Kidman November 2009
This CD's brilliant title gives us vital clues both to its character, intent and origin: the "dogs" reference is part of the running gag for all utterances of the master of mad doggerel Les Barker, while the apocalyptic paraphrase points up the essentially portentous nature of Les's world-vision, with its deeply-felt concern for this earth and its environment and its condemnation of what man is doing to it to render it uninhabitable. So, suffice to say that the latest venture from the prolific Mrs Ackroyd stable (read kennel!) is a new collection of "serious" songs by Les (not everyone is aware of this side of Les's personality - though one or two of his "serious" songs, like Earth, have already been very successfully covered by "thinking" folk artistes). Les is of course best known for his mad doggerel, but his serious side is worth exploring too, even the quality of invention is sometimes uneven and his right-on ruminations don't always lend themselves to an entirely convincing musical adaptation, as the hit-and-miss nature of this disc demonstrates. That's in some measure due to the mildly erratic quality (and divergent timbres) of the singers themselves, one or two of whom I don't quite feel comfortable listening to (that's a matter of personal taste, I know). But I felt that the best of these work really well: Fiona Simpson's simple and beautiful renditions of the achingly tender First Love and We Are All The Souls On Earth, Steve Tilston's strong yet mercurial take on The Top Of The World (with Phil Beer's fiddle in attendance), Pete Morton on The Last Inch Of Freedom, Roy Bailey and Martin Simpson on The Dawning Of The Day, Michael Kennedy's impassioned version of Turn Me Round, and Phil Beer (again) with Jackie Oates telling of the Angel Of The North being just some of the unqualified successes. And another highlight - inevitably - is where Les himself appears (just the once), reciting (declaiming) Debate to a gleefully whimsical pseudo-Schubertian piano part. Elsewhere there's an occasional tendency to maudlin-ness, an impression partly due to the nature of the (traditional) tunes Les uses and partly due to the tone of Chris Harvey-Pollington's sometimes overly grandiose keyboard treatments that overlay some of the songs. Having said which, Hilary Spencer's quasi-operatic delivery well complements Chris's Beethovenian backing on The Ashes Of Time. A mixed bag then, admittedly, but still not an album to dismiss purely because it's not "funny stuff".
David Kidman
Volumes 1 and 2 of this endeavour, on which assorted luminaries (actors and musicians) performed a selection from the works of the brilliant Mancunian "poet and professional idiot" Les Barker, may have started out with humble beginnings yet have gone on to raise a mighty sum (in excess of £30,000 to date) for the British Computer Association Of The Blind charity. Both of these earlier volumes had suffered in some degree from the "worthy celebrity whose heart is in the right place but doesn't quite connect with Les's mindset" syndrome, so it's good that the various contributions making up volume 3 are altogether more consistent and successful.
This new volume rings the changes too in that it consists entirely of spoken-word performances; there are none of Les's celebrated song-parodies this time. But the 27 items are almost without exception drawn from Les's best work (of which there's loads more where that came from!). The net has been cast wider for suitably "sympathetic" actors this time round, and new recruits include Tim Brooke-Taylor, Judi Spiers, Andrew Sachs and Jenny Agutter, while returning to the fold from success in earlier volumes we have Joss Ackland, Prunella Scales and Gerard McDermott. Notably, Gerard does a splendid job steering a hairy course through the treacherous waters of the gloriously tortuous dyslexia of The Y Files (which could have been written for Stanley Unwin!). Dave Cash turns in a reasonable performance of The Franco-Prussian War Of The Spanish Succession, arguably the superior of Les's more increasingly surreal Deck Of Cards parodies, but Robert Lindsay, in The Mask Of Mono, seems curiously to rush some lines, thus minimising the comic potential of the piece. Roger Lloyd Pack's otherwise well-paced rendition of the heavily ornithological lament Knot is compromised by an intermittently intrusive montage of bird-sounds (where some, like the puffin and snipe, appear right on cue but others are distractingly irrelevant to the narrative) - and an unfortunate mispronunciation of "Guillemot"!
Les himself appears, preaching in the pulpit of The Church Of The Wholly Undecided (I think – I haven't quite made up my mind yet!). However, in the role of a collection designed to win new converts to the Mrs Ackroyd faith, this is a recommended purchase should you wish to hear other than "his master's own voice" declaiming these priceless prime cuts of surreal doggerel (though, like the tribute bands, to my mind there can never be a true substitute for Les's own readings!). And it raises cash for a supremely worthy cause.
www.mrsackroyd.com
www.bcab.com
David Kidman October 2007
The Missing Persians File: aka Guide Cats For The Blind Volume 2 (Osmosys)
www.mrsackroyd.com
www.bcab.com
David Kidman
Les Barker - Guide Cats for the Blind (Osmosys Records
Les Barker, the man behind Jason and The Arguments, Cosmo the Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower, Spot of The Antarctic and Captain Indecisive is at it again. Now, a double CD of poems and songs with a humorous bent is always going to create mixed opinions. Let's get one problem out of the way early on. Once heard, a joke tends to wear thin. As a result, many comic acts avoid putting their material in recorded format. Never mind, a double CD. However, this one arrives with a number of appealing factors.
Firstly, it does mix poem and song which adds variety and breaks up the flow in an agreeable manner. Secondly, a donation form the sale of the CD goes to The British Computer Association Of The Blind and that will appeal to the philanthropic. Thirdly, and this is the masterstroke, Les hands over the vocals to a wide ranging set of guests on all but the title and closing tracks. You'd expect to hear the likes of Mike Harding but the mind does boggle when you hear Nicholas Parsons, Martin Carthy, Terry Wogan, Cyril Tawney, Heinz Wolff, Paul Gambaccini et al making their contributions.
It's difficult to rate and compare individual tracks on a record like this. So, I can only put forward my personal chuckling moments. Anyone familiar with the serious tones of Brian Perkins delivery will be unbalanced by this version of the 'Shipping Forecast'. Disoriented, you'll be soothed by Charlotte Green's comments on 'Voicemail' and they're bound to get a resounding nod from you. Martin Carthy's 'Hard Cheese Of England' is a delightful poke at the po-faced Folkies from a man who can get incorrectly cast in that very mould. Yet, the prize moment for me was Cyril Tawney parodying his own song on 'Lassie Free And Easy' which, naturally, is a tale of a wayward dog. So, some fun and frivolity but beware the life span of the laugh.
Steve Henderson
David Kidman
Another dogression from the usual doggerel-laden musings of the inimitable Les Barker, this far-from-indogestible new CD from the Mrs. Ackroyd Band (that of the ever-changing pawsonnel!) presents a dogzen or so songs from the Barker back-catadogue. Most are (obvious) parodies, but you should not be "d-turd" by the CD's title! What makes Les's parodies so special when recorded is his superb choice of singer(s); in the past, he's persuaded his pedigree chums, like Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy and June Tabor, into the fold, and here June returns with a priceless rendition of Git Along Little Dogie that should prove no bone of contention! Sometimes, too, the "original artists" will perform the parodies of their own songs to perfection - Cyril Tawney's beautifully deadpan, world-weary Grey Tunnel Line and Bill Caddick's Custard Creams (no mere dog-biscuit!) - and the rousingly pseudo-pompous Harvey Andrews Chorus (can you handel that?!) contains soloistic interjections from "the man himself"! Artisan's Hilary Spencer sends herself up nicely with an exquisite, sweetly operatic rendition of the barkerole O Sole Mio (true afishianados will love the cod-mandolin backing!), while Alison Younger's aptly mock-genteel doglivery of Breaking Wind Suddenly evokes the dulcet tones of Kathleen Terrier. However, David Knutson's Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? seems a bit strait-laced alongside Debby McClatchy's gleefully earthy version (not yet available on record). Dogged Francophiles will love Eileen McGann's I Live Not Near The Louvre, whereas you'll definitely have heard Techno Notice before (and before….). The titanic Have You Got Any News Of The Iceberg? becomes an authentically tearful Lap-country waltz with some fine dogbro playing (though I reckon the bubble-machine should've taken the night off - Les's comedy doesn't need the silly-noises department!). So, if I may be dogmatic without being dedogatory, this doglightful CD, in full dogital sound, should prove an irresistible appendoge to any Barker dogvotee's doggy-bag.
David Kidman
Hard on the heels of Les Barker's hilarious Arovertherapy release comes a new collection that's described on the cover as "Les Barker's words sung slowly". But be warned - that doesn't mean funereally-paced renditions of Spot Of The Antarctic and other choice doggerel - this time the content is wholly serious, with not a trace of a pun (well, Les can't resist a subtle, and wholly forgivable, degree of levity creeping into the sleeve notes). Readers of Les's many slim volumes will be aware of his more serious side; after all, he's a thoughtful and caring chap with ample compassion and a genuine feeling for nature and humanity. The pieces on this new CD are concerned with his deep love of the English countryside and the Scottish landscape, also dealing with environmental concerns, philosophical and human values in a simple, direct and largely unsentimental way. Since Les is no singer, he recruits Mrs. Ackroyd Band members Alison Younger and Hilary Spencer, together with "honorary Ackroydians" Artisan, Eileen McGann and Fiona Simpson, for vocal duties, with some superb guest appearances by June Tabor (the tender, affectionate closer The Special Light Of Lonely Islands is worthy of particular mention), Annette Batty and Steve Tilston, Mike Silver, and Lester Simpson. Although Les "holds two keys down" (under strict supervision!) on one track, he sensibly delegates most of the keyboard duties to Chris Harvey, though Mark Emerson and Chris Leslie are among the other musicians appearing fleetingly. Most of the settings use existing tunes, many of these being traditional, and taken individually they are soothing, satisfying and often thought-provoking; however, since many of the settings are taken at a similar pace, the album's probably not best appreciated all in one sitting.
David Kidman
Sally Barker - Maid In England (Old Dog Records)
Finally arriving after a throat infection scare and tonsils removal held up work for a year, this finds Barker with her folk hat firmly planted, her approach and material influenced by working with trad musicians (the line up includes Keith Buck, Paul Whyman, Phil Beer, Patsy Seddon and Sarah Allen) and instruments. Not to say it's old school Waterson/Carthy stuff her pop sensibilities are still well in evidence while the likes of Fall From Grace (done wrong woman kills her lover), Sirens (a firefighter's wife acknowledges his courage despite having had to leave, unable to cope with the stress) and the rousing title track (in which Boudicea, Elizabeth I and Amy Johnson link verses) are definite folk-rock tunes.
There's a couple of covers, Steve Knightley's Captains (one of several songs referencing the sea) and Debbie Cassell's hauntingly desolate song of countryside plight The Farm (the unaccompanied intro showing Barker's voice is on top form), but otherwise it's self or co-penned material all the way; Haul Away a deportation ballad inspired by the book The Floating Brothel about female convicts sent to Australia, The Ballad of Mary Rose sung in the person of one of Henry VIII's sailors, Old Horses a quietly reflective song of ageing and exhaustion given an added ache with Keith Buck's pedal steel, Bird with its madrigal lute a tender maternal fable about nurturing and letting go (inspired by a couple who'd lost a child) thematically complemented by Sleep's Descending gentle devotional lullaby to her two children. Nice to have her back, the tonsils don't know what they're missing.
Mike Davies
I don't know where Kim was born, but the biog tells of her moving north to the Yukon some ten years ago, where she now works on cross-disciplinary arts projects in the Whitehorse area. She's an intriguing wordsmith who writes edgy, imaginative songs which prove the perfect vehicle for her winsome and clear-toned yet agreeably dynamic vocal style. Quirky personal observation, loaded with irony, is the key to most of her writing, and there's a likeably oddball quality to her word-pictures that's well reflected in the instrumental settings. Kim generally accompanies herself on fingerstyle acoustic guitar, with occasional excursions onto clawhammer banjo or cello, but she uses a handful of other musicians too, on various guitars (described as subtle or upfront!), wheezing harmonium, kora and marimba, as well as basses and drumkit. The sound-picture she creates is every bit as unique as her word-pictures, and this combination gives the album a deliciously distinctive aura. An initial curiosity is replaced by a compelling attraction as you're increasingly drawn in to Kim's world. The musical idiom's not immediately describable, probably best tagged as idiosyncratic singer-songwriter (tho' that's meant as a compliment!), although there are excursions into Gillian-Welch-style oldtime gothic (Waterfall), weird circus/music-hall (Bicker Fable) and brooding electric thrash (Anthony's Summer). This is one of the most interesting and individual releases I've heard this year so far, and a genuinely unusual album by any standards; enough so for me to be trying hard now to track down a copy of Kim's earlier album from three years ago, Humminah.
David Kidman
Danny Barnes - Dirt on the Angel (Terminus)
Mike Davies
Sylvia's pedigree in traditional music is a long and distinguished one: together with her late husband Jim, she formed the vocal nucleus of the Glasgow band Kentigern and even sang with the Battlefield Band before moving to England in the 1980s. More recently she was named Scots Singer of the Year at the Scots Traditional Music Awards in 2006. Sadly, however, I almost never see her name on gig lists … Sylvia has one of the most involving singing voices I know, supremely engaging and powerful and capable of conveying drama, deep passion, cheeky humour, stirring emotion and gentler sentiments with equal facility. So it comes as no surprise perhaps that I consider The Colour Of Amber to be definitely one of the finest of the many fine singers' albums which Greentrax have put out. An extravagant claim? Not a bit – as you'll hear yourself right from the outset on the opening track, a deliciously chuckling nonsense song Soo Sewin' Silk (a kind of variant of Who's The Fool Now which Sylvia learnt from Lizzie Higgins). You can tell that there's power within the light and airy texture here, a power in Sylvia's voice that's held in reserve for the two tremendous (unaccompanied) performances of "big ballads" that form highpoints of the disc without a doubt. Fair Annie (Sylvia's source for which was the Peter Bellamy version) is rendered with a literally stunning immediacy and an involvement that is so personal and rings absolutely true. Sylvia's outstanding, dramatic performance of Prince Heathen, towards the end of the disc, is no less superb in its own way: it's moving in the most honest sense of the word – as indeed are so many of the songs in Sylvia's renditions. She presents a choice of material that's both enterprisingly different and accommodatingly familiar, and provides just enough detail in her booklet notes to satisfy our curiosity; happily, full texts are also given. Among the disc's other successes are two sensitive settings of Violet Jacob poems (by Carole Prior and Sandy Stanage respectively). Yes, I admit I was moved to tears many times during the disc's 54 minutes, notably at moments where Sylvia's expressive tenderness surfaces, and in particular on her arrangement of Dáithí Sproule's setting of Lonely Waterloo, Les Barker's serious (and yes, beautiful) song The Turn Of The Road, and the gorgeous (if almost unearthly) title track. Which prompts me to turn the spotlight of praise for an instant on the great production values of the CD (engineered by Ian McCalman) embracing the wonderful, commendably simple and perfectly judged instrumental backings provided for Sylvia's voice by producer Sandy Stanage. Sandy also plays guitar (and exceptionally well too), while the Wrigley Sisters contribute fiddle and piano and Frank McLaughlin whistle (Frank additionally provides some subtle yet heart-stopping embellishments on the small pipes). I also liked the creative use of extra harmony and chorus voices on a couple of songs (to particular advantage on the drinking-song finale Todlen Hame, I thought). It's abundantly clear that the whole enterprise has been carried out with loving care by all the participants, and if ever any recent album from a traditional singer can be guaranteed to both move you and rivet you to your seat, then The Colour Of Amber is one such - I implore you not to miss it!
David Kidman March 2008
Some fifteen years on from their initial successes playing an important part in the revitalisation of the Scottish dance scene in the late 80s, the Cape Breton sibling combo shows they can still deliver high-energy, high-quality product, whether on heavily traditional material or their own compositions. The dozen tracks here, recorded back in 1999, have been licensed by Greentrax for issue in the UK and Europe, and cover all points between straight trad and Corrs-soundalike pop-folk (Fleetwood Mac's Second-Hand News) with equal verve. The arrangements are invariably interesting too; the highlight for me is a passionate yet not mawkish version of Tom Paxton's Every Time (strange how certain songs seem to have crept back into vogue!), set to a nicely shuffling beat, though the sprightly closing Scott Skinner strathspey (Tullochgorum) runs it perilously close! There's also a brooding organ-funk backing for Queen Of All Argyle, and Great Big Sea join the chorus on a cover of Steeleye's Misty Moisty Morning, whereas Paddy Moloney brings his pipes and whistles to Rattlin' Roarin' Willie. Aside from a small number of other additional musicians, though, it's the four band members with just Jamie Gatti (basses) all the way, and a full-bodied, gutsy sound they make too. The MacNeils' stylistic facility is clearly a major factor in their winning over audiences wherever they play, but it could also prove a mild frustration for those listeners who prefer a band to stick more or less to one style. All that said, I can't fault them on any count, instrumentally or vocally - the latter being specially scintillating this time round - and so the 48 minutes of this CD sprint by most delightfully (so much so, in fact, that I reached for the replay button immediately).
David Kidman
Out of Minnesota and youngest daughter of lap steel player Charles Barris, she grew up on a diet of bluegrass before moving to Nashville and making a name for herself as a songwriter with covers by the like of Leanne Womack, Kathy Mattea, and Martina McBride. A debut album, Reluctant Daughter, came along in 1999 but since then nothing. Until now and, collaborating Canadian blues guitarist and producer Colin Linden, this live recorded sophomore release on her own label and a brief UK tour through September.
She's been bigged up by Mattea and Pierce Pettis who rightly point attention to her quiet, crystal clear vocals and the mountain spring ambience of her often lyrically playful acoustic roots country (and on Where Is My Love) folk founded songs. Restless spirits and love lost, found and sought for provide the bulk of the subject matter, moving on with I Sang To The River, chasing down two legged dreams on The Song You Know By Heart and the aching Some Things I Know, domestic ones with Something Missing and those of making it on the world's stage for the shuffling waltzy title track.
She's not all sugar and spice either. Teaming up on writing and background harmonies with Jessi Alexander, the bad girl bubbles up on Midnight Ride to Mississippi that finds her in the arms of her friend's man while the spring in the step I Had To Tell Somebody What I Did Last Night has them both in party all night kiss and tell frame of mind.
Balancing out such light, playful moments there's the rather more wistful yearning of the hymnal keening There You Are and Butterfly, the touching but life-affirming story of a young girl who dies of (presumably) cancer but lives life to the full while she's here.
As yet, despite her songwriting successes, she remains very much in the shadows of the country spotlight but if she keeps turning out gently engaging music like this then her little voice is going to be heard a lot more far and wide.
Mike Davies
Harriet Bartlett - Eyes Wide Open (Greentrax)
This ultra-talented young lass from Shrewsbury won the Danny award at Celtic Connections two years ago. She plays a mean accordion (close on nine years' experience so far), and over the past three years has added singing to her armoury, sometimes accompanying herself on piano keyboard. And she's still only in her late teens! But it's no wonder that Harriet's accordion playing is her strongest suit, with mentors of the calibre of Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham, Karen Tweed and Ian Lowthian. No wonder too, that back in 2003 Phil C was straining at the leash to produce this, her strong debut album. It contains eight instrumental tracks and four songs; the former are mostly of modern origin – she composed no fewer than five herself (and jolly good they are too!). Whatever she plays, though, whether fast-paced or slower and more sensitive, she tackles it with flair and gusto aplenty, fingers flying across the keys in astounding fashion – she's even brave enough to try the fiendish Music For A Found Harmonium at one point! In terms of repertoire, Harriet's decision to include the nowadays-ubiquitous
David Kidman
For years now, I've immensely enjoyed Denny's contributions to his duo work with Chris Sherburn, then latterly with Chris and Nick Scott in Last Night's Fun, but he's been keeping this, his first solo album, very quiet. I can't imagine why, for it's an impressive and assured piece of work that shows him to be a song interpreter of no mean stature as well as the notably fine guitarist we all know and love. Now I know that Denny's singing can be considered an acquired taste; his detractors can only hear a monotonous drone, apparently. But this album should go a very long way to convincing such unbelievers that Denny's vocal talents are substantial and that there's actually quite a bit of subtlety in there. For the strength of Denny's interpretative powers can probably most easily be discerned in his meaningful response to, and consequent re-evaluation of, key songs from the folk singer's repertoire.
These have in some cases suffered (if that's the right word, perverse though it may seem) from what may be termed "unequalable" interpretations - Dave Sudbury's King Of Rome (June Tabor's crucial reading remaining well nigh matchless) and Ed Pickford's Worker's Song (Dick Gaughan's fine version) being two cases in point, where here Denny really (and extremely credibly) makes the songs his own property - the acid test of a good interpreter of song. Similarly, Denny's refusal to sentimentalise Nancy Spain only renders the song's emotional impact more compelling, I'd say. Other highlights are provided by Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight's Midnight Feast and Pete Morton's Love Me In Eden (the only track on which Denny allows himself the luxury of a second accompanist, the album's producer Ron Angus). Sean Tyrrell's been a major influence too, and Denny's thoughtful arrangement of Connie's Song exhibits plenty of light and shade. In fact, all of Denny's own guitar accompaniments here are a model of gentle restraint. Yes, this album shows the underrated Mr. Bartley's individual talents in the best possible light.
www.dennybartley.com
www.adamailorder.co.uk
Who's a busy boy then? Within the space of a month Barzelay's releasing both the solo album that was apparently a major factor in the band breaking up and the sixth album they were recording at the time. The (now reunited) band project arrives first, sounding just like a you would expect with their Neil Young influenced, wearily soulful Americana sound.
Me No opens in angular strummed rock mode with images of combs made from bones, setting the air of resignation that hangs over proceedings, infusing things like the eight minute Pray, Beard Of Bees, Burn The Light and Our Time Will Come with a sepia toned ghostly melancholy that winds its way around your heart with a heavy sadness.
Pulitzer winning poet Franz Wright's spoken contribution on Encounter At 3am is an unexpected treat, perfectly at one with the album's autumnal feel and an affecting emotional complement to the bruised wooziness of Born A Man's brushed drums and early hours bar piano. It could have done without The Endless Endings with its multi-tracked vocals and bursts of discordant, nerves shaking guitar storms, but as farewell and welcome backs go, this is quality Clem.
A month later you get the solo album and, it'll be no surprise to learn it sounds much like a Clem Snide collection (it even includes Me No as a bonus cut), the opening cruncher Could Be Worse finding him on his best whining twang Young form as he sings "I can't find comfort in the fact that it could be worse" while Crazy Horse guitars strike plangent notes. The Neilisms are there too on the title track but on Take Me and True Freedom it's hard to avoid thinking that, lyrically, vocally and melodically, he sounds not unlike Loudon Wainwright.
There's more of the rock edge to the solo album, Apocalyptic Friend backgrounding the dreamy melody line and echoey wearied vocal with a rumbling drum pattern and distorted guitar while Make Another Tree breaks out into bursts of throaty guitar and the marching beat tumble of Numerology builds around drum tattoos and desolate desert guitar frills. With Song For Batya's tribute to his late mother and a general mood of loss and uncertainty, it's good to hear The Girls Don't Care, a playfully cynical view of female music tastes that don't extend to Frank Zappa, Coltrane, Faust, or Can. Whether he can continue to keep the solo career going without causing the band to collapse again remains to be seen, but for now these are two welcome bites of the same cherry.
www.eefbarzelay.org
www.clemsnide.com
Mike Davies April 2009
Aside from having one of the most splendid names in the history of rock n roll, Barzelay is also no slouch as a singer-songwriter. Taking time out as frontman for Clem Snide, this is a 10 song solo set that divides itself into two halves. The Ballad of Bitter Honey half is a loose song cycle concept about a self-deluded nurse turned hip hop video dancer that charts her hopeless ambitions ("that was my ass you saw bouncing next to Ludacris, It was only onscreen for a second but it's kind of hard to miss"), exploitation and eventual downfall, Thanksgiving Waves, NMA , Well and Words Escape Me all flooded with resignation, melancholia, cynicism and despair.
Then, kicking off with the brief and breezy Little Red Dot, part two is your basic set of songs about of unfulfilled relationships, soured love and heartache, unfolded through the 30s sounding Let Us Be Naked, the caustic honky tonker bitter romantic I Wasn't Really Drunk ("I wanted so much to feel the way you do") and the leave me hurting Escape Artist Blues before winding up with a mournful, cracked emotions cover of Joy To The World that suggests the singer is feeling anything.
They all come in stripped back acoustic format with just Barzelay and his guitar (and some birds twittering on Little Red Dot) that allow you to focus on the stories and the pain they enfold. And to reveal that, when he's naked, Barzelay sounds and writes exactly like Loudon Wainwright III.
Mike Davies, April 2006
Stylistically likened to Mazzy Star, Mojave 3 and American Music Club, the Canadian singer-songwriter trades in soft, fuzzily warm melancholy filtered through a drugged out country haze as he reflects on a relationship break-up and its aftermath. Lightly kissed with string arrangements, pedal steel and the occasional caress of a vibraphone or harmonica, it waltzes through the heart's debris on dreamy melodies and a whispered voice coated with wistful regret.
As you'd image, while Look What Love Has Turned Us Into has a slight brushed country spring in its step, it never strays far from the confessional ballad territory so beautifully embodied in such softly bruised numbers as the slow waltzing Words Tangled In Blue, Soft Summer Girls, Stayed Too Long In This Place and the wonderfully maudlin moping Nobody Told Me. Almost worth getting yourself dumped for in order to enjoy its exquisite pain to the full.
Mike Davies February 2009
If you don't happen to be a baseball fan, then names like Curt Flood, Satchel Paige, Ted Williams, Harvey Haddix and Big Ed Delahanty will mean squiddly. Steve Wynn, Miracle 3 drummer Linda Pitmon and REM's Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey are. And then some. And they've put together this album of songs about some of the sport's greatest players by way of a tribute. It is, as you might imagine, a little loose but it's also rather fun. Musically diverse, it opens with typical Wynn guitar slinging rocker Past Time and before you know it Ted F***ing Williams has taken it off into a Glitter Band/Christie glampop singalong only to be brought back to the lurching swampy voodoo of Gratitude (For Curt Flood).
There's also some TexMex cantina dancing with the Spanish sung Fernando, a bit of 60s Velvets pop on Long Before My Time, throaty Dream Syndicate alt-rock for The Closer and Satchel Paige's Said simple ramshackle West Coast throwback harmonica sunshine folk-pop.
Hardly essential, but if you happen to share their sporting passions then you'll appreciate the stories recalled in the songs, from Broken Man's tale of Mark McGwire's fall from saviour to pariah in the wake of a steroids scandal to Jackie Robinson's endurance of racism in the late 40s. Buck even gets to reminisce about a drunken night on the town with Mike Mills and Yankees pitcher and Rickenbacker player Black Jack McDowell aka the Yankee Flipper.
And if you follow up the lyrics of Past Time, you'll even get to learn that the band Yo La Tengo take their name from the New York Mets' 1962 season. Because Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacon spoke no English and didn't understand the words 'I got it, centre fielder Richie Ashburn would cry 'yo la tengo' instead. However, in one game, seeing Chacon back off, Ashburn then collided with left fielder Frank Thomas who spoke no Spanish! See, who said rock n roll wasn't educational.
www.myspace.com/thebaseballproject
Mike Davies July 2008
There's a tremendous buzz at the moment about this band... they've already been causing a stir on the current Seth Lakeman tour, and they're shortly to begin their own close-on-month-long UK headline tour with a couple of nights at Celtic Connections. So they must be sensational, right?? Well: the three Stockholm sisters (Greta, Stella and Sunniva Bondesson) tick all the proverbial boxes as regards looks and physical presence, their sibling vocal harmonies are keen and punchy, and as musicians they seem to exude an irresistible combination of proven chops and pure energy. Fall Among Thieves is my first encounter with Baskery, and the trio's debut record as such - tho' as The Slaptones they'd previously made a couple of albums (with their dad) but now they're going out as a trio armed with kick-ass snare and tambourine (who needs dad and his drumkit now?!). The whole album was recorded as-live, with no overdubs, and captures a vital indie-style killer energy that surely explains why they're getting ecstatic live reviews. Instrumentally, their proficiency on acoustic and resonator guitars, banjo and upright/double bass is sufficiently solid without resorting to note-spinnery; however, be warned that their playing style quite often has less truck with the more sensitive brushstrokes of old-timey Americana than being demonically possessed with a pounding vibe that might better be described as heavy-metal-country. Vocal-wise, there's no faulting the closeness of the meshed harmonies or the combined unbridled power of the three voices (think of a feistier version of the Wailin' Jennys, or maybe Dixie Chicks possessed with the spirit of Kleenex... ), while their solo singing is pretty persuasive too.
All twelve of the album tracks are original songs, with seven written by Sunniva alone, four by all three and one by Greta and Stella together; tho' having not seen the sisters live, I can't say who takes lead on what. As far as musical impact goes, then, Baskery will probably hit all the right buttons, and certainly there are parts of this album (check out One Horse Town for starters!) that hit the mark with a visceral force comparable to how the White Stripes, the Roches, even the Jennys (in their different ways) did the very first time I heard them. If there's a sticking point for me with Baskery, it's the lyrics for much of the time: in the main they tend to be in the "received-Americana" vein, a touch empty and sometimes rather superficial, occasionally downright vacuous, whereas songs like Out-Of-Towner simply rely too much on repetition and hard riffing for effect (yeah OK it's killbilly, so beat us all into submission!) and the exaggerated Stateside drawl of Why Don't Ya sounds like a dumb-ass parody (in fact, there's sometimes a sneaking suspicion that it's all a bit of an act). The more thoughtful Hold On and Spoken Word, the reflective Harsh, the bookending pair of songs The Brave/The Wise and the cute, whimsical Oscar Jr Restaurant Bar all score rather more for me, especially on further playthrough, indicating that all need not be lost. If you want to prove me wrong, you can check out the lyrics on the Baskery website (tho' it won't let you save or print any of the text for some weird reason). So in the final analysis the jury's still out on Baskery; while I'm betting they put on a stunning live show, time may tell as to whether they have more durable, less transient appeal.
David Kidman January 2009
Both the name of the all girl trio and the nom de music of Pakistan-born, Brighton based singer-songwriter Natasha Khan, her debut album has been critically hailed as one of the year's best. Deservedly so too. Taking inspiration from fairy tales and nursery rhymes with gothic folk songs of dark desires and disturbing dreams veined with animal and natural imagery and coloured by strings, harpsichords and percussion, the spare mood is decidedly cobwebbed and pagan.
Both in Khan's swooping vocals and in the context of the ethereal, cinematic music she's understandably drawn comparisons to Kate Bush and Bjork, (both of whom she channels on Sarah) though obscurantists might want to add witchywood duo Pooka and Patrick Wolf to the reference map while the brief drum intro and spoken passages of What's A Girl To Do betray a fondness for Spector and the Shangri-Las.
Organic, fragile, dramatic, mystical and stunningly atmospheric, it shows her naked and vulnerable caught in the open by angst on Sad Eyes, celebratory and cantering in the woodland moonlight on the military beat, mist enshrouded Horse and I and awestruck by the free spirit of the natural world in Bat's Mouth. But there's dread and danger in their wilderness too. Just listen to the deceptively uptempo Sarah
It's an intoxicating musical feats, shimmering with New Age clouds on Tahiti, going folk-tribal with Prescilla's handclaps beat and mediaeval textures and walking through the ice-encrusted piano tinkling, shaker shuffling musical landscape of The Wizard, before the album closes in sinister symphonic splendour with I Saw A light, a song that includes two dead people in the back of a car. What more could you possibly ask?
www.batforlashes.co.uk
www.myspace.com/batforlashes
Mike Davies October 2006
A leading light of the Ann Arbor folk scene who's been likened to Will Oldham, Sufjan Stevens and Jeff Tweedy, this is Bathgate's major label debut after a two word of mouth building self-released album. With a voice that shifts between the quietly brushed salted drawl of the melancholic strummed The Last Parade On Ann St and Madison House and the more throaty muscle flexing of a ragged Restless and the jazzed post-rock Smiles Like A Fist, he keeps your ears on their toes.
His songs are musically diverse too, just as you've settled into the spare acoustic folk you'll find yourself facing rock riffs, horns, electronics and brooding, frayed nerve piano figures while Every Wall You Own is an odd Celtic strum and drone that also sees him adopting a quivering delivery that sounds like the vocal equivalent of a Jew's Harp. Not immediate at all and, to be honest, a little dry, but having lured you into his world with the opening Serpentine with its cyclical melody and melting ice piano notes, you may find it harder to leave than you imagined.
www.acorktalewake.com
www.myspace.com/chrisbathgate
Mike Davies April 2008
What is it about the mighty Battlefield Band? Album upon album they produce unchallenged top quality, with excellence of musicianship an absolute given – so by rights they should be setting the conscientious reviewer an impossible task – what else is there to say? Follow that!… But yet, every time they release a new album the band manages to ring the changes in some measure and there's another layer or two of interest on which to report. And with their latest record, Zama Zama, there certainly is something really special "on the cards" for the listener.
The album finds the band fired up anew at the state of Britain at the time of the latest economic crisis, giving vent to their anger at the nation's present-day "parcel of rogues" in a forthright, and often distinctly dark, collection of songs and tunes (the record's original connective thematic premise, gold, had over its gestation broadened to embrace cutting socio-political commentary on the universal theme of the pursuit of greed). The band's keyboardist Alan Reid contributes no fewer than three exceptional new songs: the first of these, Robber Barons, draws parallels between the unscrupulous tycoons of every age (with the Twa Corbies voraciously dining in the sinister instrumental coda!). Alan's other two songs both deal with prospecting for gold in the literal sense: Baile An Or concerns a gold rush which occurred on the Duke Of Sutherland's estate in 1869, while Three Brothers is a particularly fine story-song with a twist, set at the time of the Alaskan Gold Rush of the late 1890s.
The album's remaining songs all strike artistic gold too in some way: Allan MacDonald (brother of the band's former piper Iain) adds his characteristic warm vocal tone (and smallpipes) to a keenly observed rendition of the allegorical fable of the Cave Of Gold (Uamh An Òir), and guitarist Sean O'Donnell takes lead vocal on three songs – a persuasive account of Norman Buchan's tale of The Auchengeich Disaster (a coal mine rather than gold, admittedly), Plain Gold Ring (a bleak tale of unrequited love from the singing of Nina Simone), and Greenland's Icy Waters (from the pen of one of the Battlefields' founders Brian McNeill). The musical settings the band members provide for all these songs are well managed, often quite ominous, with plenty of imaginative touches.
As well as the songs, Zama Zama contains a whole clutch of marvellous instrumental tracks: compelling tune-sets, with gold connections in the titles to be sure – several of these having been composed by the band's ever-enterprising piper Mike Katz or fiddler Alasdair White. Tunes are conceived with the benefit of a variety of influences, including Breton, Galician, Bulgarian, Zulu, Hawaiian and Irish sources as well as traditional Scottish, and they exhibit an abundance of life while retaining momentum and musical interest throughout each magnificent set. And a sense of fun too – Mike steps into his "amazing dancing shoes" for one tune! The band's aptitude for instrumental colour, timbre, balance and internal dynamics is if anything sharper than ever, and I continually marvel at how attractively – and believably – they integrate a diversity of keyboard textures into their arrangements (unlike the majority of bands who use keyboards).
As ever, Temple's presentation is first-rate, the accompanying booklet containing full personnel credits and informative notes - but there's even more nuggets buried within the pages of the band's website. The playing's seriously on fire, the arrangements blaze, the singing is uniformly strong and entirely committed - this really has got to be the band's finest hour on record to date.
David Kidman November 2009
This is one of those exceeding classy oldtime records that's entirely self-recommending. Produced by Tim O'Brien and Dirk Powell, and released on Sugar Hill - those facts alone should be enough to tempt you, but if you've seen the movie Cold Mountain you'll also have seen something of Riley and doubtless wanted to hear more. A native of North Carolina, Riley enjoyed early and frequent exposure to Doc Watson records on one hand and the singing at the local Baptist church on the other. Although he started out on the fiddle, he moved to the banjo, learning the "Round Peak" style of playing from Tommy Jarrell, and in his spare time from the day-job (blacksmithery and welding) he specialised in handmade banjos. His authentic banjo playing and robust singing voice caught the ear of Dirk as he was scouting for the movie, and he's been in demand ever since. And now at last he's found time to get it together for this, which is only his second solo record (the first, Life Of Riley, came out quietly a couple of years back on the Yodel-Ay-Hee label). Long Steel Rail is a perfect slice of authentic Americana, with Riley's individuality shining through his close observance and deep understanding of the idioms and conventions of oldtime, whether on an air-splitting and strident unaccompanied ballad like Wandering Boy or close-rollin' instrumentals like No Corn On Tygart. For most of the time Riley sticks to banjo, moving back to fiddle for a set of tunes and to accompany his own singing on a rendition of the ballad George Collins. Though the album contains several of the acknowledged standards of the repertoire, they're given more than a lick of fresh paint by dint of Riley's complete empathy with their contours and meaning, his own artistry thrown into relief by the underplayed yet canny contributions of Tim and Dirk themselves (guitar/mandolin and fiddle respectively). Just listen to the gritty fiddle and banjo counterpoint for Riley's terse vocal on Boll Weevil for instance, or Tim's sensitively pulled-back guitar work giving just enough support to Riley on What Are They Doing In Heaven?, or the solid down-home band treatment on the old Doc Watson number I'm Troubled... The album closer, a moving unaccompanied rendition of Jean Ritchie's Now Is The Cool Of The Day, is priceless. In terms of texture, less is always more with Riley - what an artist! The fullest ensemble sound we get on the entire record is the rollicking, driving string-band combo (Riley, Dirk, Tim and guest Joe Thrift) havin' good old mountain fun on Old John Henry - bliss! As is the whole three-quarters of an hour: so go geddit!
www.rileybaugus.com
www.myspace.com/rileybaugus
David Kidman March 2007
If you find Van Morrison boring, you could get worse alternatives in your quest for soulful, jazz tinged late night blues. Armed with an acoustic guitar, exposed nerve emotions, atmospheric piano and a warm, smokey voice, Baxter writes songs for people who like the idea of James Blunt but want to engage their brain with the music too.
Informed by dashes of Latin colours, notably evident in his use of Spanish guitar and the rhythmic moods of numbers like Tell Her Today, Icarus Wings and the Jobin flavoured lovelorn Half A Man, he also filters some Eastern violin scraping into the title track and surrounds himself with string arrangements for those last dance ballad moments of Light Me Up and Miracle.
It may well take more than this album to sufficiently filter his name into the public consciousness and bring him the rewards he deserves, but with such quality in his back pocket it can only be a matter of time. www.tombaxter.comMike Davies March 2008
BB & The Blues Shacks have been around for over a decade now and have built a reputation as one of Europe's foremost R&B/Soul/Blues bands Crosscut Records recognised this and signed them in 2001. Unique Taste is the bands fourth release and they are going from strength to strength, following on from the highly acclaimed Live At Vier Linden. The opener, Keep My Promises is a swinging, rolling R&B and shows the band has moved the focus of their sound to celebrate the 60s. The Fool I Am is a bit off beat at times but this shuffler moves along well. The eponymous title track is a bit of a departure for the band with this R&B leading into soul and Motown. It's very good in its own way and it has some top Hammond organ playing from guest Raphael Wressnig. I Understand is a powerful, slow blues based ballad much in the style of Robert Cray and Three Handed Woman has a machine gun guitar delivery. Three hands, good or bad - discuss. However, when you find out that her third hand is in your wallet then that may make up your mind! Best guitar playing so far. Fool When You're Cool is classic R&B and harmless fun and the speed is stepped up for Not The One For You, a fast paced bouncing blues/boogie woogie driven by Bernhard Egger's drums and Andreas Arlt's guitar. Little Pins is a slow blues with just guitar and Michael Arlt's voice for the first minute or so. The band then joins in for an archetypal Chicago blues with strong guitar and piano with Michael Arlt just getting down and doing his stuff, as ever.
Anything But You is a slow, punchy R&B with sleazy vocal and organ. You just know what Arlt is talking about on Like A Woman That Just Bought Shoes, don't you boys. High energy R&B with Dennis Koeckstadt and Raphael Wressnig on piano/keyboards to the fore again. The short and sweet Cut It! has a staccato guitar which heralds a 60s style instrumental whereas Step Back A Little is a strong soul song with more organ heroics. Tears About To Fall is a rock n roll ballad which, despite the lack of tempo, does swing along nicely. Michael Arlt's harmonica returns but only serves to highlight its scant use during the album. So Glad I'm On Your Mind is a mid-paced pulsating blues with a stinging guitar solo and Too Fast Living is a slow blues much in the vein of Three Hours Past Midnight. The silky harmonica plays off the stark, snappy guitar. Do My Will has plenty of rhythm. Egger's drums are the heartbeat of the band; piano and guitar take their place in the spotlight whereas the bass remains in the background but pays his way. The closing track, When The Night Comes Down is a slowish swinging blues with the Andreas Arlt's guitar the star. However, Koeckstadt pushes him to the limit on the piano. This album is sure to keep BB & The Blues Shakers in the premier league.
David Blue July 2008
The sophomore release by skewed Philadelphia singer-songwriter Brian Christianzo, a man who, if you subscribed to the concept of possession, you might believe was inhabited by the souls of Brian Wilson, the Flaming Lips, Burt Bacharach, Ben Folds, and Todd Rundgren. Often in the same song. Drenched in lushly orchestrated pop, mellifluously crooning sugar-candy harmonies, cosmic cruising guitars, plinkety pianos and widescreen soundscapes, it's all his own work, from the arrangements to every note played.
It's all incredibly sunny, upbeat stuff, deftly encapsulated by numbers like the whistlingly buoyant The Hip And The Homeless, the euphoric tango Suffer For Two, tumblingly joyous show tune Lord, I've Been On Fire, the toe tapping shuffle Scare Me Sweetly and the genre cocktail of Soy Tonto which shifts from salsa to Spector pop.
So, it comes a surprise to discover, suffering mental illness himself, Christianzo trawled inspiration for his stories from a New Jersey jail and various mental hospitals, seeking out, as he says 'people that were in horrific psychological pain' for an album that's intended 'to make the listener awkward enough to recognise it is different and yet comfortable enough to want to keep listening.' These are love songs, but (as on Officer Down - "I could come home to bed if you both weren't dead") shot through with a sense of schizophrenic unease, Surf's Up meets One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest if you will. Go warm in his glow.
www.bccamplight.com
www.myspace.com/bccamplightmusic
Mike Davies May 2007
When I was thinking of buying the car that's served me for the last 80,000 miles, I took it to a mechanic friend to give it the once over. He took it out for a run and when he got back he didn't say much, just nodded at it as if to say he was impressed despite himself and eventually pronounced: 'That's a whole car, that is.'
I knew just what he meant, and his summation of that car's virtues were brought to mind about the fifth time I played 'Potlatch'. Ten tracks that clock in at under 35 minutes in total don't sound much like value for money but this recent trend for greater quality control pleases me; I have more than enough cd's on my shelf that outstay their welcome as every last recorded morsel is thrown on. The Bean Picker's Union is essentially songwriter/guitarist/singer Chuck Melchin, with strong support from Eric Lichter on piano, bass, drums and production. A fair host of other musicians appear in the course of things as we go from the quiet, reflective, acoustic sound of 'Home' to the intense driving rock with a full band on 'Warrior'. 'Warrior' and 'I'm So Sorry' are the two tracks to feature Rich Atkins on drums and his enthusiastic, forceful drumming are as clear a demonstration as I've ever heard of how much difference a drummer can make to a band's sound. I really like the whole album, but these two songs are irresistible on account of the energy coming from the drum kit.
Otherwise, I think Chuck Melchin's a guy in love with guitars; there's a huge range of guitar sounds on 'Potlatch', and they're all good. There's Eric Lichter's slide guitar, dominating the atmosphere on 'Reaper', a modern murder ballad; there's Steve Saunders' e-bow guitar on the mighty 'Jenny Anne' that closes the album and there's the beautiful interplay of Chuck and Eric on assorted guitars and mandolin on 'Bride'. This last song has more than a hint of Led Zep in acoustic mode about it, and who's to complain about that? Lyrically, though, Chuck's a long way from Led Zep territory, with thoughtful, individual reflections on events and people that catch his interest. I guess he's covering similar territory to Loomer, rock'n'rolling with a country heart. At times, as I listen, The Silos or The Walkabouts are brought to mind and I'd say 'Potlatch' is as good as anything by those guys. It's a 'whole album', carefully wrought, not a duff track on it and with a wealth of musical goodies for you to uncover.
www.myspace.com/beanpickersunionJohn Davy March 2008
Tom Beardslee - Exit This Frame Of Mind
I love receiving albums like Tom Beardslee's forthcoming release Exit This Frame Of Mind! Tom's a singer-songwriter - a fresh talent with infectious tunes, a joyful skill with a guitar, a Master's Degree in Ethnomusicology and (doubtless) a great career ahead of him!
His debut album is a samplar of his diverse musical talents. You aren't going to put Tom Beardslee in a box . He wouldn't fit and he wouldn't stay put - there's just so much musical passion infusing this young guitar traveler. He slips effortlessly from one genre and instrument to another and he seems comfortable from wherever he gets his inspiration - whether it be hip-swinging African grooves (think Paul Simon's musicians on Graceland), fine fingerstyle acoustic or moody electric blues, latin or rock rhythms. Throughout the nine self-penned (plus one co-write) songs on Exit Frame Of Mind, there's never any doubt about his total intelligence and command of his craft. One to watch for sure!
Tom Beardslee played the 12-Bar Club, Denmark Street, London WC2 on 11th April 2005Sue Cavendish
You need to know more about Tom's musical career ... so far (from his website):
Already by his mid-twenties, he has made several trips to West Africa to study highlife, soukous, Afrobeat, and traditional music. He also worked in Ghana as a studio and live guitarist, playing with musicians like Okyerema Asante, Pat Thomas, Jewel Ackah, Sharon Katz, and members of Osibisa. He lived the life of a highlife bandsman with Amakye Dede's Super High Kings, with whom he toured all of Ghana, as well as in Togo and Cote D'Ivoire.
In the US, Tom has worked with musicians from all over the world since his early teens. He has played styles as diverse as flamenco, punk, reggae, ska, rockabilly, blues, country, bluegrass, funk, and soul. His diverse musical wanderings have led him to work with such artists as Country Joe McDonald (Tom's father Mike Beardslee was a member of the original Fish line-up), Clarence Bucaro, Sekouba Bambino, Kaikpai Ukpendi, Big Dread, and Alassane Sarr.
Tom has recently earned a Master's Degree in Ethnomusicology from Ohio State. He studied at OSU with Dr. Daniel Avorgbedor and Dr. Margarita Mazo, and at the University of Ghana with John Collins and J.H.K. Nketia. His studies have led to work with Afropop Worldwide, Guitar Player Magazine, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and Fingerstyle Guitar, as well as presentations at conferences in the US and Canada.
Bearfoot is a young and talented five-piece outfit, originally from Anchorage (Alaska), who play a kind of bluegrass – well, acoustic Americana with strong bluegrass inflections, which ain't necessarily the kind of music you'd expect to come from that locale. Winners of the Telluride Bluegrass Champions award after they'd only been together a couple of years, Bearfoot are on at least album number three already. Although their latest release, Doors And Windows, is their first to feature guest musicians, it still encompasses a strong sense of group identity and cohesion despite the band having undergone a major personnel change only last September, when California-born fiddler and singer Odessa Jorgensen arrived to take over the newly-specified lead-vocal duty, which her attractively breathy tone fulfils with class and confidence alongside the finely-profiled guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass playing of .the other band members.
The disc's eleven tracks straddle the Americana-bluegrass divide in a generally quite easy-going fashion, though not without some altogether more intense emotional moments which tend to be focussed around Odessa's own compositions: the disc contains three of these, and they're all unqualified highlights of the disc. The heartfelt lament My One True Love, the comforting Heaven and the darker worldly insights of the title number are all pretty special creations in any company. Other goodies come in the shape of old-timey-flavoured Caroline (written by former band member Annalisa Tornfelt), a neat cover of John Hiatt's Before I Go, the steady-rollin' Northward Bound and the gentle, pleasing opener Oh My Love. The remainder of the cuts, while nicely turned, may suffer a touch by comparison I guess, but there's no weak link as such (although the closing brief acappella Good In The Kitchen is slight fare) and the ensemble work is very persuasive although sometimes decidedly on the side of understated. The aforementioned guest musicians include drummer Larry Atamanuik, banjoist Alison Brown and dobroist Andy Hall, while Andrea Zonn contributes a gorgeous string arrangement to the title song. And Garry West's production is clear and detailed.
David Kidman June 2009
It is somehow hard to believe that it was 17 years and 11 albums ago that The Housemartins gave way to The Beautiful South and the 'brainchild of Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway appears to have matured well.
Whether by design or accident, the band has been fantastically successfully while managing to skip over the landscape of popular music without really leaving a foot print. Their blend of clever lyrics and sweet harmonies have shifted albums by the lorry load but rarely are they cited as an influence.
However, aging seems to suit well and out of a band that seemed a mite too pleased with itself, glorying in humility, springs Superbi, a collection of trademark songs which will be more acceptable and appealing to non devotees, The album's first single, Manchester, is a perfect example of the simple but very effective use of lyrics. Quite how much irony there is in a band, essentially from Hull, espousing Manchester is not entirely obvious.
There Is A Song is another that is a band classic in the making, as always, the voices of Heaton and Alison Wheeler fit together perfectly but instead of manufactured saccharine there is a little tang of reality in this everyday tale of everyday folk.
Always consummate purveyors of pop, Superbi is by far the band's most interesting and multi-faceted album to date, The Cat Loves The Mouse has a bittersweet edge that makes it all the more intriguing.
With Superbi, the conclusion has to be that the band has grown into its respective talents, Meanwhile is more focussed and Bed Of Nails is simply a beautiful, adult love song.
However whether the large audience that loved them as 'pop-lite' will grow with them, remains to be seen but Superbi will surely see any disaffected replaced by a new, more mature audience.
Michael Mee
Aaron Johnson gives a terrific performance as the young Lennon, hiding his emotional insecurities and the need for maternal love behind cynicism and sarcasm while equally outstanding are Anne-Marie Duff as the spirited but troubled Julia, who introduced him to rock n roll and the banjo, and Kristen Scott Thomas as the outwardly hard Mimi who bought him his first guitar.
Love Actually's Thomas Sangster is Paul McCartney but, while he gets to sing on screen he doesn't appear on the soundtrack album. Here the original music, performed on film as The Quarrymen, is credited to the Nowhere Boys, though of the cast only Johnson and Sam Bell (who plays George Harrison) actually appear, both contributing vocals and guitar, with session men providing the likes of washboard, drums, piano, banjo and tea chest bass.
There's six band numbers with solid versions of skiffle and rock n roll classics Maggie May (The Quarrymen's live debut in the film), That'll Be The Day, That's All Right, and the twangy guitar instrumentals Movin' N' Groovin' and (a McCartney showcase on screen) Raunchy. The sixth band number is a strum through Lennon & McCartney's In Spite Of All The Danger while Johnson gets a solo credit for Hello Little Girl, the first song Lennon ever wrote, though he actually sounds more like Buddy Holly.
Other than Lennon's recording of Mother which plays over the end credits, the rest of the double disc comprises a collection of both familiar and obscure rock n roll tracks. The tracks featured in the film itself show impressive imagination on the part of the music supervisors with the inclusion of Screamin' Jay Hawkins I Put A Spell On You, Dickie Valentine's cover of Mr Sandman, Big Mama Thornton's version of Hound Dog and little known 50s Memphis rockabilly underachievers Eddie Bond & The Stompers.
Rather less imagination has gone into the second disc, a collection of (Frankie Vaughan's These Dangerous Years aside) such obvious chestnuts as Roll Over Beethoven, Rock Around The Clock, Peggy Sue, Money, and Rip It Up. Also, good as the Bobby Fuller Four version of I Fought The Law is, it didn't appear until 1965, so, in keeping with the movie it would have been better to feature the 1959 Sonny Curtis & The Crickets original.
And, just one little point, since many of the songs and artists featured on this disc were to prove influences on the music The Beatles would perform and create, describing the compilation as 'music inspired by Nowhere Boy' seems a tad disingenuous!
Mike Davies December 2009
Yes, we all remember Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles' experimental film project which was premièred in black-and-white in December 1967 on BBC1 and then shown later in its proper medium (colour) on BBC2, and whose soundtrack double-EP spent a good number of weeks in the charts. And this DVD "rockumentary" features a cavalcade of personal memories from those who witnessed first-hand the making of that cult movie during the early part of 1967.
After a fairly clichéd but mercifully brief introduction featuring some of the usual hackneyed swinging Britain/Carnaby Street clips and trite sociology, things settle into a pattern, with actor Victor Spinetti providing the wide-eyed (and at times fawning) linking commentary for a sequence of edited-clipped interview segments in which anecdotal stories about the filming are related. Those with the lion's share of interview footage include Tony Barrow (the group's then Press Officer), Mike McCartney (aka McGear, Paul McC's brother), Miranda Ward (journalist), Freda Kelly (Beatles Fan Club Secretary) and Tony Bramwell (Beatles' road manager), and all have significant insights to impart. As do Spencer Davis and Neil Innes (there's a particularly fascinating section expounding the origins of the Bonzos' Death Cab For Cutie and the Revue Bar scene of MMT).
The various interview segments are interspersed with a few well-travelled archive stills, and some hitherto unseen 8mm home-movie footage from the filming exploits. All of which are fondly recalled as a fairly upbeat time, an optimistic cloud hung over the scene and everyone thought almost anything was possible. And for many, it clearly was - an impression given by the rather more vox-pop-style accounts of amusing incidents and memories from sundry fans, on-lookers and cast members which form the remainder of this DVD. These vary from the all-too-obviously-carefully-scripted to the genial and surprising - but all vividly recalled. There's the hapless PC whose arm-waving was prominently captured on the crowd photo on the EP sleeve (he received a disciplinary caution for his part in the scene!); the priceless, almost pythonically stilted recollections of members of the celebrated Peggy Spencer Formation Dance Team (who appeared in the Your Mother Should Know finale); and the amateur musos who gatecrashed the party at the Atlantic Hotel
One thing conspicuously missing from this film, however, is the original music!; for mood purposes, there are snatches of Woolworths-type soundalike-backing-tracks (some of which are quite tacky), but nothing from the actual record of the film. Aside from a couple of archive soundbites from fairly insignificant radio interviews between Miranda Ward and Messrs Harrison and Starr (the latter especially non-eloquent on this occasion!), neither of the surviving Beatles makes an actual appearance in this film. But this DVD was clearly enormous fun to make, and the guys at Arthouse seem to have had a ball. It whiles away a pleasant enough 90 minutes (that's the near-hour-long film itself plus just under 30 minutes of extra bonus themed segments of a fairly slight nature), but its appeal is nonetheless rather of the "you had to be there, or at least remember being there" kind, and in the end it's probably destined for the collection of the Beatles trivia buff rather than the music fan.
David Kidman November 2008
Believe it or not, this is the first in-depth CD compilation to survey Jeff Beck's 60s recordings in proper perspective. Most previous compilations have concentrated on his work with the Yardbirds, and while that phase of his career is vitally important both musically and developmentally there is much more to his story that transcends mere trivia value. This CD attempts to thread a way through licensing nightmares to redress the balance, and succeeds pretty well. It's presented more or less chronologically, and opens with both sides of a rare 1964 Oriole-label single (Dracula's Daughter), by Screaming Lord Sutch, among whose backing band The Savages Jeff but briefly lurked. Its B-side, Come Back Baby, is a prime example of that early-60s phenomenon, the ostensibly unremarkable R&B thrash filler redeemed by a marvellous strangulated guitar solo! Equally obscure sides by the Fitz & Startz and the overtly bluesy Nightshift are followed by a clutch of prime Yardbirds cuts (OK, so they've already appeared on countless CD compilations, but they serve their purpose here in illustrating Jeff's axe pyrotechnics so we won't complain). Then there's a couple of typically derivative workouts from the sessions with Jimmy Page that appeared on Immediate's Blues Anthology releases, and a rarely-heard John's Children B-side (But She's Mine) on which Jeff depped for the band's regular guitarist. Other Jeff Beck ventures usefully inserted into this compilation include a stylistically curious Paul Jones solo single and Donovan's nonsensically trendy Barabajagal, and three tracks from the much sought-after album Permanent Damage, surely crying out for CD reissue!) by the GTOs, a bunch of decidedly weird "naughty girls" whose undeserved notoriety stemmed mostly from their being Zappa protegees (and LA groupies!). This collection is completed by three tracks from the Jeff Beck Group, including (of course) the chart-topping Hi Ho Silver Lining, and one rather tenuous selection, the Smoke's Utterly Simple, on which Jeff's involvement in the production is but a rumour! (My only real moan concerns the unexplained omission of It Ain't Right, an unreleased Joe Meek production that's trailed on the accompanying press release.) Nevertheless, this is a most valuable compilation, with great booklet notes that are well up to the high Castle standard.
www.sanctuaryrecordsgroup.co.uk
David Kidman
Bedsit Poets - The Summer That Changed (Bongo Beat)
A collection of broken heart love songs, it's a bit difficult to see where they came up with the Luna meets Fairport/Pentangle tag but there's forest canopy British folk with February Kisses and Refusing To Play, chiming tumbling blurry folk rock on Reach For The Sky and the title track with a touch of medieval troubadour trad on Round and Round. The most striking reference point though is the close harmony folk pop of The Everlys which breathes through Simple Twist of Emotion and Black Heart but more specifically announces itself in a cover of the Evs' own 60s classic hit, the Gerry Goffin penned Don't Ask Me To Be Friends. Pleasant rather than essential, but ideal for when you wheel the stereo speakers out into the garden for that summer barbecue.
Mike Davies, May 2006
A resolutely unique creative mind and musician, Don Van Vliet would eventually become recognised as a singular visionary genius for both his music and his art. But when he formed his first Magic Band back in 1965, he was seen as more of an oddity rather than a founding father of the fusion of folk, blues and jazz now known as world music. Zappa was the underground avant-experimentalist, Beefheart was just a curio. So, when Safe as Milk was released in 1967 by Buddah (a label at the time more associated with the bubblegum movement), response was decidedly mixed, most mainstream pundits seizing on the quirky and more recognisably pop Yellow Brick Road (with its 'the following tone is a reference tone...' spoken intro) as the track with which they wanted to pigeonhole him.
It's a great acid bubblegum number, but listen now to Sure 'Nuff 'n'Yes I Do and you'll hear then the early swamp and desert folk blues roots of what would mutate into the seminal Trout Mask Replica and one day produce the likes of Bat Chain Puller and Ice Cream For Crow.
All hail then to SPV's sister label for resurrecting this undervalued gem (which featured a young Ry Cooder) as a 2 disc set, digitally remastering the recordings and affording a chance to reassess such growly, infectious early (and now clearly influential) Beefheart classics like Zig Zag Wanderer, Drop Out Boogie (without which the Edgar Broughton Band would have never existed), the tribal rhythms of Abba Zaba, the soul drenched blues I'm Glad and Electricty itself.
It's not the full original collection though. Where There's Woman. Grown So Ugly and Autumn's Child are missing, but in their place you get a series of bonus cuts. These are taken from the subsequent abortive It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper studio and live jam sessions that either ultimately found their way on to Strictly Personal (Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones, Gimme Dat Harp Boy), 1971's Mirror Man (25th Century Quaker, the 19 minute Tarotplane, Kandy Korn) or were simply abandoned (Dirty Blue Gene, Kandy Korn Finger, Safe As Milk take 5, Moody Liz) until some surfaced on the CD reissue of Safe As Milk. An essential piece of rock history in one handy package.
Mike Davies May 2008
Another in the series of recent and welcome Talking Elephant reissues couples two Phil Beer solo releases into one most-reasonably-priced two-disc set. Hard Hats, which originally came out on TE's predecessor HTD in 1994, was an enthusiastic, if in retrospect slightly uneven collection that mixed styles on covers both in heavy-duty (folk-rockin') and trusty-acoustic mode, alongside two minor Steve Knightley numbers (This Year and She Could Laugh) and four original compositions of Phil's of varying degrees of memorability. Some come off well, like the title song (which Polly sings), the old favourite Blind Fiddler and Dave Bilston's Fireman's Song (the latter's given two bites at the cherry too), whereas others don't quite proceed beyond workmanlike. But I did quite warm to Phil's treatment of the lesser Jagger/Richard opus Blinded By Love. And whatever, Phil was backed by a solid crew that included among its ranks Simon Care, Trevor Foster, Ashley Hutchings, Polly Bolton, Dave Pick and John Shepherd, and they don't let him down. I guess the album's probably best viewed as (for the most part) a fun excursion taken on a holiday from Show Of Hands rather than as a core musical statement – although it certainly still contains plenty of better-than-decent music and of course some good playing.
The Works originally appeared two years later, in 1996, and was a more satisfying collection, not because it was an almost exclusively instrumental album. It contained a healthy and thoughtfully well-balanced mixture of traditional tunes and re-recordings of some of Phil's own pieces going back some thirty years. It interspersed lively acoustic folk-rock medleys with altogether gentler treatments, and Phil's expertise in arranging as well as playing was brought to the fore here too. Lovely settings of Swanee River and Michael Turner's Waltz and a deft jig set (track 8) provided highlights among the less frenetic moments, while a storming Lost In Space set complemented the Staten Island/Soldier's Joy and Thomas Morris/Chasing The Jack medleys and the song Flash Company which together exemplified the more folk-rock style of the faster selections. Of course, Phil's musicianship is impeccable throughout, and his sense of showmanship never falters. The Works in particular contains some stunning and abundantly classy fiddle playing, of course, but Phil's prowess on all manner of other instruments is sensibly and proudly brought to the fore here too, and the whole album is an uplifting listen, a joy from start to finish.
David Kidman June 2009
This CD comprises a set of recordings taken from a reunion gig by Paul and Phil which took place at the Nettlebed (Oxfordshire) village club in early 2007. Anyone who knows the spark generated by these two excellent musicians performing together can of course take this release as entirely self-recommending; anyone who hasn't heard the two men in tandem should invest in the disc straightaway and prepare themselves for a treat. Downes and Beer's truly magnificent individual and combined string virtuosity, their abundantly stirring vocal work and all-round musicianship, though taken as given, will always yield fresh insights into the art of expressive and interpretive nuance, and there are ample instances of such delights within the set's eclectic menu. The standouts here includes key contemporary compositions by John Richards (Honour And Praise), Phil Ochs (There But For Fortune) and Bruce Cockburn (Coming Rains), alongside a stout take on the Kipling/Bellamy Sir Richard's Song, the traditional ballad Sheath And Knife and Paul's own Blues In D - but there are plenty more fine things to be heard here. Even if one or two of the duo's renditions don't necessarily quite hit the mark for me (Jackson Browne's Call It A Loan being a song I don't much rate, while Si Kahn's Go To Work On Monday is rather robbed of its potential brooding power by an overly brisk gait I feel), there's no doubting the unflinchingly high standard of playing and singing. The atmosphere of the gig is electric and well caught by the recording, and it may well prove one of the relatively small number of genuinely repeatable live discs on the market. The necessarily minimal nature of the packaging is of no consequence, but all the same is mildly compromised by two careless typos in the writing credits: Mac McAnally is given as McNally, and Bruce Cockburn is given as Coburn... oh dear!
www.philbeer.co.uk
www.pauldownes.com
David Kidman October 2008
There have been times when within the Show Of Hands duo setup, master instrumentalist Phil's contributions have been in danger of being just a little overshadowed by Steve Knightley's songwriting and singing, so this double-CD set may come as a salutary kick-up-the-butt to remind us that Phil's own talents are no mere "small beer" (sorry, couldn't resist that!) and he's a damned fine singer too when it comes to that. Top-quality musicianship will come as given, so the persuasiveness, impact and imaginative thrust of the set must rest as much on the choice of material as much as on its execution. And it's a typically eclectic selection What you get is one album of songs and one of instrumentals - neat or what? Some cuts are live recordings, but the applause ain't intrusive really.
The "Songs" CD kicks off with a lively version of Old Riley, one of Dylan's "trad-style" creations whose only failing is a slightly premature fade; this is followed by a great rendition of an obscure Jim Webb song All My Love's Laughter. I wasn't at first entirely convinced by the Steely Dan opus Fire In The Hole, but Phil's almost Thompsonesque treatment has its own logic; so does Jimmy Cliff's Limbo, though I think I still prefer the early Show Of Hands version. Johnny Coppin's impassioned, gently beautiful setting of Gloucestershire poet Frank Mansell's The Holy Brook is given a lovely chamber-style arrangement, while Abroad For Pleasure (aka the Holmfirth Anthem) is one of the songs here which Phil revisits from Albion Band days, and a busy, funky reworking of the Band's panoramic Acadian Driftwood rounds Disc 1 off stylishly.
The "Instrumentals" disc displays Phil's supreme command of phrasing and almost casual dexterity in creating and sustaining a melodic interest through a high degree of musicality where others might fall back on equally casual notespinning. Around half of the selections are based on ceilidh tunes, while repose comes in the shape of a Breton tune learnt via Johnny Coppin and Pierre Bensusan and there's also a loose instrumental treatment of Linda Thompson's Telling Me Lies. Alex Patterson's Return has so much delightful detail lurking in the overdubs that the drums part seems a mite detached, even artificial until you get used to the balance (clever old dog!). Phil's atmospheric rendition of Flowers Of The Forest, segued into an increasingly Cooderesque treatment of When This Bloody War Is Over, brings the set to an efficient yet appropriate close (even though it cheekily brings a bit of vocal in for part of the final minute).
Of course, neither CD is quite a strictly solo set from Phil, not just in the sense that he's multitracked himself copiously but in the sense that he can't resist inviting a few guests in - there's the wondrous Deb Sandland adding an exciting duet vocal part to Phil's on the Jackson Browne song Our Lady Of The Well (sung acappella, and a Disc One highlight), Lizzie Wescott joining her fiddle to Phil's stringed instruments on Lizzie's Set, Gareth Turner's accordion stepping out for a spirited tune-set (again on Disc 2), All in all, this is a very fine release, but the sheer brevity of each of the two CDs is puzzling and a mite frustrating - at 31 and 34 minutes respectively, they would have easily fitted onto a single CD - so presumably there's method (-ism) in this apparent madness?! But at the bargain price of £13 for the whole set I'm not complaining!
David Kidman
Bees Make Honey - Back On Track (Acadia)
Formed in 1972 London by a bunch of Irishmen from showband and jazz background, like contemporaries and chums of Brinsley Schwarz the Bees were playing country rock long before anyone had even thought of the term Americana. They had several line up shifts and released one album (though they recorded several others), Music Every Night which failed to capture their live feel before finally falling apart in late 1975, Rod Demick and Willie Findlayson eventually going on to form Mealticket. Now former guitarist Mick Malloy's put together a double CD of lost (and sometimes technically rough) studio tracks recorded between 72-75 along with a December 1976 concert of a final stab line up consisting himself, Barry Richardson, Demick and Paul Atkinson. It would be nice to say it reveals an underrated and criminally neglected band, but the truth remains that they were solid, but ultimately unremarkable pub rock outfit who'd have been quite at home playing Willie and the Hand Jive at weddings and parties. But if they never rose to the heights of, say Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe or the Brinsleys themselves, fans will still find this an enjoyable enough slice of British Jerry Lee Lewis styled country rock n roll boogie woogie and honky tonk balladeering history with numbers such as The Highway Song, Get on Board, Don't You Know and Booterstown while over on the live disc covers of the Eagles' Tequila Sunrise and The Grateful Dead's One More Saturday Night give a good idea of where - along with touches of The Band and CS&N - they wanted to pitch themselves. If they never realised the ambitions, at least the rest of the live material tells you they must have been a pretty good night out with a few beers and tequila chasers.
Mike Davies
Even tho' I liked both of the Tanyas' previous albums, in different ways, I never quite felt they captured the laid-back, back-porch essence of this oddball, often gawky alt-Americana trio. This third album's gestation and coming-together was by Tanyas standards slow, for over the course of the year it took, life just kept getting in the way with things like Frazey Ford becoming a mom! There's less of a feeling of imperative about the sessions for this new album, more of a feeling of hanging out, "laying things down as they felt them" and seeing what happened. And this approach sure paid off, for it captures the loose, unpremeditated feel of a Tanyas gig so much better while retaining the atmosphere of close, intense yet relaxed music-making. Each of the new songs on Hello Love is a rugged jewel, like a piquant, economically expressed snapshot, treated to the simple organic growth process that's become a natural trademark for the Tanyas. The freshness of the Tanyas' live sound is conveyed almost effortlessly; one thing I specially like about the way this album's been produced is that no instrumental colours get to become obtrusive, they just sit in and out of the overall mix when they feel like it almost; if things threaten to get heavy, it's thunderclouds a-gatherin' but the storm never breaks and the air clears as if by magic. As far as writing credits go, well the album turns out to be just about half-and-half covers and originals, with two trad cuts (the raw, tremulous gospel of Out Of The Wilderness and What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?) making up the baker's dozen (and that includes the credited hidden track, a strange and beautifully childlike take on Prince's When Doves Cry). Sam Parton's gloriously breathy cover of Sean Hayes' A Thousand Tiny Pieces is heart-stopping, while at the other end of the spectrum the lead vocal turns snarling and twisted for Neil Young's For The Turnstiles fairly scythes through the instruments like nobody's business. Other high spots include the pindrop delicacy of the title track (one of Frazey's), and the ISB-like fragility of the Tanyas' take on John Hurt's delectably mournful shufflesome waltz Nobody Cares For Me, while the entirely unexpected colouring of an echoey piano ushers in Sam's Song For R. on a cloud of opaque thistledown and later luxuriates with the addition of a cello line to the texture (courtesy of guest Mark Beaty). Here, and especially earlier on A Little Blues, Sam's voice takes on the cooing lustre of a McGarrigle, methinks. The near-closing instrumental Crow Waltz is part doll's-house music-box, part-Log-Cabin-Home. Other guests on the album include John Raham (one of three different drummers), Simon Kendall, Jesse Zubot and Jolie Holland, and the whole Old Crow Medicine Show caboodle drops in on two tracks. Shame about the omission of lyrics from the booklet by the way… In every major respect, though, Hello Love really is the album the Tanyas have been threatening to make for the past three or four years, and I'm so, so glad they've finally made it. (And I'd love to hear the outtakes too!)
David Kidman, October 2006
The Be Good Tanyas - Chinatown (EMI/Nettwerk)
With jaunty debut album Blue Horse having brought them critical acclaim, sell out dates and a major label deal you'd think old time backwoods and mountain music Canadian trio Frazey, Trish and Sam would be all sunbeams and smiles. Not so with their sophomore release, Chinatown, which arrives in decidedly downbeat mood sporting song titles like Junkie Song, Waiting Around To Die (a Townes Van Zandt cover), In Spite Of All The Damage and subjects that embrace travelling, drugs, gambling, lost-love and the perils of city-life. However, like all good exponents of misery the result is strangely intoxicating to the soul.
Wisely they've not messed with the musical framework, so that their twangy moonshine, pine trees and mountain lakes voices are accompanied by banjos, mandolins, harmonics, guitars, fiddle brushed percussion and even a touch of saw, conjuring thoughts of dusty prairies, rattling box cars and folks in dungarees chewing straw and spitting baccy on numbers that embrace their various affections for high lonesome blues, deep gospel and bluegrass folk.
It doesn't all flow smoothly, Ship Out On The Sea a particularly stodgy becalmed number, but despite a mood that rarely deviates from its default setting, over the course of almost an hour's worth of material there's more than a fair share of highlights. Referencing back to the debut album Dogsong 2 is a gorgeous plaintive whipple stained with yearning fiddle, Reuben a step out down the state fair dance chugger that could have fallen off the O Brother soundtrack and, fleshed with mournful horns and a train rhythm, Horses a thing of wracked beauty.
As before, along with Peter Rowan's gentle Midnight Moonlight, there's several covers drawn from the trad repertoire too, notably a cripple creek gospel revamp of In My Time Of Dying that finds the grace notes of salvation in Jesus and the spooked, moss-hung lament that is I Wish My Baby Was Born. Rather less successful though is a breathy House of the Rising Son on which they curiously choose to deliver the verses in a mid-sentence halting manner, taking brief pauses every fee words, that singularly fails to catch the song's edge of melancholic despair and resignation. However, such blips aside, this is a fine consolidation of a marvellous debut that should safely see history repeating itself.
www.begoodtanyas.com
www.nettwerk.com
Mike Davies
The Believers are an almost constant touring band but they do stop sometimes to record their brand of roots music. Lucky You was mastered by Ray Kennedy, who has produced albums for Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams in the past and you can bank on some superbly crafted songs. The eponymous title track is a great rocking opener and immediately confirms them as serious contenders in their field. I'm Only Dreaming has Craig Aspen on lead vocal for a pleasant middle of the road electric offering. Higher Ground is rootsy, with mandolin, accordion and good harmony between Aspen and Cyd Frazzini's strong voices. It's another homage to New Orleans and has power all of the way through. Mother Nature is acoustic and has a familiar feel. I've only heard four tracks and they feel like old friends already - always a good sign! The lyrics on this are quite acerbic and shows that they are not all nice and cuddly. You've Got Another Thing Comin' has Cyd Frazzini on lead vocal and it is a very crisp & clean, moody rocker, written by members of Judas Priest, I believe. The acoustic soft rock of Read It And Weep continues with Frazzini on vocals.
Who's Your Baby Now has authentic vinyl scratches at the beginning and they lead into some pleasant nu-country. Your Hurting Ways cements their good vocal partnership and this one is firmly set in the Americana field. Acoustic led, it builds with the gradual inclusion of the band (Stevie Adamek on drums and Bill Reynolds on bass). Its sedate pace does not detract from the overall quality of what is an excellent song. Ring, Ring, Ring is old style country although it is rocked up a bit. Male vocal and dogs barking in the background - go ahead, just lose yourself. The Day The Circus Left Town is very low key and relaxing. Railroadspikes & Shotgunshells is the first of two bonus tracks and country based as you would expect on reading the title. Aspen on vocal with mandolin and a throbbing pace. The other bonus track is very Tom Petty in the intro (his country phase, that is). This is another nu-country classic with a great little riff - very simple yet so effective and catchy.
I'm looking forward to them fitting in a Glasgow gig in their very hectic schedule.
www.thebelieversUSA.com
www.myspace.com/thebelieversmusic
David Blue May 2008
The Believers - Crashyertown (Bona Fide Recordings)
Quite simply this is one of the best albums I've heard, certainly this year and probably many others. The natural chemistry between Cynthia Frazzini's crystal clear voice and the rather more grizzled Craig Aspen is the catalyst for an album of magic.
The Believers are Cynthia Frazzini and Craig Aspen. Frazzini, born in Denver, moved to Seattle and began playing rock bands. However when she was introduced to the bluegrass music which forms an integral part of Crashyertown, it was an instant and enduring attraction.
Aspen, on the other hand, is a Big Apple boy who travelled throughout the USA and headed south to the mountains of Peru before landing in Seattle. The duo's debut 'Row' found its way to the legendary producer and Steve Earle collaborator Ray Kennedy. Kennedy was hooked enough to agree to work on its follow up.
How good is Crashyertown? Well, it contains a cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues - when you're young all things seem possible, when you're this good they are - that will surely have only been bettered once and that some time ago.
Like most people with an interest in Americana, my previous knowledge of The Believers was largely confined to hearing Railroad Spikes and Shotgun Shells on the radio. If that had been the album's best track and the rest come had merely close then Crashyertown would still have been a tasty album. However, you could spend a very enjoyable lifetime looking for a flaw in any of its 11 tracks and never come close to finding one, there isn't a crack or fissure anywhere to spoil the experience.
Crashyertown really does have it all, Jordan will stir the blood, Good Days and That's Alright will break your heart and there's even a delightful whisper of Texas swing on Get Started.
But this is not music that fits neatly into any particular slot, it's as happy and comfortable as a rock n roll album as an Americana or country one. Wherever you look on Crashyertown wonderful things are created by the voices of Frazzini and Aspen. Whether it's the pair combining to make the pain of the ballads almost too much to bear or driving the bluegrass banjo of Danny Barnes and the vital contribution of Beanie Boy (the dog) on Highway Song. Duos like Frazzini and Aspen aren't simply the product of hard work, fate has taken a hand in bringing them together.
If you're looking for the real imprint of Crashyertown then Nobody's Business and Long Way To Heaven are good places to begin, you start to feel the effect of them somewhere in the pit of your stomach but the jewel in the crown has to be Fast Train, it's stripped bare and the harsh light it casts forms shadowy corners where dark emotions lurk.
Cynthia Frazzini and Craig Aspen can already count Billy Joe Shaver, Buddy and Julie Miller and Ray Kennedy amongst their admirers. The effect of Crashyertown and an autum tour will increase that number by a power of several thousand.
Michael Mee
Alan Bell - The Definitive Collection (Greentrax)
From a perhaps unexpected source (the noted Scottish traditional-music label), comes this well-timed set of new recordings of 16 of what are generally considered the best songs from the pen of the Fylde Coast's much-loved singer and songwriter (and folk festival director). Well-timed because these songs are still much-requested by folk audiences, and Alan's original recordings are mostly long-deleted or otherwise unavailable. These brand new studio recordings are performed largely by the man himself, still in fine voice, with straightforward, unsentimental, better-than-decent acoustic accompaniments in the time-honoured rich, melodic folk-friendly idiom, courtesy of his talented Fylde friends Sue Jennings (fiddle) and father-and-son team Eddie and Andrew Green (guitars) - and best of all (cue a big cheer!), there are no slushy keyboards! Sensible man that he is, Alan modestly yields up the vocal duties on occasion, for just three songs - to Liz Moore (of Fleetwood duo Scold's Bridle) for Alice White, Rebecca Green for A Sailor's Sky, and best of all the mighty trio Th' Antique Roadshow for The Dark Island. Alan's corpus of fine original songs is an enviable one by any standard, and it's been a sad fact that all too many of the 16 songs recorded here have been sung by other performers without correctly attributing (or perhaps being aware even of) their true authorship - and if this CD helps to redress even part of that imbalance then it will have served an important purpose in bringing Alan more of the recognition he so deserves outwith the purely local ambit of north-west England. Included here are universally acknowledged folk classics from various phases of Alan's songwriting career: Windmills, The Minstrel, The Lakeland Fiddler, The Jacinta, The Band In The Park, Bread And Fishes, Song For Mardale, In My Homeland, So Here's To You - the list is nigh endless in fact, and it's inevitable that even more of his best songs couldn't have been included on this well-filled release. Alan first started writing songs for the Blackpool Taverners group in the 60s, but he soon branched out into writing for themed presentations, shows, radio or television programmes, or as part of song cycles or suites on local themes, whose appeal has since proved universal and many of the songs are known the world over. It fair makes you realise just how many excellent songs Alan's written over the course of his 40-year career, and emphasises the virtue of good old-fashioned craftsmanship in folk songwriting while pointing up Alan's special skill in uniting the various strands of Lancashire folk musical tradition.
David Kidman
Bell XI - Music In Mouth (Island)
Taking their name from the aircraft in which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, the Dublin-based quartet have already set the buzz going back home with their 2000 debut album Neither Am I and, from now look set to carry the word further afield with this gorgeously bruised tumble and jangle of Irish folk-pop that, on Alphabet Soup manages to reference both Chris De Burgh and Ireland's own Joan of Arc, Maud Gonne. Paul Noonan has one of those heart choking in his mouth voices that seems permanently on the edge of an emotional breakdown, an aching heard to good effect on Eve, The Apple of My Eye and, in contrast, the cascading chorus hook and plangent guitar burr of Snakes & Snakes where the Byrds mate with Miracle Legion.
Citing Talking Heads as an influence, it's not surprising to find several numbers displaying funkier shades as with the twanging guitar intro to the brooding U2 pulse of Tongue, the choppy fractured White Water Song with its semi-spoken preacher-like passages and stabbing guitar breaks. They even come over all Paul Simon goes back porch folk with West Of Her Spine. Their strengths though lie in the moody, spare introspective moments of things like parting of the ways song Daybreak or In Every Sunflower with its pump organ drone. With intricately textured arrangements that employ bells, vibraphone and fragile strings to create serious young men moods, they're going to find some inevitable Radiohead comparisons while it does seem to be tempting fate somewhat for the closing I'll See Your Heart & Raise You Mine to sound not a million miles away from Coldplay's The Scientist. However, there's more than enough individual muscle here to see them safely over the pitfalls of convenient pigeonholing.
Mike Davies
The Bellamy Brothers - 25 Years of Hits (Bellamy Brothers Records)
I think most people, even if not Country fans, will remember the Bellamy Brothers over the past 25 years - though I'd be inclined to ask what constitutes a 'hit'! If it's consistent, solid, likeable Country, then that's certainly what you will find on this 40-track double album from Howard and David Bellamy. It's not just a repeat of the originals either, as there are are several tracks which have been done at live performances. The first CD kicks off with their big hit, "Let Your Love Flow" and then "Do You Love As Good As You Look", "Old Hippie" and a seducing "Sugar Daddy" - one of my favourites on the CD. What is probably their best known song, "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body", follows with a live audience. Next is a surprisingly cheerful "Tired Of Getting My Butt Kicked", then "Crazy From The Heart" and "I Need More Of You". A harder "Hard Way To Make A Living" leads to a persuasive "I'd Lie For Your Love" and a live "I Could Be Persuaded". "Cowboy Beat" gives a lot of bass guitar, but isn't up to the other tracks. Don't be misled by the title of "What'll I Do", it's not the old standard but a nice little song, followed by average tracks in "Feelin' The Feelin'", "When I'm Away From You" and "You Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie". You'll quickly be lifted with a 'plopping' "Reggae Cowboy" and a catchy "I Love Her Mind", before the lads look back to when they were "Rebels Without A Clue" and end this CD with an appreciative audience in "Redneck Girl", lasting over seven minutes.
The second CD seems a bit more adventurous, with some of the tracks straying away from Country - some of which I like, but a few don't quite fit in. Following "For The Wrong Reasons", is "Country Rap" - reminds me of 'Big John' about 40 years ago! "Dancin' Cowboys" has a Mexican feel to it and "Lovers Live Longer" and "Old Hippie" are fine, with the latter being live and 'The Sequel' to the earlier one. "We Dared The Lightning" is spoilt by a monotonous drum beat, but "Desperadoes In Love" more than makes up for it. "Big Love" is average and as expected, "Almost Jamaica" has a nice West Indian feel to it. "Kids Of The Baby Boom" is another live track, followed by "Forget About Me", a catchy "You're My Favorite Star" and a typical Bellamy "You'll Never Be Sorry". "Big Hair" is a trifle too corny, but "Rip Off The Knob" and "Catahoula" have a good beat to them. "The World's Greatest Lover" is more the usual Bellamy sound and "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend" which we've become familiar with from Don Williams, is a delight. "Big Hat, No Cattle" and a live "Santa Fe" bring an end to this over-all very enjoyable album - a must for any Bellamy fan.
www.bellamybrothers.com
www.nostalgiamusic.co.uk
Elma Alexander
Peter Bellamy - Fair England's Shore (Fellside)
Over the 17 years since his untimely death in 1991, the late Peter Bellamy has enjoyed a kind of cult status, although his distinctive singing style, albeit audibly heir to traditional East Anglian singers (notably Harry Cox and Sam Larner), may seem to epitomize the term "acquired taste". It cannot be argued, though, that Peter is pre-eminent among the second generation of English folk revivalists who followed MacColl and Lloyd, for both his singing and his approach to repertoire have proved enormously influential, especially on key singers of our era such as Damien Barber and Jon Boden.
This latest bargain (two-discs-for-the-price-of-one) set from Fellside is an important one, for it gives us arguably the most unadulterated (and least mannered) Bellamy in the form of Peter's first three solo LPs (Mainly Norfolk, Fair England's Shore and The Fox Jumps Over The Parson's Gate), dating from 1968 and 1969 and originally released on the Xtra and Topic labels and having been unavailable for some years. These albums followed closely on the demise of the three-piece harmony trio The Young Tradition which Peter had formed with Royston and Heather Wood and which had recorded three important LPs for Transatlantic. These early solo albums pre-date Peter's exploration of Kipling, and they contain his definitive (and some may say unrivalled) interpretations of 38 prime examples of songs from the English tradition, many of these having since come to be regarded as staples of the repertoire. The vast majority of the songs on the first two LPs are sung unaccompanied, and the variety of expression Peter coaxes is extraordinary, notwithstanding the diversity of mood, tone or subject matter between the selections. The economy with which Peter tells his tales is persuasive too (only one song being of more than three minutes' duration), and the traces of his native Norfolk accent embellish the straightforward delivery to just enough of an extent. The degree of assurance in Peter's interpretations is amazing for someone who was at the time only barely in his mid-twenties. His characterisation is vibrant yet without going over the top with theatricality, and his choice of variants and versions is never less than interesting. And, as often as not, his are the originals of the latter-day revival: Bellowhead have just picked up on Fakenham Fair, while Peter's All Around My Hat was recorded a good four years pre-Steeleye. He also turns in a superlative rendition of the ballad of Fanny Blair, while incidentally this set together with the parallel Fellside reissue of early recordings of Bert Lloyd (to be reviewed shortly) provide an ideal opportunity for comparing the singerss' respective renditions of The Dark-Eyed Sailor: one rendition is half the length of the other, but both are equally valid – and consistent in performance – as interpretations.
I mentioned that the recordings gathered together for this set are Bellamy in relatively unadorned mode: there's his own concertina accompaniment on just two songs from the second LP of the three (All Around My Hat and Jolly Roving Tar) and some of the songs from the third. Also on the latter LP, Barry Dransfield plays occasional fiddle and Chris Birch harmony-vocalises on a couple of tracks; but the remainder is pure unadulterated Bellamy vox, unashamedly so, and gloriously thrilling and exciting it is too. For all in all, Peter's performances of these traditional songs are examples worthy of being set as almost required listening for all aspiring folk performers. And no enthusiast of English folk songs or singing should be without this reissue, for in my opinion it fully merits the tag "essential".
David Kidman January 2009
This slightly bewildering compilation-cum-sampler is a curious curate's-egg of a collection that sneaked out close to the end of last year. Just as its constituent parts demonstrate, it seems to have a purpose all its own, in exemplifying the proud yet wilful eclecticism that makes the parent band Bellowhead such a vibrant and maddeningly popular beast.
The disc's 14 tracks take us on a veritable world-scope journey through the extra-curricular activities and multifarious experiences of members of that mighty band, beginning at one of their storming gigs (if not the Shepherd's Bush Empire, at least somewhere like it within the Matachin studio - for this live ecstasy-inducing favourite, Unclothed Nocturnal Manuscript Crisis, is an out-take from the album sessions). We're then whisked on to the Balkans with the crooked rhythms of London-based outfit Chavo, led by trumpeter Andy Mellon. This is also the first of four tracks here to directly feature master percussionist Pete Flood, all of which turn out to be compilation highlights, and not only due to their tremendous stylistic diversity (ranging from a particularly creative, brooding tuned-percussion-bedecked arrangement of the traditional Master Kilby to two decidedly weird collaborations with brassers Brendan Kelly and Gideon Jukes, in the Farmyard Animals trio and the "genre-defying cross-cultural Japanese traditional space funk" band Setsubun Bean Unit respectively, the latter sounding like Zappa or Sun Ra on speed).
The ample strings to Paul Sartin's bow are represented by a typically delicious Belshazzar's Feast extravaganza (the tasty multi-course Rondo À La Turkey), a track from the latest Faustus album, and a performance by the Choir Of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin of Paul's straightforward Anglican chant setting of Psalm 143. Trombonist Justin Thurgur gets a look-in with a taste of his thus-far-unreleased project which brings a meandering jazz-funk backdrop to Afro-Beat and Cuban grooves.
The tracklisting is completed by a handful of sensibly representative tracks we already know and love, from available albums by Rachael McShane (The Fisherman), Benji Kirkpatrick (Wallbreaker), Sam Sweeney (here in consort with fellow-Kerfufflite Hannah James on Gaol Song), and the core duo Spiers & Boden, while there's also a track from Jon Boden's landmark Floodplain song-cycle.
Taken as a halfway-opportunistic (yet not strictly cynical) marketing exercise, it probably succeeds in the main, with enough of a rarity quotient to spur the band's loyal fans on to investigate further aural delights. Taken purely as a listening sequence, it satisfies well enough: overall it's an efficient, if at times hectic, ear-opening gambit.
David Kidman January 2010
This splendid release is a brilliantly accurate (if inevitably! slightly overpowering) portrayal of the mighty Bellowhead, showing precisely why they're scooping multiple awards everywhere they turn. It captures with uncanny realism the immense drawing-power of this awesome elftet, their over-the-top presence, their hyper-hyper energy. But the band's sheer weight and size doesn't make it a lumbering, unwieldy beast – no, it's a lean mean machine, for whom the tag of folk-funk might have been invented. Lithe and Jack-Robinson-be-nimble, snappy as a whipcord, yet all the while plumbing fresh and innovative depths of meaning and expression.
The unbridled yet controlled atmosphere of a Bellowhead live show is a wondrous thing to behold (and to be there in the thick of it!), as this DVD proves in abundance. The style and approach of the camerawork superbly reflects the show – hyperactive, constantly refocusing, on the move up and down and across the stage, shifting from soloist to soloist, gesture to gesture, seeking out and alighting on fun moments and quirky contributions while not ignoring the major players at any given time. The set captured here for posterity is a classic (and high-profile) gig on the band's September 2007 tour, one that captures Bellowhead between albums having consolidated the bold mission-statement of Burlesque with ever-more-adventurous developments of their credo and getting to grips with newer material that would surface on Matachin around a year later.
For a short while early on in their career, Bellowhead was in danger of coming across as just "Spiers & Boden with a backing band", but they've moved on dramatically, and the whole affair now feels (and is!) truly democratic, the music and the arrangements both incredibly tight and yet loose-limbed, organically evolving, with all the myriads of multifarious influences and flavours brought to bear quite naturally from off of the folk-dance-and-song springboard. The best examples of all that are the tune-sets, where the word energy doesn't give you the half of it. The concert includes five (mostly scattered towards the end of the gig), of which Spiers' Sloe Gin set and the fiery Frog's Legs And Dragon's Teeth (the final encore) are especially brilliant. The dexterity and imagination displayed in the arrangements, the continual swapping-around of instruments, the exemplary sound-balance (what a hell of an achievement) – miraculous, and there are far too many details, incidental delights, surprises, to have space to dwell on. And each of the "song" items in the set is imbued with its own very specific character, from the thoughtfully compelling narratives of Outlandish Knight and Death And The Lady to the disco-singalongs (London Town and the shanties Fire Marengo and Haul Away), the quasi-cabaret of Spectre Review and the woozy Flash Company, and the no-holds-barred sanctified all-hands-to-the-pump of Jordan. Jon Boden proves, as ever, a commanding "front-man", but Bellowhead contains many other good singers (each of whom would likely be capable of leading a band in their own right); the same principle applies to instrumentalists (notably Benji Kirkpatrick on guitar, bouzouki and banjo; and violinists Paul Sartin, Rachael McShane and Giles Lewin switching effortlessly back and forth onto oboe, cello and bagpipes respectively).
Even though the 98-minute gig is a heady experience all on its own, the DVD also includes four typically tantalizing "bonuses" which mirror what could be termed the Bellowhead Attitude: that winning mix of healthy irreverence and the underlying seriousness (and respect) with which they treat their source/s (folk music) in bringing it so very much alive (and kicking and stomping) to their public). These bonus items comprise two kind-of-interviews: a pretty in-depth one with Squeezy Spiers himself in which John reveals much about the band and its raison-d'être, and a more snippety one which confronts various band members with truths, lies, preconceptions and assorted Bellowhead trivia – great fun! As is the Tour Diary (which like the latter-mentioned item possesses a slightly disjointed, almost stoned aura at times); the final bonus item is a silly DVD Teaser Trailer. No home should be without one – the whole DVD I mean! – for a better permanent memento of this iconic band at this stage of its career could not be imagined.
David Kidman February 2009
First up, you can't fault the carefully chosen title of this disc: matachin is defined as an old dance with swords, masks and bucklers, of Spanish (likely Moorish) origin - traditional yet slightly exotic, and distinctly dangerous to boot (and also quite more-ish!). Just like Bellowhead, then!...
The music of this Matachin is self-evidently not that of a band making its first foray onto record, since they've clearly moved on apace: way beyond the rather too convenient "Spiers & Boden with brass on top" tag with which some critics had (not entirely unfairly) branded the elftet in its early days. This new record is equally clearly the product of some careful rethinking and refining of the band's mission statement, with significantly less of the conscious "dare to be different, storm in, frighten the horses and make a big splash" stance about it than its Burlesque predecessor. Not that the band have stopped taking chances – far from it, I'm glad to note, for any experiment is worth trying in my book. And there's still that characteristic headlong rush of invention that's both the mother and the necessity of all things Bellowhead, with the almost-concomitant Zappaesque connotation present in the wild and at times wilful juxtaposition of disparate musical styles, elements and references within and outwith the accepted folk/world ambit. The band's musical adventures now feel altogether more democratic and less bolted-on-for-effect: and so it proves from a glance at the credits, with percussionist Pete Flood in particular much in the ascendant in this regard. The more ambitious aspect of the concept of arrangement is manifest not in the sense of greater contrivance or artifice, but in that there's now more of a sense of harnessed creativity.
Purely instrumentally too, there's bound to be a lot going on of course, and tho' it all still makes for a glorious noise, textures are less opaque and cluttered than they became at times on the EP and Burlesque, and the recording itself is pretty exceptional in this regard (it's even easier now to appreciate individual band members' contributions too). Highlightable successes for me this time round are the moments of high drama such as the hammy but chilling grotesquery of the Widow's Curse broadside with its seriously bloodcurdling imagery, also the inspired restraint of Jon Boden's fresh take on "Drew My Ship" (I like the saxy, squeezy riffing here too, which brought back memories of RT's big-band lineup), and the supremely blowsy mayhem and playground fun of Kafoozalum (or should it be retitled Kazoozalum? - and I wonder if they'll dare resurrect the full silly text for their stage show?!). Then there's the two contrasting Bellamy-sourced items: on one hand the delightful, almost underplayed (for Bellowhead!) string-driven folk-pastoral of Fakenham Fair, and on the other the full-blown theatricality of Kipling's Cholera Camp with its almost cartoonish bugle flourishes, zany Bonzoesque interjections and moments of madcap dash (and yes against the odds it all works triumphantly!). And (in a departure from the customary English sources) the distinctly obscure German folk song Spectre Review, somewhat reminiscent of The Highwayman I thought, with its alternation of galloping circus-band and chamber-classical episodes. The typically blazing tune-set finale kicks off with a brilliant "angry" cello jig courtesy of Rachael (McShane), guaranteed to get you up on the floor. Of the two reworked shanties, Whiskey Is The Life Of Man is brilliantly re-conceived as a whirling morris dance, but disappointingly, the galumphing helicon-driven momentum of Roll Her Down The Bay has the oomph but lacks the umph due to its unusually underpowered vocal contribution.
As with Burlesque, there are plenty of fabulous and memorably imaginative moments. But the discursive jazz-skank vibe in which trombonist Justin has clothed Bruton Town really doesn't square with the ballad - but its quality of detachment makes a kind of sense as a match for the relatively uneventful melody-line. But they'll always get full marks for trying… and although there's plainly still plenty of untapped potential within the mighty beast that is Bellowhead, Matachin is great to be going along with, for it will surely prove a deserved best-seller, both in re-kindling the fires of many a jaded folkie and igniting the fires of those who thought they didn't like folk music.
David Kidman October 2008
This is a somewhat puzzling release. For some inexplicable reason it has taken me a while to even get hold of a copy to review, yet after all my great expectations its impact is curiously variable. If you didn't already know it, Bellowhead is the folk scene's equivalent of a big-band; but for big, read massive! Eleven musicians, playing between melodeon, fiddles, cello, oboe, bagpipes, banjo, guitar, bouzouki, horns (a four-piece brass section including sousaphone) and sundry eccentric percussion; and six of them also sing! They include Spiers & Boden, Benji Kirkpatrick and Paul Sartin of Faustus, Rachael McShane of CrossCurrent, Giles Lewin of the Carnival Band and Pete Flood of Tim Van Eyken's band... uncommonly busy folks all of 'em! With such a mighty fermentsome vat of talent involved, you might expect the result to be either a fabulous wild hoot or a total mess - and in truth it's a bit of both, even if the former luckily predominates. Although Bellowhead's a fantastic live act, with all the flamboyant showmanship of the circus ring, it must be said that not quite everything they do actually works here, even though in true swings-and-roundabouts fashion one big advantage of the CD medium is its ability to more closely pick out the complex strands of the arrangements where necessary.
The impact of Bellowhead is still pretty overwhelming, that much is not in dispute, and their bold, seething melting-pot daringly takes the folk-with-brass essays of Home Service and Brass Monkey into another realm entirely, even beyond the world-fusion of E2K. There's some pure mardi gras, also passages of serious Buena Vista Social Club, alongside atonal Zappaesque moments (eg the interlude in Hopkinson's Favourite), while in complete contrast the ensemble achieves a surprising degree of classical poise in the persuasive study in melancholy of Courting Too Slow. My reservations (aside from the obvious one about mildly excessive recycling of material from the trusty Spiers & Boden sets, however different the arrangements) centre on theatrical overkill. Live exuberance is all very well, and much of that quality transfers well to this CD; and the big-screen Bellowhead approach succeeds on Jon Boden's powerful interpretation of The Outlandish Knight. The stately processional of Death And The Lady works well too, utilising repetitive minimalist string figures and soulful dramatic flourishes from both string and brass departments. But elsewhere there are moments which are on the face of it almost plain embarrassing - like Flash Company (which in its over-posturing lurches well over the kerb-line of acceptable behaviour in a misguided attempt to dramatise the drunkard's lot, ending up being wearisome to listen to a second time)... And yet, when I lazily left the CD to run on through that track last time it made a queerly logical sense and was much less offputting - although I still feel it would work better as part of the live show. I also felt a mite uncomfortable initially with One May Morning Early, where the glutinous, glittery warm setting and surfeit of rich vocalists makes it sound like a group of unwelcome Dickensian carol singers from one of those sickly Disney movies; but again, the warmth of this Copper Family homage won through to me on subsequent plays. I was also none too sure about Across The Line, where cutting across the (melodic) line robs the song of its expression, and the scattergun approach to Rigs Of The Time almost unseats itself at times. But as I said, when all the pieces fall into place (even only by the skin of their teeth on occasion, I'll admit!), Bellowhead are tremendous, and truly deliver a thrill-a-minute cabaret.
David Kidman November 2006
Bellwether - Home Late (Rustbolt)
Much admired by NR's own Bob Paterson, the Minneapolis based four piece came together back in 97. Co produced by Rank Strangers' Mike Wisti this is their third album and, though I'm in no position to make comparisons not having heard either of its predecessors, judging from the biog would seem to be a return to the melancholic sleepy-eyed alt-country of their debut. Acoustic guitars, a mournful harmonica, and weary vocals (suggestive of a Prine/Wainwright/Guy Clarke hybrid, the latter especially so on Dim Light) augmented here and there by keening pedal steel, fiddle and accordion, are the simple order of the day on a set of pop tinged folk-roots tunes about relationships, the road and rural life. Drawing on hill country music influences as much as 60s American folk, there's an almost Carter family feel to the title track, Sugar Moon is laced with bluegrass, while Crooked Heart, Betweenville, and Make Your Goodbyes have the feel of being written and recorded in some cabin up in the woods. Baltimore is a sprightlier affair, a bit of a good old tyme knees up complete with whistle that, like Afterthoughts (a personal favourite alongside the mournful slow waltzing The Lake) would suggest the band finding particular favour among still grieving Jayhawks fans ready for something even a little more pared back to the roots.
Mike Davies
Very much a country album (with some soul splashes), it opens down the honky tonk with former Cowboy Outfit colleague Paul Carrack handling vocal duties on the Louvin Brothers' My Baby's Gone, then tremulous voiced London soul man Johnny Nicky steps up to the mark for a cover of Time For The Sun To Rise by New Orleans singer Earl King before Nick Lowe takes over for Charlie Feathers' chugging rockabilly A Man In Love.
As I say, it's a star studded affair. Reunited with Sean Tyla from Ducks Deluxe days comes reggae classic Johnny Too Bad, Reg Meuross is on hand for Dylan ballad Seven Curses, Geraint Watkins (with whom Belmont once worked backing Carl Perkins) revives 1962 Springfields hit Island of Dreams with Belmont providing the twang, Graham Parker turns up the gravel on In The Midnight Hour, Hank Wangford can be found Waltzing With Sin (written by Red Sovine but found on Dylan's Genuine Basement Tapes), while Carlene Carter repays past favours with her mum's Tall Lover Man (recorded on the hoof after meeting again for the first time in 25 years, listen to the intro and you'll hear her laughing in the background) and (after providing backing vocals elsewhere) the album closes out with a welcome spotlight return by Barbara Marsh, formerly 50% of The Dear Janes, on the hula swaying Beyond The Blue Horizon.
Of course, Belmont doesn't play complete wallflower at his own party and even if he's not got the best voice in the world, he doesn't disgrace himself rocking and rolling away on Cash's Get Rhythm (Bobby Valentino on fiddle) and Conway Twitty's I Viberate. Disappointingly, Costello doesn't put in personal appearance, but he's not forgotten either as Belmont revisits the past for a twangy guitar instrumental reading of Alison. Your name may not be on the guest list, but this is well worth gatecrashing.
www.martinbelmont.com
www.myspace.com/martinbelmont
Mike Davies September 2009
Another of those releases that's modestly and plainly trailed as "a traditional musical celebration of Christmas", but one that stands out from the crowd due to its enterprising selection of material from amongst the massive corpus of Yuletide-related songs, tunes and carols from England, Europe and America, given in abundantly keen, sharp (I might almost say crisply biting) and superbly musical performances from Paul Sartin and Paul Hutchinson.
Not for them the quick-fix seasonal snapshot hasty-dash through each item; instead their approach enables a leisurely savouring of the tasty dishes on their festive menu. For instance, the opening seven-minute salvo ingeniously and totally logically dovetails an Appalachian version of the Cherry Tree Carol (persuasively sung by Paul S to a beautifully rich counterpoint) with Paul H's stately original tune Yuleogy. The next selection playfully (nay, Playfordly) sets the Carnal & The Crane ballad of King Herod And The Cock to a tune from The English Dancing Master. Other inspired choices include the plaintive Canadian folksong Lonesome Scenes Of Winter and a lilting transposition of One Cold Morning In December (aka The Reason Why), a delectable music-hall-sounding piece culled from the repertoire of Walter Pardon, while we discover that the Sans Day Carol (named for the village of St. Day, Cornwall and dedicated to the Breton saint of that name) turns out to be a spirited variant of The Holly Bears A Berry. Finally, the disc stylishly closes with the Hampshire Mummers' Song, a carol collected from the Kingsclere Mummers by Lucy Broadwood in 1897, which is set to a curious marching beat (a kind of warped take on Ravel's Bolero!).
Each item on the disc is given a richly textured arrangement befitting a sumptuous seasonal feast, but it's not gluttonously overdone, for there's sensitively managed multitracking of instrumental parts (Paul S's violin and oboe) and judicious deployment of guest musicians Pete Flood (percussion) and Brendan Kelly (bass clarinet), together with some extra vocal contributions from Jennifer Bailey on a couple of tracks including Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day from the Oxford Book Of Carols. Frost Bites is definitely one of those rare Yuletide discs that transcend purely seasonal interest, being consistently entertaining and stimulating and eminently suitable for year-round listening.
David Kidman November 2009
Hey, d'ya remember Belshazzar's Feast? - the formidably fine duo formed by accordionist Paul Hutchinson and oboist/violinist/singer Paul Sartin back in the mid-90s, which motored on bravely for a good number of years producing no fewer than five albums for WildGoose before drawing to a temporary halt and taking a brief sabbatical principally due to the lads' heavy commitments elsewhere (Mr. H with Hoover The Dog and Okavango, Mr. S with Bellowhead and Faustus). Never ones to let a good opportunity lapse, however, they've somehow managed to shoehorn their masterful partnership back into those already unutterably crowded schedules and hurrah, Belshazzar's Feast (aka The Spice Boys!) are now back on the road. And on the CD player too, I'm glad to see (and hear), with this tasty new culinary offering. It's even more of an appetising menu than usual, for it comes in the form of a main-dish (full-length) studio disc with a complimentary (and complementary) bonus disc containing an "appetiser prepared at a live performance", all housed in a mouth-watering vol-au-vent of a digipack.
This particular musical partnership was always something rather special, the chemistry between the two musicians very pronounced, and if anything their sabbatical has sharpened those interpersonal responses even more. You might think that with just two instrumental colours the overall sound might get just a little boring after a while; not a bit of it! The sheer variety of available sounds and textures, combined with the brilliant (and at times brilliantly wicked) inventiveness of two players who really know their instruments and their capabilities inside out, makes for a whirlwind listening experience. And that's not considering the breadth of repertoire which they can call on with such ease, from traditional to classical to pre-classical and even world but all interleaved so incredibly naturally (well that's how it sounds!) into one music. Following each delectable twist and turn of a typical album-track tune-set proves to be an art in itself, and yes, I'll virtually guarantee you'll find a fresh nuance or added cheeky, knowing musical cross-reference on each successive playthrough.
I daren't spoil the myriad of scintillating musical surprises you'll encounter in this way, but suffice to say it ain't gonna be Playford or the Penguin Café or trad-arr as you know it, Jim! The many imaginatively arranged and executed instrumental items are punctuated (mostly on the studio set) by a generous number of songs, which Mr Sartin treats in a lively and yet amicably relaxed manner that's both immediate and appealing. At their live gigs, as you'll hear on the bonus disc, Belshazzar's Feast stun their audiences into silent submission with their marvellous musicianship, then roll 'em in the aisles with helpless laughter at their hilarious banter and, er, marvellous musicianship. For these guys possess the rare ability to both inspire and entertain by combining an acute intelligence of approach with superbly witty humour and virtuoso playing. As you'll hear on these discs, in spades; while the sleeve notes alone provide more genuine laughs than a year's supply of TV sitcoms - and they're just as funny on repeat reading too!
The Food Of Love is pretty much essential cuisine I'd say, if you're seeking a night out in good company serenaded by "Hairy Hutch and Suave Sartin", two of the most able musicians you could wish for, ready to respond to your every whim and mood-swing with the most delightfully appropriate music whatever its origin. Yum, it's all quite overwhelmingly good at times: feast don't fail me now - or, as I might well say to the two Pauls: "men, u is too much!"
David Kidman June 2008
Belshazzar's Feast - John Playford's Secret Ball (Wild Goose Records)
This instrumental album celebrates the 350th anniversary of John Playford's The English Dancing Master, a collection of folk dances and tunes. Another band have done this too, 1651 with Caste A Bell, to excellent reviews - "edgy, rich, dark, quirky and complex" are some of the adjectives used by reviewers.
Belshazzar's Feast have produced a quite different album. Here are seemingly simple but impossible to resists English tunes played with musical prowess and true enjoyment. Adjectives I'd use are 'celebratory, playful, lively, lilting, melodic and entrancing'. The tunes may date from 350 years ago but Balshazzar's Feast have arranged them to complement their assured musical skills and bring pleasure to those who hear them. You'll probably want to be dancing to them too - the two Pauls are Ceilidh favourites!
Paul Hutchinson on Pianoforte Accordian and Paul Sartin with Oboe (he must be one of it's finest and most lyrical exponents in this country) and Violin (or fiddle if you prefer) are Belshazzar's Feast. They are joined by friends Robert Harbron on concertina, guitar, mandolin and bassoon and, on trumpet, Will Balkwill (principal trumpeter of the National Youth Orchestra). Sartin and Harbron co-produce the album. It must have been recorded live in the studio because John Playford's Secret Ball is as spirited and immediate as if they were playing in your room whilst sharing a pint or two with you (check out track 14!).
Youth and skill ... classically trained Paul Sartin's other band is the young folk supergroup, Dr Faustus, with Robert Harbron, Tim van Eyken and Benji Kirkpatrick, but we won't talk about them now. Look out for the two Pauls and Belshazzar's Feast. They are breaking out from the 'one of folk music's best kept secrets' tag with applause and appreciative reviews from all who hear them, including me!
Sue Cavendish
Although a significant force behind the evolving Wilco sound for around seven years (roughly from Being There through to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), Jay's contribution had tended at times to get overshadowed by fellow-band-member Jeff Tweedy, especially in the acrimonious final few months of his stint in the band. Jay was also a key figure in Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue Guthrie project. Now, at long last, Jay has managed to come out with a solo record, which represents what he regards as the best fruits of a massive creative surge which in 2005 produced some 70 songs; perhaps inevitably, the catalyst for this surge was a series of personal catastrophes including the deaths of four close relatives within a short timespan. The resultant album's level of aural accomplishment reflects his skills as producer and sessioner, which are integral to the expression of his songs; much of the more curious aspects of the album's soundscape and textured arrangements stem from Jay's almost compulsive use of instruments from his store of miscellaneous half-broken "toys" (including weirdly detuned organs, oscillators and vintage guitars and a drum kit made out of sheet metal ductwork!…). Indeed, the air of fractured experimentation turns out to be rather appropriate to the fractured mental state depicted in the songs: tho' its quirky restlessness tends to make for disorientating, disconcerting, unsettling, often uncomfortable listening, to the extent that it's sometimes rather overwhelming, too much to take in. At times (as on the storming rocker Overexcusers, the punk-strut of Wide Open and the Pettyesque Replace You) the end result is distinctly thrilling, at others (the Beatlesque pop of The Palace At 4 AM and the pained acoustic troubadour mode of Good As Gold) satisfyingly restrained, yet on the few occasions when the delivery of the lyrics gets buried in a welter of effects it can get mildly irritating and the listener gets "magnificently defeated" – but what's important is that Jay's creativity is never called into question on this generally exhilarating ride through the emotions.
David Kidman March 2007
www.martynbennett.com
www.realworldrecords.com
David Kidman
Billy Bennington - The Barford Angel (Veteran)
East Anglian hammer-dulcimer player Billy was born in 1900 and spent most of his life as a gardener. His prowess on the dulcimer was nurtured from an early age, when his father (who kept the old King's Head pub at Barford) gave Billy his first instrument; subsequent years saw him playing in consort with fellow dulcimer player Billy Cooper and fiddle player Walter Baldwin and touring the Norfolk village pubs on a motorbike combination! And Billy B had earned his nickname of The Barford Angel because he used to carry his dulcimer on his back while cycling and its shape made him appear to have angel's wings! ... Billy was "discovered" by the folk scene in the 1970s, and gained quite a following through to his death in 1986. Eight tracks of his superbly nimble playing appeared on Topic's 1973 English Country Music Of East Anglia LP' these all appear on this new Veteran CD, along with others whose recorded provenance is not stated although the booklet notes imply that they were first issued on "the original Barford Angel LP" in the 80s. Billy's playing is characterised by a keen sense of swinging rhythm that's wonderfully infectious (it must have inspired latter-day dulcimer players like Chris Coe), while another unusual and interesting feature of his style is his interpolation of hand-plucked notes and chords in between the hammered ones. You might think a whole album of solo hammered-dulcimer would be tedious, but it proves not to be so, largely due to the variety within Billy's technique and the variety of material he plays - as well as plenty of the expected tunes for dancing, there's "novelty" items (The Chicken Reel), adaptations of military marches (J.P. Sousa's On Parade), popular tunes (Lovely Lucerne, from the dance-band repertoire) and songs (Billy Cooper had provided him with music-hall favourites like Obadiah and When Johnny Comes To Town), and musical showpieces (The Bells Of St. Mary's). And many of the selections are introduced with choice wee snippets of Billy recounting funny things that happened at gigs. This is a delightful and charming release (unless you happen to be allergic to the juicy clang of the hammer-dulcimer, of course!).
David Kidman
This generously-filled (74-minute) disc is headed Compilation, yet subtitled both as Complete Works 1975-2010 and Best Of. Happily, the mini-press release clarifies the situation for us: yes, it's a "best of" selection, compiled from the internationally acclaimed French-Algerian acoustic guitarist's nine albums recorded since 1975 - all of which are also being re-released now to celebrate his 35-year-long career.
The music on these tracks is unfailingly accomplished (exceedingly so), and presented at a level which allows for easy appreciation by non-guitar-nerds as well as practising musicians and those who more closely understand and follow all the technical stuff and the more esoteric nuances of guitar technique. It's an ideal primer for Pierre's personal vision of a world guitar music, providing some stunning examples of his artistry both in a purely solo capacity and placed in the context of other musicians. Gentle virtuosity, impeccable phrasing, unobtrusive technique, controlled elegance - these are the hallmarks of Pierre's playing, and just to get to Pierre's standard in any one of those areas any average guitar player could count himself more than fortunate.
And then there's the eloquent way Pierre combines a free, relaxed and playful spontaneity with an ultra-careful attention to articulation. His musical style can't be defined - it crosses right through folk, roots, classical, light jazz, French, Arabic, African, Brazilian and most other world musics you can imagine, though with an entirely natural improvisatory quality, an enviable fluidity that carries away any desire for rigid classification.
Around half of the 15 tracks find Pierre with a measure of considerately-managed backing (generally involving flute, bass and exotic percussion), notably the various selections sourced from 1987's Spices and the mid-90s set Wu Wei which provide the lion's share. All of these, plus two other tracks, also feature Pierre's attractive singing (I particularly liked his traditional-folk straight guitar'n'vocal rendition of the anonymous ballad Le Roi Renaud, recorded for his second album in 1976).
Personally, I find the solo items the most compelling; although as is often the case with solo acoustic guitar playing, even though it's very much in the "easy virtuosity" bracket, you still need to be in the right frame of mind to give the music your undivided attention. And notwithstanding the satisfyingly varied nature of the disc's menu, it turns out to be the bonus track - an eight-minute live solo version of Intuite from 2004 - which provides the highlight of the entire disc. But if you've not yet sampled Pierre Bensusan's talent, À La Carte will certainly give you the perfect introduction.
David Kidman January 2010
A series of refreshingly different contemporary takes on traditional material from the former lead singer of Old Blind Dogs. Ian's is a distinctive voice, and his consistent and passionate heavily-accented delivery is a joy to hear, although you may not understand every word - at least on first few listens! This is his second solo album, and again he reaps the benefit of accompaniment from a handful of excellent Scottish musicians - Carol Anderson (fiddle), Graeme Stephen (electric & bass guitars), Mark Duff (bouzouki, whistle), Niall Mathewson (keyboard, electric guitar) and Davy Cattanach (percussion) - to boost his own occasional acoustic guitar. Carol's fiddle contributions are a particular delight, atmospheric and full-toned, whether playing fast or slow - sample any of the seven tracks on which she appears, but Bogie's Bonnie Belle provides some of the most riveting moments. The rhythmic impetus provided by Davy's percussion is another of the album's particular joys - often quite jazzy and laid-back, but never lacking in forward drive (great lazy calypso feel to Ian's version of Canadee-I-O for instance). The jazzy ambience extends to the electric guitar work too, providing a great foil for Davy's energetic, nay breathlessly faultless singing (as on Gi'e Me A Lass Wi' A Lump O' Land). This is an invigorating album, worth your attention.
David Kidman
Co. Antrim-based five-piece phenomenon Beoga describe themselves as "a trad band on anabolic steroids", and at times I'm convinced you can hear what that's like! Generally, the band sound is defined by the twin-button-accordion front-line of Damian McKee and Seán Óg Graham (the latter adding guitars, bouzouki, banjo and whistle to the mix from time to time), with Liam Bradley's piano, Niamh Dunne's fiddle and Eamon Murray's award-winning bodhrán and percussion completing the aural picture.
All of which might lead one to expect a reasonably straightforward approach to their music – which would seem to be an accurate enough starting-point at any rate. But, to take the band's self-confessed analogy further, steroids can have some peculiar side-effects, encouraging the taking of strange risks and distorting, or throwing into sometimes unwelcome relief, individual features of the musical texture that might be best left unexplored. By which I mean the band's predilection for indulging in some often quite curious instrumental effects and embellishments (e.g. sprinklings of artificial-sounding keyboard tone, cheesy handclaps and suchlike) that either grate or take the edge off the ebullient and often exhilarating spirit of the playing. A spirit and energy that extends to all elements making up The Incident in fact, including some strong singing from Niamh herself, whose voice proves especially well suited to Paul Kennerley's Mary Danced With Soldiers (one of four songs, all contemporary, that are scattered among the album's eleven tracks). Beoga also bring in rather a lot of guest musicians, who don't always manage to have an entirely positive impact on the band's own playing; the over-blowsy Bottine-Souriante brass on the opening set being a case in point I think.
There are still some good decisions though: the madcap dash of the gear-changes on The Flying Golf Club, the title track and Fly Fishing ring true, and The Bellevue Waltz culminates in a fully-scored (strings and harp) pomp-prog section that just about manages to avoid plunging overboard. The band also has a reputation for cheeky, knowing humour, which extends to the fun sleeve-notes but sometimes gets the better of them on record and some items are perhaps more of an acquired taste, even considering the touches of humour that fleck generously if wildly through the instrumental sets. On The Way, featuring a duet vocal from Ciaran Gribbin (aka Joe Echo), doesn't belong here, and (the carefree Dixieland-klezmer clarinet part aside) neither really does the (admittedly well-managed) cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's gospel-turned-Irish Strange Things. I believe the band is still finding their feet in many ways, but as a "difficult third album", The Incident is not staged without considerable pleasures during its often eccentric course.
David Kidman June 2009
An album of quiet anguish and basically unsettled introspection, throughout which Charlie peddles his own brand of gloomy self-questioning, naggingly discontent with the world in general. You could say sometimes, with a measure of justification, that Charlie makes Richard Thompson sound positively cheerful, though in the end that would be as unfair to RT as it is to Charlie. His backing musicians - principally Mark Emerson (violin, viola, accordion) and Tim Harries (bass), both most famed latterly for their work with June Tabor - do little to dispel the air of brooding despondency Charlie conjures up with his mournful voice and softly chiming acoustic guitar, although the sound they make together is curiously attractive albeit in a cool, very subdued and somehow seemingly uninvolved sort of way. I was sometimes reminded of the dour ambience of the English Acoustic Collective too, while scattered throughout the album there are instrumental linking passages (composed by Mark and Tim) that mirror the songs almost too perfectly; in their neurotic charm they recall the later chamber music of Shostakovich or even Bartókian atonality. The CD's stumbling block, even after a few playthroughs, is that I'm still not entirely convinced by some of Charlie's angrily desperate lyrics (although I can appreciate their undetached catharsis). Yet the strange thing is, if Charlie's songs catch me in the right frame of mind they can seem quite inexplicably soothing. An album of contradictions, then, which I still think is worth persisting in getting to know - for if you can spare the time, though it may take longer than many, it will ultimately bring rewards.
David Kidman
David Kidman
Dan Bern and the IJBC - Fleeting Days (Cooking Vinyl)
Who's been a busy boy then. Barely had the ink dried on the rave reviews for New American Language than along came his Swastika EP and now there's a brand new album, recorded, in another deliberate confrontational stroke, with band whose acronym stands for International Jewish Banking Conspiracy. Being of Lithuanian Jewish descent with relatives who'd suffered the Holocaust first hand, you can safely assume that he's been as ironic as he is provocative.
The music then. With the opening Baby Bye Bye a Springsteenesque acoustic guitar driven number that deals with a departed lover and the warped CD they left behind in remarkably even-tempered fashion, he's turning his gaze more upon relationships than social issues this time round. There's songs about Eva (swapping paradise for the devil with the thighs) and Jane (whose name's on his lips when he wakes up in the morning), I Need You talks about trying to escape the pain of a lost love, while Chain Around My Neck finds him asking to prove he's worthy of a second chance.
Dylan (Superman, I Need You, Fly Away) and Costello (Eva, Crow - sounding like an outtake from This Year's Model) remain the immediate reference points, though early Bruce and Steve Earle can be seen peering over the shoulder on several occasions, setting a musical landscape that straddles all shades of the folk-rock and pop terrain from Bringing It All Back Home through 60s Beatles to 70s punk-pop and contemporary blue collar. Sharp wit characterises many of the songs, most directly so on Graceland, a gospel-clappy boogie that namechecks Paul Simon, Marc Cohn's Walking In Memphis and Elvis in a number that takes a swipe at the cult of King cool and owns up to feeling much more meaning in Okemah, home of Woody Guthrie. Closing with the plaintive Dylanesque Soul, he asks if the subject of the song is going to be lured by the glitter of "the latest pen" and the social rat race or realise that "all the money in the world won't buy back a day of your past." Bern doesn't need to follow his soul, it walks beside him every step of the way.
Mike Davies
Dan Bern - New American Language (Cooking Vinyl)
Given the somewhat low key promotion campaign you might not have stumbled across this, Bern's fifth album, his first official release in four years. Produced by Chuck Plotkin, it's Americana in the ringing guitar manner of Petty (Sweetness is as good as anything off Damn The Torpedoes) as veined with Dylan (listen to God Said No), Bruce and Steve Earle, riding the range from rousing roots rockers to reflective folksy ballads and, on Honeydoo!, a kickaboo bluegrass hoedown. He paints on an emotional canvas, etching an American landscape where Leonardo DiCaprio, Eminem, Britney Spears and Keith Richards travel the Alaska Highway, where Thanksgiving Day Parade celebrates a nation's tradition with a song cast in the model of Desolation Row (and name checks Men At Work too) and Turning Over and Albuquerque Lullaby not only offer snapshots of being broken down in broken down Mexico but the latter is probably the only song ever to use the word 'odometer'. Populated with Latinos, Japanese, rednecks and the Mafia, lamenting for more innocent times, hoping for better ones, visiting Toledo in Spain, shivering over the rise in violence where the Manson murders would have been news a page 11 item had they happened now, but always veined with a sheen of hope and acceptance, Bern speaks his new American language in a most eloquent tongue.
Mike Davies
Geoff sets out his stall within a few bars of the start of the opener Good Luck Now: he says he wants to "drag klezmer music kicking and screaming back into the bars", which he sure does here. This Vancouver singer-songwriter-accordion player, himself a Jew of eastern European descent, continues the path he began taking with his 2005 album Whiskey Rabbi, whereon he forced an ostensibly uneasy marriage between klezmer (rootsy Romanian-style), sharp and "dirty political" songwriting and the raw energy of punk. Geoff's accompanied on this new set too by Diona Davies (violin) and Wayne Adams (percussion), who assist in focusing his accordionistic eccentricities and provide a constantly brilliant, busy foil for his lyrics – lyrics which both respect and marry the musical traditions from which they take their inspiration. Diona's wonderfully wild playing on The Fiddler Is A Good Woman is both tailor-made and terrific, and the track's fast becoming my most-played of the entire album. It's perhaps on tracks such as the exhortation Weep, Bride, Weep and the cheeky humour of Widow Bride, though, that Geoff provides the clearest illustration of how successfully he captures the rough spirits of both musics, but in truth the energy and chutzpah Geoff generates with his edgy cabaret style of presentation (with distinct shades of the theatricality of Alex Harvey at times, I feel, as on the strident Queen Victoria: yes, the Leonard Cohen number, which is the album's only cover) never lets up, and neither does his fertile imagination. Song To Reconcile is a savage little number voicing the humble accordion player's innermost thoughts while playing for a typical wedding. Traitor Bride shows that Geoff has his thoughtful and less iconoclastic side, while Would It Kill You? plumbs the emotional depths with great economy; in fact, these songs turn out to be among the most passionate (by being understatedly dispassionate?) on the whole album. All told, this CD should ensure Geoff's name travels beyond the Be Good Tanyas track (Light Enough To Travel) that he's already known for authoring. And long before the release of the projected third album in Geoff's planned klezmer trilogy, I trust. An intriguing hotbed of often blinding energy.
David Kidman June 2007
BitterSweet is the first actual CD ever to be recorded by Bob and Gill, even though theirs is a singing partnership of long standing. For nearly half of that 20-year timespan, they've also been the principal organisers of Chippenham Folk Festival, and both play key roles in Devizes Folk Club (which they themselves started in 1992) and within the eight-piece group Tinker's Bag. Their close harmony singing displays an evident strong and sensitive musical bond, with each truly supportive of the other's voice yet also completely naturally allowing the other to shine (or dominate) where necessary for the expression of the song, the effective communication in performance of which is paramount (as it should be).
Bob and Gill present an interesting choice of songs from both within and outwith the tradition, yet unsurprisingly the latter almost always have a strong feel of the traditional. Although both Bob and Gill are highly competent singers in their own right with attractive voices, you may well respond first to the material rather than the singing or performance aspect, for initially the actual delivery of the songs isn't what you notice, simply because it isn't to any significant degree specifically attention-drawing. Except possibly, that is, in the matter of Gill's use of vibrato (more evident on some songs than others, it must be said), which although an integral part of her technique can at times make her tone seem just a little fierce (bitter, perhaps) and thus some listeners may find it takes some getting used to.
But again, first impressions can lead your ears down false trails, and in truth I ended up liking almost all of this CD a lot - and more than I expected to after the initial playthrough. Not least because it introduced me to some absolutely superb songs that I'd not come across before (always a good test!): Suffer Little Children is a curiously effective (and economic) song from the pens of two members of the group Heritage, while John Pullen's Revels Day really does convey the lively atmosphere of the Box (Wiltshire) village custom. Opening the CD, there's a fine driving rendition of John Prosser's stirring anthem England's Glory that proves more than a match (sorry!) for any rival version in my book (!), which contrasts with the broody Calum More (by Andy Mitchel), another fine composition on the time-honoured theme of a woman's extraordinary suffering within an ordinary existence. I also really liked Bob's atmospheric take on Chris Leslie's powerful Winter Man. Amongst the traditional fare, Gill's solo tour-de-force is the awesome ballad Brown Girl, while Bob turns in a notably well-poised rendition of Fair Flora; while jointly their May Dew is a joyous pleasure to discover, as are Gay Green Gown (which it turns out Bob and Gill got from the singing of our own Graham & Eileen Pratt), and the duo's creative harmonising and unusual melodic twists on Tom's Gone To Hilo. Finally, Bob's mother Barbara is remembered in performances of two of her songs, the beautiful, if anguished Fisher Lad Of Whitby and her lovely, sweet setting of I Wandered By A Brook-side, while the CD closes with the reflective, definitively bittersweet Alan Bell Song Of Time, a chanson-like creation written in honour of both of Bob's parents and here blessed with an aptly plangent klezmer-like arrangement.
Which leads me to my final observation: that Bob and Gill have taken on board a small coterie of musical collaborators who really complement their own performances (this seems to be a hallmark of all WildGoose recordings, where the label's boss and producer Doug Bailey seems to have the knack of showing the featured artistes off to their best advantage). In this case, it's the stalwarts Keith Kendrick (concertinas), Pete Harris (bass guitar), Anahata (cello), Paul Sartin (fiddle, oboe) and Jo Veal (clarinet) who do the honours. A very attractive CD, attractively packaged.
www.wildgoose.co.uk
www.bobandgillberry.co.uk
David Kidman October 2006
Mike may have been regarded as one of the UK's most established rock'n'rollers, but many of his finest recordings have been unavailable for some time, and this two-disc anthology trawls into its wide net not only all of these but many later rarities from his mid-1970s comeback years. Personally, I can take or leave some of the later recordings, for they seem almost to verge on self-parody or err on the side of pastiche even, but I'd willingly pay the price of the whole set just to have the first disc alone. So what if some of the early cuts, like My Baby Doll, are very much ersatz-Buddy Holly - but Mike's voice had such an uncanny quality that it was at times almost a genuine dead ringer for Buddy's, and hey, I guess it doesn't matter any more (sorry!). Disc One brings together all of those highly-collectable early sides, which were masterminded and produced by the maverick Joe Meek. They invariably embody that distinctive, other-worldly aural signature that's so hard to ignore - the heavy reverb, the jangling, tinkling organ, the strident beat, sometimes also the heavenly backing choir, all much imitated but never really equalled. Truly timeless recordings like Tribute To Buddy Holly (hard to believe it attracted controversy at the time for being allegedly insensitive due to its "morbidity" and its over-close resemblance to Buddy himself!), Don't You Think It's Time, My Little Baby and It's Just A Matter Of Time. Not always as dramatically convincing as John Leyton perhaps, but with more R&R cred. A selection of Mike's post-Meek 60s recordings follows; anachronistic though some of them may sound in the context of the beat-boom years, they're respectable enough to more than pass muster, even the primitive sides cut with the Innocents (On My Mind and This Little Girl). Sadly, though, Mike's resourceful - if unsuccessful - 60s covers of material by writers such as Neil Diamond and John Sebastian are absent from this collection. Instead, Disc One is rounded off with a clutch of energetic 1976-vintage Holly covers (which have an attractive drive and plenty of interest in the glam-ish production) and the 1979 side Stay Close To Me. Disc Two starts well with Mike's innovative 1975 slow-Southern-boogie version of Don't Be Cruel, then comes his 1976 remake of Tribute (which charted in Holland and Germany), after which we get a reasonable selection from the rather more uneven late-70s material (thankfully not moving forward enough to encompass the post-acting-career Sunshine Of Your Smile and subsequent, similarly bland 80s hits or Mike's present-day revival-show work). The insert notes are particularly strong on the early years but fall short thereafter, and no explanation is offered for the omissions. Still, as a means of acquiring some valuable and hitherto-unavailable-on-CD recordings, this is a set worth acquiring.
www.mikeberry.net
www.sanctuaryrecordsgroup.com
David Kidman
Following two outings produced by Stephen Doster, Austin, Texas based BettySoo moved across town to Gurf Morlix's Rootball Studio for Heat Sin Water Skin. Last year she picked up three song contest awards, including, significantly, one out of state. With her career currently on an upward trajectory, her third album is a crucial component in sustaining that course. BettySoo apart, the HSWS session players are - Gurf on numerous stringed instruments and vocals, the estimable Gene Elders on fiddle, and from BettySoo's live band - organist Todd Wilson and drummer Dave Terry.
Morlix's unmistakable guitar, at turns muscular and powerful, then muted underpins the opening song, Never Knew No Love. The narrator, it appears, possesses a little summer secret and sooner or later it's gonna come to light. Just Another Lover, which follows, adopts a gentler pace with subtly measured contributions from Elders. Therein the narrator questions her lover "Am I a well you once drew from? Just a place to wet your tongue," "Am I a dirt road you left behind" and more.
Melodic and restrained, the tender, nay sensual Whisper My Name also takes love as its subjective focus – "Never felt so at home in my skin 'til you got here." A mere nine years into the new century, America's Gulf Coast has been relentlessly battered by storms and hurricanes. For one family, the latter forms the Who Knows back story. Forever focuses on a marriage that has gone cold with the passage of the decades, and a wife who "longs for something different." Replete with the admission that for ages she has "been fighting better judgement" but has now resolved to "take what's hidden and make it seen," in Get Clean a girl from wrong side of tracks attempts to put her life back in order.
Constructed in the vein of Mary Chapin's This Shirt – except that the beloved garment in this instance is a pair of jeans - suffice to say that What We've Got is aimed at BettySoo's husband. Never The Pretty Girl closed the four song charity EP that accompanied her sophomore album Little Tiny Secrets. Personally speaking the song was a standout on first hearing, and has retained its magic on repeated subsequent hearings. BettySoo's slower paced Rootball rendition proportionally increases the heartache expressed by the narrator. For awkward teens Never The Pretty Girl is to the dawn of the 21st century, as Janis Ian's At Seventeen was three decades back.
I struggle with vocalists who resort to shouting, rather than singing, over loud backing instruments – and on Still Small Voice you are most certainly aware of the presence of Morlix's electric guitar. A mere five foot tall, Asian American BettySoo packs a big voice, and on the latter title she exercises amazing (volume) control. Next Big Thing is a song about dreams, the tale of two hopefuls who, separately, head for Nashville. As much as you may labour at it, life is nevertheless measured by luck and opportunity bookended by two certainties. Having sketched in her characters BettySoo leaves every possibility open, allowing listeners to contribute their own ending. The almost final line "And every night a new line of hopefuls come driving in" brought to mind the endless stream of car headlights in the closing credits to Field Of Dreams.
Jimmy LaFave has been Austin's king of the cover songs for many years, but he better look to his laurels and quickly. Heat Sin Water Skin closes with an achingly beautiful, acoustic reading of the Jimmie Davis/Hank Williams collaboration Lonesome Whistle. BettySoo simply owns the song, her voice encapsulating the desperation felt by the incarcerated narrator. If you want your heart ripped out, this is assuredly the track that will do it. Score 8 out of 10.
Arthur Wood, Kerrville Kronikles May 2009
This disc follows on from Debashish's award-winning 2007 album in that it continues to demonstrate his absolute mastery of the slide guitar, but additionally it places his instrumental skills in a wider stylistic context than just that of the Indian classical râg. While staying within the conventions of that form, the nine original compositions on this CD each strike a fine line between the ancient and the contemporary by exploring influences from other musical cultures, to fascinating and often quite stimulating effect. The use of the slide guitar in Indian classical music is a recent phenomenon (the development of the instrument arose out of the trend for Hawaiian steel guitar started by Tao Moe in the 1920s when visiting Calcutta); Debashish is not only one of its key exponents but also has a gift for innovative composition and collaboration (projects with Bob Brozman and Djeli Moussa Diawara, for instance). Here too, Debashish's musical journey is comprehensive: Sufi Bhakti blends elements from Sufi and Bhakti devotional music, and Rasika evokes the Bengali music that Debashish heard in his youth, while the faster-paced Maya thrives on repetitive rhythms drawn from outside its principal structure. This is a very accessible disc all through, but the most overtly enjoyable track is Gypsy Anandi, which brings a Hawaiian flavour and Afro-Andalusian rhythms to the very soul of the râg itself. The joy and compassion in Debashish's playing are underscored by his brilliant artistry; beauty of expression and gentle dynamism go hand in hand.
David Kidman May 2008
Recorded in Nashville, Get Onboard has been on the production line since May 2007 and Bibb says that it has been one of the most exciting projects of his career. He hits the nail on the head when he says "It's a further exploration into the place where blues meets gospel and soul". He uses the best session musicians around as well as special guests Bonnie Raitt and Ruthie Foster. The soulful and spiritual Spirit I Am is a great opener and Bibb's sweet voice will smother you in honey. The Promised Land is bluesy and bouncy and New Beale Street Blues is a jazzy, New Orleans blues. The latter is another tribute to the great city that is still recovering from Katrina. The eponymous title track has a vocal that is so sweet and so clear. It also has great harmonies and he has more soul than heaven itself. If Our Hearts Ain't In It has Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar and a big production to match. All I can say about Pockets is that it is an Eric Bibb song if there could ever be one. The voice, the gentle approach and the understated instrumentation are his hallmarks.
The gentle acoustic vibes continue with River Blues, which is not, as the title suggests, a blues in the truest meaning of the word. This is followed by Deep In My Soul and that's where he has rested. Folk, country, gospel it covers so much. Conversation is a slow, precise and heartfelt blues duet with Ruthie Foster and the understated brilliance of God's Kingdom has, as the title suggests, Gospel overtones Step By Step stays much in the same vein and the final track, Stayed On Freedom, lifts the pace a little with a country blues. This arrangement of the Civil Rights anthem, which in turn was adapted from a traditional spiritual, hits the spot Eric, and his producer Glen Scott, may just have unleashed a future classic.
David Blue April 2008
The word legend is used far too often these days but Eric Bibb is a well on his way to becoming one. His blend of tender blues, folk and roots music has won him fans all over the planet and I am delighted at getting a chance to review his latest offering, Diamond Days. He starts, complete with authentic crackles, with Tall Cotton and immediately his velvet voice just cradles your senses and by the time that you get to the end of Still Livin' On you will wonder where the last 44 minutes or so have gone. Tall Cotton has a strong African folk influence with Kahanga 'Master Vumbi' Dekula on Hi-life guitar a standout. Destiny Blues is self-penned, as are 11 of the 12 tracks on the album, and is a quirky acoustic blues. Jenny Bohman is quite a surprise on this as it builds up very well. Eric gets a groove on for Shine On and sets up an all round, classy song. This is personified by Bibb's silky vocal and Bohman's short harp bursts - a highlight. So Glad is spiritual in its composition and its delivery and the plain and simple technique used is so effective. This is followed by the bluesy, bouncy Storybook Hero before Eric tells it how it is on the eponymous title track. This tale of life's highs and lows is again delivered in Eric's gentle style and sends out a strong message.
There's some more mild country style blues on Dr. Shine and this is another fine example of Eric's storytelling ability. The addition of Jim Shearer on tuba gives it a New Orleans feel. Heading Home has a contemporary feel but still gives you that comforting glow with Mats Oberg turning in some Larry Adler style harmonica. You get a feel of what an Eric Bibb concert would be like via the live recording of In My Fathers House. This is a raunchy, urban blues and shows him to be a superb live performer - I'm sorry that I missed him on his recent trip to Scotland - with the band giving it some real acoustic stick. Things are slowed down again for Forgiveness Is Gold with its anti-war message delivered by a velvet glove. If there is to be a definitive Eric Bibb song on this album then, ironically, it is the Bob Dylan written Buckets Of Rain. This is a country blues with just Eric on vocal and the superb Martin Simpson on acoustic guitar - probably the highlight of the album. The album closes with Still Livin' On and he finishes in the same vein that he has produced throughout the album. Gentle country blues is the order of the day as he pays tribute to many of his heroes including John Lee Hooker, Reverend Gary Davis and Pop Staples, amongst others. He finishes with the authentic crackles too! There's two added surprises in the form of a lovely version of the traditional Worried Man Blues and a video of Eric in his favourite Parisian guitar shop where he treats us to three impromptu songs on a 1930s Gibson acoustic. I have to give a mention to the fact that Eric gives us the guitar chords to some of the songs on the album sleeve just to give us mortals the chance of emulating the great man. I'm off to dust down the old guitar for one last shot at stardom!
David Blue October 2006
Eric Bibb - Friends (Manhaton)
David Kidman
A Family Affair is very much a spiritual journey for Eric, a venture on which he's supported by his father Leon, who avows in his insert-note that "one of my deepest pleasures is sharing the concert stage with my son". This much shows, for this is a lovingly presented sequence of songs that mean a lot to Eric. Memories, influences, passions, all combine to make this an affecting emotional journey. Songs by Pete Seeger and Leadbelly make for invigorating openers, and the ensuing sparse holler-style performance of Look Over Yonder is quite stunning in its impact. The two musicians' mutual pride in each other's considerable accomplishments is demonstrated particularly in Eric's own composition Love Like A Good Song, while Eric himself takes centre stage for no less than three out of the twelve cuts including an impressive cross-cultural reinterpretation of Let Me Fly. The African connection is further reinforced on the next track, Leon's recitation of a Langston Hughes poem against the virtuoso kora playing of guest Mamadou Diabate. Mellow instrumental exotica are also present on the following There's A River, symbolising the eternal life force that forms such a positive and dominant element in Eric's work. I can't quite get on with Cyndee Peters' vocal contribution to Balm In Gilead though; in fact, maybe the final few tracks (which include an unexpectedly successful piano-accompanied version of Fields Of Gold) lend an aura of over-contentment to the album which gives a more lasting impression of complacency than perhaps was intended and having the effect of softening somewhat the more awesome impact of the earlier cuts, but make no mistake, this is still a highly satisfying (if personal) collaboration.
David Kidman
A native of East Pennsylvania, Craig has for some 25 years been regarded as a songwriters songwriter, a role which was facilitated by his decision to move to Nashville in the early 1980s; for a time he was a member of the trio Schuyler, Knobloch & Bickhardt, but it was the honorary placement of his songs on CDs by such luminaries as Alison Krauss, Johnny Cash, Martina McBride, Iain Matthews, Willie Nelson, The Judds, B.B. King and Ray Charles that ensured his status, and to date hes chalked up some 800 songs! In 2006 Craig returned to the concert stage and to his home state, and for this, his latest (second) CD in his own right, he trawls right back over his songbook to land unerringly on choice material of varying vintage. These include reworkings of songs famous in versions by others, and a sensitive revisit of his celebrated weepie This Old House (written in the 80s), and even a more than passable take on the traditional Lord Franklin.
The predominant mode is easy-listen, warm country-folk, couched in spacious, mellow and companionable settings that reflect Craigs seemingly effortless craftsmanship. The icing on the cake is the presence of a galaxy of excellent musicians and singers - selectively employed, naturally - including among their ranks Byron House (bass), Lloyd Maines (dobro), Andy Leftwich (fiddle), Carol Rabinowitz (cello) and Catherine Styron (piano), with guest appearances by Tim OBrien, Rusty Young, Darrell Scott, Janis Ian, Terri Hendrix, Maura OConnell and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Impressive, huh? - well yes, but somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts, for altho each individual track is pleasing and passes the ear most agreeably (for Craig is a sufficiently persuasive interpreter of his own material and accompanies himself elegantly) thats probably all there is to it. The most memorable songs are the wry opener Life With The Sound Turned Down, the gentle devotional Prayers For You, the plaintive and more richly harmonised Where In The World, the evocative title number (with its melodic hint of From Clare To Here) and the foot-tapper If He Came Back Again.
Its all admirably intimate, like listening to a not over-close friend reminiscing and sharing minor confidences, but in the final analysis arguably a touch too contentedly soft-edged (even within a mainstream context) to make you want to spend too long in Craigs company.
David Kidman August 2009
No, John doesn't cover Roy Harper's McGoohan's Blues on this set, and he is definitely an individual and "not a number" (there is only one of him!), but he does deliver a completely different experience on this, his first album. For in complete contrast to his second, Water And Wine, which I reviewed a few months back for NetRhythms, The Prisoner is an almost completely pared-down acoustic offering, with only an occasional bluesy piano (courtesy of Richard Metcalfe) to boost Jon's own guitar. The title track leads off very much in a Bowie-chansonnier mode, suitably impassioned and bleakly intense; after which Jon lightens up a little in terms of lyric content. To be honest, I find this set hard going in listening terms, and Jon's vocal delivery is quite often out of tune and it's sometimes wearisome to get through a whole album full. There's no doubting Jon's power and conviction, but it seems there isn't always the substance to match the power here.
David Kidman
Big Blue Hearts - Here Come Those Dreams Again (Eagle Eye)
Once signed to Geffen, the San Fraciscan four piece's debut album drew comparisons to the Evs and Orbison and that 60s twangy pop is certainly in evidence on this sophomore outing, a collection of countrified pop that sits easily alongside the likes of Chris Isaak and the Mavericks. No surprise they've cropped up on the soundtracks to such TV shows as The O.C. and One Tree Hill.
It's not a world shattering album (and I could live without the uptempo rock n rolling Don't Mind Messin'), but it does come packed with easy on the ear melodies, Scott Minchk's silvery guitar licks and David Fisher's dreamy croon put to the service of generally upbeat romantic songs. Ordinary People, the title track and the Orbisonesque You Can't Lose What You Never Had are the real keepers, but it'll all go down nicely next time you find yourself with a highway and an open top car to spare.
Mike Davies
Sometimes you just need to rock, throw back the sofa, strike a few poses; in the words of Mr. Todd 'Get the electric house rocking with your dirty juice'. Um, well, after those bon mots, it's clearly an uphill job to sell you this minor gem. It may also point up the reason why Big Head and the boys are massive in the US and hardly a blip in the UK. We've simply forgotten that rock can actually be damned good stuff; that it's not all Spinal Tap.
Despite the lyrical quote above - from album opener Dirty Juice which comes on like a non-cartoon ZZ Top - is far from simply salacious rock. Indeed, to short circuit the description, it's the album Bob Seger might make should he choose to enter the new century. Todd's voice has a similar burr; a bluesy edge that adds feel to even the slightest of lyrics and The Monsters have the capacity to move from Main Street to Katmandu at short notice tho' the rhythm section are seemingly capable of a heartier punch that the Silver Bullet Band's.
So, nil points for boundary breaking but a high five for delivering an album that proves old fashioned mainstream US rock to be in the fittest of health.
Steve Morris
Big House - Woodstock Nation (Dead Reckoning)
Well, I could just say buy this one now and leave it at that, but I won't of course. Woodstock Nation really pushed my buttons. It's a tour de force and on first listening there's nothing diverse, dark or dignified about it, just straight up, 'pass the Jack Daniels and turn up the volume' country rock with a touch of soul and blues. Despite the title, the only feeling of nostalgia you get is a not-so-secret wish for years past when those Southern rockers first stratted their stuff, J.J. Cale breezed out of Tulsa and Wilson Pickett and Steve Cropper Staxed it to us right in the solar plexus.
What Woodstock Nation serves up is a refreshingly clean, high-octane brew of songs to dance your troubles away to. Lead singer and guitarist Monty Byrom says, "We recorded live in the studio. Then we do a thing called 'underdubbing'. We go in and play everything live, then take stuff off, to keep in sparse and simple." It works. Soulful vocals, lyrically edgy songs, tight percussion and instrumentation; all are given the oxygen they need.
I have to mention the 'N' word. Big House came to Nashville from Bakersfield, California in 1995. There are great changes in Nashville now from a new and nonconformist generation of artists, signed by maverick indie labels with fresh ears and attitude, who must be worrying the bejesus out of the purists. It was thinking on that, on the album's second listening, when I realised that there is so much more going on in Woodstock Nation. Buck These Haggard Blues (Merle Haggard's another renegade Bakersfield 'boy') , the reflective title track Woodstock Nation; even the hint of deeper things on the spoken intro to the opening track, mourn the vision which once was Woodstock itself. This is one totally awesome album which transcends the bland mediocrity and sugary schmaltz so often served up on the country charts. I'll now be looking out for their two previous MCA albums, Big House and Travelin' Kind. Wonderful!
Southern England based blues rockers Big Road have been around for twenty years or so and have honed themselves into a very tight unit indeed. Their music rarely gets past the 1970s but that should not put you off as they can flit between the bluesy pub rock of the opener, No Other Baby and the Barclay James Harvest style folk rock of Butterfly. The latter of these is one of a few self penned songs amongst many covers of classic and not so classic blues and rock. Sandwiched between these two are the chugging blues of Howlin' Wolf's Howlin' For My Darling and the earthy Do Better Than You're Doin'. They don't try to be Howlin' Wolf and that is a good thing as many have tried and failed. The strong guitar work here makes this a good version. They play a couple of Bo Diddley songs in Who Do You Love? And I Can Tell This. The former is classic Diddley and the band show that this type of chugging song is their forte. The latter is played in a 60s R&B style; so much so that you would not know that it is a Bo Diddley song.
Steve Brayne introduces the harmonica for the first time on Help Me and this is very much a 60s British blues song, harking back to when the band started out. This Is Hip is a well known John Lee Hooker song and it is always a risk taking on one of the great man's tunes. Their blues/rock treatment just doesn't quite work but there are not many who can give a different slant to John Lee Hooker. Play With Fire is so obviously a Rolling Stones song, even if you didn't know that the songwriting pair of Nanker and Phelge were pseudonyms for the Stones in their early days. This accomplished performance is a good version and probably the highlight of the album. They turn to Howlin' Wolf again for Commit A Crime. Again, it's very difficult to cover The Wolf but they've done well this time and this track has the best vocal on offer. Love With A Feeling is a slow Chicago blues with burgeoning bass from Mo Whitfield and shows that they can turn out a good blues when they want to - a highlight. The album closes with the classic All Along The Watchtower and they've tried to go down the Hendrix road rather than the original Dylan way. This is one of my all time favourite songs and if you haven't heard the Hendrix version first then you would be raving about this version - that is high praise, believe me.
David Blue
The Bills originally came together as the Bill Hilly Band back in 1996; they're another of those lively, vibrant and hugely entertaining outfits for which Canada's renowned, putting across their chosen brand of music with a high level of exuberant, upfront energy. Each of the five players making up the Bills (needless to say, none of them named Bill!) is a virtuoso musician in the acoustic roots field, and gets plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his talent on a variety of indigenous musical stylings from bluegrass to cajun, oldtime to Parisian café swing, gypsy and klezmer to ceilidh-dance. Too much variety? - well, that might be your verdict, but everything they tackle is done with absolute authority and authenticity. Nearly all the cuts are own-compositions by band members, and they clearly have considerable writing talent within their ranks to complement their prowess as musicians. Mandolinist Marc Atkinson and guitarist/lead vocalist Chris Frye contribute the lion's share of the compositions, with a couple of instrumentals by classically-trained fiddle/accordion/piano wiz Adrian Dolan. The Bills aren't afraid to throw in ideas from other musical disciplines along the way - Lay Down cheekily interpolates the main theme from the finale of Shostakovich's 2nd piano trio (honestly!), while the opening cut Overture is very much in the mould of those appetite-whetter pieces that you used to find on musicals and film soundtracks where they cobble together the main themes from the show to come. They also turn in a neat chamber-swing rendition of Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust, and throw you off kilter with a distinctly Tanglefoot-like acappella stomper of stirring maritime skulduggery Bamfield's John Vanden (with shades of Stan Rogers' Barrett's Privateers too, methinks!) and a fun slice of nonsense-Français Oeil Au Beurre Noir (set to a frenetic breakdance breakdown tempo), before finally cooling off with a delicate piece of solo fingerpicking (The Walk Home). Many of the tracks take you on a whirlwind journey through copious musical reference points in the course of three or four minutes: Nowhere To Be starts off pure Cajun, then veers into calypso shuffle, whereas the Cambridge Set struts out as pure Scottish-ceilidh then drives along into feisty Cape Breton reel territory. The Bills' freewheeling inventiveness and supreme confidence seems to know no bounds and respect no boundaries and, as you can hear, they sure are having loadsa fun too - as you will listening to this disc.
David Kidman
Day Is Done opens on a deceptively restrained croak before raging guitars and muscular drums kick in and haul it down to the swamp for a night on the tiles, then it's on to the Earle- shuffling, harmonica blowing Dylan's Hard Rain, the mandolin stomping Tell My Mother I Miss Her So and the burning, gospel-infused, guitar wailing Bluebird.
Snake Eyes may strip it back to a lone acoustic guitar and cracked voice and Rollin' Highway Blues conjure thoughts of Townes, but the dominant mood here is cranked up and electric, swaggering through Endless Ways, marching down the highway of the political themed Hey Hey Hurray and the hard, almost Zeppelin heavy Change Is. Not for the musically nervous, but if you like your bourbon straight from the still, then this will keep your glass flowing.
www.binghammusic.com
www.myspace.com/ryanbingham
Mike Davies August 2009
Escaping from a tough, West Texas ranchland background, Bingham grew up early. He learned guitar in a small Mexican border town and traveled the rodeo circuit riding bulls. Putting out a couple of self-released albums along the way, he eventually wound up in Austin, where he was taken in by the cowboy literati and mentored by the likes of Joe Ely and Patty Griffin.
This, his major label debut, is a powerfully haunting work of pure Texas rock and roll. Most immediate stand-out is probably 'Bread & Water', a slide-guitar driven stomp of pedal-to-the-metal boogie. Elsewhere, there's steely shuffles and tunesome laments, plangent stuff of dirt and dust writ on the hoof and sung on the fly.
"I've been fighting all night with the dogs in the alley looking for a bone to eat, starving to death," he sings on 'Ever Wonder Why', a track you suspect is somehow key. "Everybody's troubled with your hustle and your bustle, your payment on your house is late. If I ever have a problem like that, I guess I'll be in pretty good shape. You can kiss my ass goodbye!"
Wiry, whiskey'd, weathered and worn, Bingham is wise beyond his years. A coolly hatted-and-booted box of bones. Yup, tender and wearied, classic and timeless, this is a great album. Fourteen rough and bruised songs, wrung from the heart with an ache and a drawl. The 'real deal' epithet gets thrown around with abandon. Sometimes, just sometimes, it's true.
Ross Fortune September 2007
www.myspace.com/rossfortunetx
Currently being hailed as the new Steve Earle, the 25 year old Texan's certainly got the credentials. Raised on what the bio refers to as a 'hardscrabble life', shuffling between family members in the Texas and New Mexico ranching communities before taking off to become a bull rider on the Southwestern rodeo circuit, touting a guitar, a bottle and a rough and ready heart.
All this is there in his gravel throated voice and the dirt honest music with songs steeped in tradition friendly images of cowboys, border towns, trains, guns, whiskey and women. Produced by former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford, there's a definite rocking edge to things like the slide twanging stomper Bread and Water, the gutsy swamp soaked clatter of Sunshine and a bluesy drawling Take It Easy Mama that surely borrows a phrase or two from Sweet Home Alabama.
The Earle comparisons are well signposted on the harmonica blowing Southside of Heaven, Ghost of Travellin' Jones (which features Terry Allen), and the blue collar foot stomper Dollar A Day, but listen to Long Way From Georgia and Don't Wait For Me and you'll also hear shades of The Band while the spare Spanish guitar cantina blues Boracho Station, sung in Spanish and English, suggests Joe Ely.
His vocal style and musical approach, suggest he's going to find it hard to establish his own name rather than live life as a reflection of reference points, but he's certainly got the songs to tip the struggle in his favour.
Mike Davies January 2008
The first impressions of Ryan Bingham's Dead Horses are good and formed instantly.If Big Country Sky had appeared on a Townes Van Zandt album it would not have raised an eyebrow. It fits in perfectly with the flawed genius's gift of giving voice to heartache. If any man epitomises the line in the song 'certified member of the lost band found' it was Van Zandt.
In fact, the comparison between the two goes even deeper. Bingham from New Mexico, would fit perfectly into that golden Texas circle completed by Steve Earle and Guy Clark. But Bingham is undoubtedly his own man, not quite as irascible as Earle (then who is), not quite as 'doomed' as Townes and not quite as 'gnarled' and careworn as Clark, Dead Horses nevertheless is a gritty and earthy as all three.
That quality is in no little part down to the album's naturalness, it is unpolished country rock at its very best. All the tracks are plated pretty much as they must have been written. There's a real feeling that no-one other than Bingham has had much influence over the songs. It all gives Dead Horses a timeless quality, you can't simply label Ryan Bingham as a young artist, Ghost of Travelling Jones would fit seamlessly into any era.
In the best possible sense Ryan Bingham is a glorious throwback to an age when the songs were hacked from the heart of musicians who used their gift to exorcise demons as much as entertain.
Michael Mee February 2007
[Editor's pick of the month. Album only available from Lone Star Music]
David Kidman December 2007
Andrew Bird - Weather Systems (Fargo)
Mike Davies
From his days in The Butterfield Blues Band until today, Elvin Bishop has been regarded in the highest echelons of blues guitarists. His new album, The Blues Rolls On, has some of biggest names in blues lending a hand. Songs such as the pulsating eponymous title track have Kim Wilson's wonderful harmonica and BB King donates his trademark licks (and a little insight) to Keep A Dollar In Your Pocket. There are blues, Cajun, boogie and funk on this and Bishop shows that his slide guitar playing has lost none of its sparkle. A welcome return from an old master.
www.myspace.com/elvinbishopmusic
David Blue January 2009
Although it's been a while since their first CD release Upstream, the Bismarcks haven't sunk without trace, they've been busy with bookings and of course melodeon player Ed Rennie released a solo CD last year too. But here we have Joanna, which I'm pleased to report is like Upstream exactly what it says on the tin, "traditional dance music from England". As a ceilidh band, the Bismarcks achieve more in getting folks dancing - and keeping them out on the floor - than many a larger ensemble, for this three-piece is tight-knit and precise with an enviably economical use of rhythm. All three members are themselves dancers, a factor which counts immeasurably in this scene where fitting the right dance to the right tune is always a priority; you can tell from the enterprising mix of tunes paraded forth on this CD that their tune selection process has been painstaking and meticulous (no jaded trotting-out of the old favourites to pad out the sets here, and when Speed The Plough arrives to round off the set of hornpipes at track 3, it actually for once feels absolutely right !). And once you've got used to the sound of the Bismarcks, you'll find it a joy to listen to this CD - which is not something you can honestly say for many ceilidh band records… At first play you may find their sound a mite underwhelming, but that's their economy of expression, which allied to their great sense of internal balance and musical synergy results in a sound that emerges greater than the obvious sum of its parts. There's a crispness and bouncy energy to their playing that's utterly infectious; I bet you can't get through the inventively "Bismarcked" Tarantella/Quebec set (track 4) or the jolly hornpipe-set (track 11) (for example) without feeling the urge to step out onto the floor! An essential feature of the Bismarcks' sound is Gareth's excellent piano playing, which strikes a near-ideal medium between propelling the dances forward and allowing the melody line to step through to the forefront while sympathetically accompanying it. In addition, his instrument seems marginally less dominant in the mix than it was on Upstream and much the better for it. That's not to say I don't appreciate Ed and Nina (melodeon and fiddle respectively) for their sparkling contributions, for they work so well together as a small unit rather than incessantly stepping out of line to massage their own egos. I was interested - and mildly surprised - to learn that the tune-sets on this CD have not actually yet been "road-tested" by the band at dances, yet this unusual fact doesn't seem to have made the performances any more clinical for all their technical proficiency and rehearsed polish. As for the choice of material, it's as wide-ranging as before, with no stones left unturned in the band's search for appropriate tunes. My only reservation concerns (the arrangement rather than the source of) the Australian Mudgee Schottische, which loses momentum when it pares down the texture and fades out. Then finally, when the dance is over, the CD ends with a curio, a pub-session bonus track, which features vocals-only by the band and assembled multitude.
David Kidman
The Bittersweets are a (now Nashville-based) alt. folk-pop-country trio who would like to think live up to their name. Their lazy, dusk-tinged and gently lush music doesn't quite measure up to that tag, although the lyrics to the songs themselves (largely the work of the band's guitarist/keyboardist Chris Meyers) do possess a certain bittersweet double-edge dichotomy in the way they approach and reflect their chosen subject matter (life's paradoxes). The main catch is that the vocal skills of Hannah Prater, which provide the most prominent musical signature of the Bittersweets' sound, are arguably too sumptuous to convey that necessary degree of double-edge, especially when, as here, her voice is combined with a sunny, genially pop-friendly yet tightly crafted band sound which on the other hand sometimes suffers from an over-reliance on ancillary grandiose keyboard gestures. Only very occasionally does a deeper import manage to surface through the gentler twang and pedal-steel ambience (nice production by Lex Price by the way), which, in complementing Hannah's singing, stays just this side of sensuous for most of the time: My Sweet Love and When The War Is Over (and the early stages of the ensuing hidden track) prove more persuasive, but the quality of sheer aching is best conveyed in Tidal Waves, a melancholy epic that's an exception to the rule in that it comes from the pen of Hannah herself. But elsewhere too many of the songs don't really stick in the memory although they make for a pleasant enough diversion while the disc's in the player.
David Kidman June 2009
Steven Thompson, aka Blabbermouth, is a singer-songwriter - but as you can instantly hear, he's somewhat of a refreshing change from the "man with guitar" stereotype (or should I say monotype?!) in that for much of the time he plays banjo! (and why not?) Steven has been writing and performing his unique brand of acoustica for ten years: initially in the bands Herman and Apart From The Soul, but for the past five years as a solo artist. Curiously enough however (and especially so in view of the instant success he appears to have gained whenever he plays live), he's not to my knowledge released a solo CD before now - although this first "proper" CD apparently draws the material for its dozen tracks from what the press release tantalisingly refers to as "his bumper 38-track double album of home recordings". The signature Blabbermouth songwriting style can be characterised as having a distinct preoccupation with mortality, but in no way do his songs make for depressing listening. The press release depicts a "sophisticated, amusing and poignant anti-folk style reminiscent of artists like Kevin Coyne and Morrissey", and I can certainly hear a kinship with the former in particular on several of the songs, especially in the deadpan humorous slant with which he examines his personal plight and his own conduct. There's also a healthy concern with everyday observations, albeit sometimes taken from a decidedly surreal viewpoint; the skewed romanticism of the opener Something I Need - a very attractive little pop-folk confection with a tangy centre - and the ostensibly jaunty Domestic Bliss are cases in point, whereas the poignancy of Lights On The Bridge is brought home by its gently mournful setting. Generally, a quality of understated eeriness in the instrumental accompaniments is very effective, especially so on the blood-curdling climate of Coldness Of My Soul (a standout track), although one slight irritant is a tendency to "noisy action" (audibly scraping/squeaking between notes when playing guitar) on some of the quieter songs, and elsewhere just occasionally an over-egged keyboard part produces an artificial quality, a queasy sickliness, that spoils the impact of the song a tad. Having said that, the intelligent fuller arrangements often work well, for instance on Chase My Dancing Heart (cast in the mould of a classic Leo Sayer/Rufus Wainwright pop song), which may well suit a bid-for-chartdom! (Do we assume, by the way, that Steven plays all the instruments himself? for there's no credits on the box apart from "produced and recorded with Ian Shaw", which could mean anything.) The plaintive Amnesia is another satisfying Blabbermouth creation, as much for the power of the imagery as for its relative musical starkness, whereas the carefree laconicism of Four Foot Death (complete with some f*** words that explain the "parental advisory explicit content" label on the disc's cover) kicks off a "mortality" sequence that's really quite delightful. As is the album on the whole - which is why it's rather a pity that the presentation lets it down somewhat, the accessible, attractive and well-crafted quality of Steven's songs being undermined by several annoying typos in the lyrics printed in the booklet, and the refusal to acknowledge the existence of the cute little bonus track.
www.myspace.com/therealblabbermouth
David Kidman February 2008
Black - Between Two Churches (Nero Schwarz)
It's been over ten years since Colin Vearncombe released anything under his former nom de musique, but because he says "the ambiguity gives me valuable freedom as a singer-songwriter", he's now reverted to name that saw him enjoy his biggest success.
After several years of paring everything down to basics, he's also returned to the fuller band sound of yore and, while artistic rather than commercial considerations were undoubtedly uppermost, the album also includes his most radio friendly recordings of the past six years. The album opens with one such. Come Out of the Rain is a full blooded ringing guitar slice of insurgent romantic pop with tumbling verses and a big chorus. After years of living with Scott Walker comparisons, thoughts here turn more to Ian McNabb and the glorious majesty of the Icicle Works. Signal Black Spot (though the lyrics actually have its a 'single') is another, though also veined with hints of Bowie.
Not for the first time he makes reference back to his biggest hit with the irony tinged Are You Having A Wonderful Life while on Signal Black Spot he sings "my best days may be gone but I'd exchange for none, not with the fire that's in me now". There's certainly heat in these songs, and if the others don't have the same strident pop sensibility they still burn with an intense power.
Three tracks were previously released on an earlier EP. The smouldering sexually themed semi autobiographic bluesy rock title number with its rumbling guitar midsection, a romantic yearning Blue Nile-like acoustic In A Heartbeat with its brushed percussion and chorus reference to the Delfonics La La Means I Love You, and the slap rhythm voodoo swampy Cold Chicken Skin (one of two numbers co-penned with William Topley) that, for old codger ears, will doubtless summon the ghost of John Congos.
Listening to the throaty blues and guitar work on the rock n roll rooted Teenage Wall, it's hard too not to strike comparisons with Richard Thompson, an influence that surely also finds its way into Same Mistake Twice (the other Topley collaboration) and the edgy electric folk-blues If You're All Done Dying.
It's not all muscle flexing. The end of relationship doomed romanticism of Her Coat and No Knickers is an acoustic guitar and piano slow waltzer round the barroom while the album closes on its finest track, the reflective History of Rock 'n' Roll Part I, another lyric pivoted around choices to be made in a tale of rock n roll burn out, love lost, songs torn out of hurting and the bitterness of finding fame. In another life it could have been produced by Phil Spector for the Righteous Brothers. In this one it's an emotionally stirring climax to the rebirth of the man in Black.
Mike Davies
Only just over a year ago, Winchester-based Darren really impressed me with his debut album Silent Poetry, and he's been swift in producing a followup. Thinkers And Fools, which was written largely while travelling around Europe during 2007, is a collection of songs documenting a range of emotions as well as historical and social/environmental issues. Effectively, it continues where Silent Poetry left off, forming a second instalment of purposeful, passionate songwriting. Darren has a real flair for the keen economic expression of incisive contemporary commentary through lyrical, sometimes quasi-traditional-feeling musical settings. On songs like Decisions, World Without Cars and Mind Out Of Gear, Darren keeps idealistic thoughts in due perspective by tempering them with realism; Icarus To The Sun and Where The Waters Rise both espouse a telling optimism; whereas Old Mother Nature, Selling Honey To The Bees and Money examine the impact of unethical practices on our environment. Throughout Thinkers And Fools, Darren's poignant and entirely relevant musings are, ideally, presented within bold, attractively rich fiddle-based or string-assisted textures expertly arranged by Joe Broughton and featuring contributions from Joe along with Messrs. Dempsey and Swarbrick (at whose studio this, like the previous album, was recorded), Helen Lancaster (viola) and Emma Capp (cello). In Thinkers And Fools, Darren has given us a persuasive and thought-provoking set of new songs that will stand the test of time.
David Kidman October 2008
The Black Family - Our Time Together (Dara)
This stylistic ragbag of an album collects together a baker's dozen of recent performances by the members of the illustrious Black family (Shay, Michael, Mary, Martin and Frances), all dedicated to the memory of their mother Patty (herself a fine singer), who'd died in late 2003. At times, as on the opening "stage-Oirish" of McGilligan's Daughter and the Dubliners-era standard Zoological Gardens, there's an infectious sense of distinctly homespun music-making, a joyful delight in joining in with each other's songs and choruses. At others, notably when the pace slackens, slightly higher (more consciously glossier) production values seem to prevail, as on Frances's lovely rendition of Cathie Ryan's Rathlin Island. Generally speaking, instrumental backings are kept simple – guitar or piano, occasional accordion or fiddle, whistle or keyboard (mostly courtesy of producer Phil Cunningham). This gambit accentuates the tenderness of the tribute the family members are making on this release. Each of the Blacks take a turn to lead a song – which is the best possible solution, for it reminds us just how characterful and individual each one is as a singer. Shay's acapella rendition of The State Of Alabama is a definite highlight for me, while in a less lusty vein I also enjoyed Fare Thee Well A Stór (incorporating Tom Anderson's lovely tune Da Slockit Light) and Mary's take on Dick Gaughan's Sail On. Elsewhere, the collective poignancy of Kieran Goss's All That You Ask Me and Alan Bell's So Here's To You both sure hit home, as does the closing track, where Patty joins the rest of the singers on A Bird In A Gilded Cage – never one of my favourite songs by any means, but it provides a genuinely touching note on which to end the CD.
David Kidman
A solo album from the Pixies' front-man Frank Black, here reverting to his "alter-ego of yesteryear": it's an album whose 11 songs grew out of a studio session for a single track (originally destined as a bonus cut for a compilation) whereupon Frank was imbued by the spirit of the eccentric Dutch painter/musician Herman Brood (remember his band Herman Brood & The Wild Romance at the tail-end of the 70s?), who committed suicide by throwing himself off an Amsterdam hotel roof in 2001. As well as covering Brood's own song You Can't Break A Heart And Have It, in typically edgy punk fashion, the album contains ten new Frank Black originals, which typify his free-ranging compositional style and veer from the Pixies-like Threshold Appreciation to the poppier She Took All The Money and the thrusting charging Captain Hasty, the darkly, enigmatically erotic Tight Black Rubber and Your Mouth Into Mine to the disc's standout track, the desperately beautiful Angels Come To Comfort You; perhaps the weakest track is the bland Discotheque 36. Frank has the benefit of a small backing group comprising Dan Schmid, Jason Carter and Mark Lemhouse, with Violet Clark contributing haunting vocal lines to a couple of the tracks. The whole project embodies the spirit of Brood himself, the "Dutch personification of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll", yet inextricably laced with Frank's own persona, and is an album worth owning for its - em, frankness of portrayal and its many insights as well as the accuracy of its musical vision.
David Kidman November 2007
An iconic veteran of the Irish folk music scene who once had an album spend over a year in the Irish Top 30, Black made her eponymous album debut back in 1983, juggling work as part of De Dannan between 1984-1986 before concentrating on a solo career that has since spawned 13 studio albums as well as one live and several best of compilations.
So pure of voice, she was used as a benchmark for testing the quality if hi fi, Black's output has never slipped below the excellent, whether she's been singing straightforward folk or the more country and jazz inflected material of her later years.
Released to celebrate her 25th anniversary in the business, this latest collection features 25 songs representing the span of her career, from the debut's Rose Of Allendale and Anachie Gordon to Your Love off Full Tide as well as her duet with Emmylou on Sonny from the Best of 1991-2001 and the seminal Only A Woman's Heart with Eleanor McEvoy that formed part of 1995's The Collection.
It's pointless enumerating everything that's here and if you're a Black devotee you'll likely have all the represented albums anyway. But there are little extras to tempt. Song For Ireland, for example, is actually not the version featured on 1988's Collected but an alternative take from the same year with fiddle, viola and synth added this February, while Katie from By The Time It Gets Dark appears here as a remix as, off the same album, do Once In A Very Blue Moon and the title track itself.
There's also two brand new recordings, one on each of the two CDs, from this February, the self-penned torchy piano ballad Sweet Love and a haunting emotionally resigned simple voice and piano reading of Tom Waits' If I Have To Go.
Inevitably there'll be much argument over favourites that weren't chosen (mine would include The Moon And St Christopher) but, often favouring less well known numbers and largely avoiding duplication from the 91-01 compilation, there can be no complaints. Other than it's high time she released a proper new album.
Mike Davies September 2008
Mm, this is good. Michael's a member of the illustrious Black Family group: brother to Mary, Frances, Shay and Martin, but a very fine singer in his own right, as this solo album proves beyond all expectations. The fact that it also features supporting performances from his siblings and a small handful of other brilliant musicians (including its producer John Doyle) is icing on the cake. Why is this CD so special? Well, it's a superb collection of songs for a start, chosen not to satisfy a marketing man's artificial targets but purely because Michael likes them and they perfectly suit his voice and temperament. He draws his repertoire from many and varied roots sources: Irish and Appalachian traditions, contemporary folk songwriting, English revue, comic music-hall, and even a sea-shanty. One particular glory of the disc is the strong sense of unity given to this ostensibly disparate selection of material by Michael's voice and his keen interpretive approach. Even when he's drawing on Irish tradition, he doesn't choose the hackneyed songs either - indeed, there's only one of them I've ever heard before, and that in a completely different setting. The Willow Tree gets one of the most enchanting treatments on the entire disc, with a ravishing backing vocal from Mary, guitar by John Doyle and flute by Seamus Egan. Mo Mhadú Bheag, again featuring John Doyle (on Carthyesque guitar), is most sensitively done, and forms a contrast in mood with Michael's brilliantly turned (and unaccompanied) account of Pat Molloy (which he got from the singing of Donal Maguire). Michael's masterly use of the air An Fhaillaingin Mhuimhneach for Shay Healy's address to the rascally Tarry Flynn provides another of the disc's highlights for me, with Liz Carroll's fiddle and Michael's own banjo in delectable counterpoint to the puckish vocal line, and he brings us a very slightly understated, yet still thoroughly believable take on John Richards' classic Deserter (with Frances on backing vocals this time). The shanty, Billy O'Shea, works unusually well for having a sparkling instrumental accompaniment (Dirk Powell on fiddle and banjo, John Doyle on guitar), while midway through the album is a spirited set of jigs, on which Michael gets to pick up the banjo again. My only slight misgiving is that perhaps the use of a piano on a couple of the songs towards the close of the set (albeit beautifully played by Dirk Powell) doesn't quite work for me, as I find its timbre tends to blur the precision of the emotional impact that Michael achieves elsewhere. Unlike some Irish singers, who specialise either in heartfelt ballads or dextrous lilting, Michael is a master of both ends of that spectrum. On the uptempo and lighter songs, Michael's abundantly lively delivery demonstrates a breathtaking and finely-tuned control of pace and line and word patterns. This CD is a delicious, and much repeatable, listening experience; why it hasn't been more widely feted is a real mystery.
David Kidman February 2009
Now, if all tribute bands ended up like Blackie And The Rodeo Kings it might be worth trawling through endless regurgitations of Radio Ga Ga and Where The Streets Have No Name.
Sadly, reality is a little different and in truth when Colin Linden (the blues guy), Stephen Fearing (the folk guy) and Tom Wilson (mr. longhair, crazy junkhouse guy) joined forces to record a tribute to Willie P Bennett, they were already respected musicians and the project was a one-off. However, a decade later, the band is ready to introduce itself to the UK with this 'Best Of'.
With a folk/blues/crazy junkhouse combination it's little wonder that Swinging From The Chains Of Love is full of the kind of music that sets your spirit free. The first thing to go is any notion that BATRK is simply a country band of some indeterminate shade, despite what the name may suggest. Any band that covers Folsom Prison Blues is either courageous or daft but then to do to it what this band has done has to be heard to be believed. All I can say is that the song is indelibly stamped in my memory, you'll have to dig deep to find a trace of the original..
In common with most 'Best Ofs', Swinging From The Chains Of Love doesn't quite gel as an album. It's not particularly a bad thing but the accomplished and slightly smooth I Catch You Crying is from a different album and time than the swampy rock of Water Or Gasoline and it's fairly clear.
However, if the band's hopes for Swinging From The Chains Of Love was to introduce a band full of passion and energy then it's job done.
www.myspace.com/blackieandtherodeokings
Michael Mee March 2009
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings (otherwise known as BARK) is a side project of three established Canadian musicians: Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson. Each of them bring their songwriting, singing and guitar playing to the party, and with the backing of Gary Craig, John Dymond and Richard Bell, there's a large sound being made here. 'Let's Frolic Again' is the second release from mammoth recording sessions back in 2006, following the earlier appearance of 'Let's Frolic', an album that garnered the band many plaudits.
Now, despite what you may be thinking from the band name, this ain't no cowboy music. Blackie's first musical hero is - was - Willie P Bennett, a Canadian folk songwriter who, sadly, died just a couple of weeks ago. Two of his songs are included among the fourteen tracks here. A better known reference point, though, would be The Band. It's not just the contributions of Garth Hudson that evoke the memories; at least a handful of these songs sound like they could have been played by the original purveyors of Americana, an impression helped along by Richard Bell on organ and accordion, and occasional vocal echoes of Levon Helm.
Mostly, they're a band that are all about having fun, the big sounds and guitar hooks inviting you to get down the front and party. Occasionally, they slow down and sing a slow dance number. With just a hint of Old Mexico in the arrangement, 'There's No-one Like You After All' is a song that could have been written by Willie Nelson, it's such a perfectly neat expression of one of those suddenly sincere moments when you deeply appreciate the presence of your nearest and dearest.
I have to say, though, that I have a nagging feeling that 'Let's Frolic Again' doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts. There is no killer punch to knock you in the solar plexus and say 'THIS is what we're all about'. There are hooks, there is great playing and singing, but I've not found it really getting under my skin. I think there's a few things that aren't quite right: the vocals are frequently a bit muddy in the mix at moments when they need to be right up front; the impact of the hooks is sometimes lost as the band start wandering off at a tangent; there is definitely a bit too much padding. The closing track is over five minutes of the band doodling around with 'Red Red Robin'; they're clearly having fun but I'm most definitely not, much as it might make me grin like an ape at the end of a gig. This album's been growing on me slowly, but so slowly it feels like I'm having to work a bit hard at it. Close, then, but no cigars.
www.myspace.com/blackieandtherodeokings
John Davy March 2008
When not busy pursuing singer-songwriter careers (some 25 albums between them) as folkie, bluesman and guitar-rocker, Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden and Tom Wilson can be found hanging out in their incarnation as arguably Canada's finest roots rock outfit. Their fourth joint album in ten years, this pulls together their combined strengths for a stylistically varied but cohesive collection of Americana.
Produced by Linden, who's also responsible for some very tasty slide guitar licks, it was recorded at Bearsville, legendary former home to the Band from whom Garth Hudson dropped by to add his own chops along with contributions from Daniel Lanois (who both plays pedal steel on the mournful folk-blues Crown of Thorns and wrote House of Soul) and, adding 'heavenly harmonies' to The Fool Who Can't Forget, Pam Tillis.
There's something for everyone here; Life Is Golden and the title track's swaggering slide blues, a Memphis soul I Give It Up Everyday with Wayne Jackson on trumpet, the George Harrison-esque country pop Silver Dreams, October Lies with its evocation of Richard Manuel, Stones boogie Buried In Your Heart, and the strutting rock n roll that is That's What I Like.
Considerably more than the sum of their individual parts, this is seasoned, grown up, lived in salt of the musical earth (North) Americana, that warrants a spin on your nearest convenient highway. And if you find you've scoured the sleeve credits in vain to find out which track Hudson played on, no you're not going blind. The gang put down some 29 tracks at the recording session; this is the first batch, the rest (featuring the Band man's contribution) will surface this Spring on a sequel titled, imaginatively enough, Let's Frolic Again.
www.rodeokings.com
www.myspace.com/blackieandtherodeokings
Mike Davies February 2007
Hmm; Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. The name throws up images of outfits like Wylie and The Wild West Show, quality in their own way but ultimately faux western country designed to conjure up nostalgia in folks who were never there. It's an image and a suspicion that the western shirted, bestubbled urban cowboys strolling on the cover do little to challenge. Indeed an inner pick showcasing Nudie style band jackets positively encourages caution.
Dropping the mythical needle into the mythical groove and opener Swinging From The Chains Of Love confirms that what we have in B&TRKs (deduce an album title here?) is a superior country rock outfit. But wait there's a fine guitar buring underneath that owes more to Sonny Landreth than Chet and when the solo rises in the mix you decide that listening to the whole album is gonna be less of a chore than you might have imagined.
Now, I have to confess that that whole opening scenario is for folks coming to Blackie's band cold. The cognoscenti will have deduced that the band is actually Canadian eminences Stephen Fearing, a man with a string of fine solo discs in his wake; Colin Linden, a like wise prolific and inspiring solo (and a regular catalyst on the Canadian roots scene) and Tom Wilson, the only one unknown to me but clearly a man to have in your writing corner if his contributions here are representative.
OK. let's move on: If I Catch You Cryin' is what you hope a Wilburys / Straits single might sound like in a parallel universe; Water Or Gasoline is a muscular with great electric dobro from Linden - it's a cut that Raitt / Feat fans will relish. Stoned is the first truly great track and the one that'll give this set shelf space rather than an iPod precis. It's swampy in a Cale / Tony Joe way with a chorus that could be best Tom Petty. Other highlights include the Lanois / Buddy Miller spirited Born To Be A Traveller; their great rampage through Bruce Cockburn's Tie Me At The Crossroads and the closer, House Of Sin with its great guitar and malevolent undertone.
Now I know that this piece is comparison rich and you might be tempted to dismiss it a derivative. Don't. It's clearly the product of it's heritage as wine owes much to grapes. It won't turn your life around but it will become a regular spirit lifter.
Steve Morris
No apologies for reviewing a 1999 album that never saw the light of day in the UK, but may soon. The double CD, 23 tracks in all, brings togther three stalwart canadians, Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson. Our three protagonists share a common love for the songs of Willie P. Bennett, so much so in fact that they made an album of his songs in 1996. However Kings of Love is a broader canvas featuring not only songs by the band members, it also includes co-writes and songs by Bruce Cockburn, Jules Shear, Murray McLaughlan, John Martyn, Fred Eaglesmith, Janice Power and Bennett himself. Let's face it, 23 songs is a long haul but having three 'frontmen' the album offers variety as well as quality.
So we'll have a look at some of the, to me, outstanding moments to try and illustrate how good these guys are when they're together. Opening with Fred Eaglesmith's 49 Tons just made me want to go out and buy his Drive In Movie album. Powered by acoustic guitars and decorated with Dobro, Leslie and mandolin the track feels as if 49 tons of diesel is coming at you through the speakers. Jules Shear's Tombstone may have been rejected by the Band (they did demo it) but here, with Linden on vocal and the Band's Richard Bell on keys, it sounds the part. A Fearing/Wilson co-write Nickles & Dimes is a real highlight with its aching sense of hope being underpinned by a sense of doom. The band get down to more of a Nashville sound for the Wilson/Gary Scruggs song Boots of Leather, with some graceful pedal steel work from John Drymond. Dick Dale meets Hank Marvin on Bennett's instrumental Summer Dreams Winter Sleep and the first CD winda up with Linden's Queen With A Broken Crown, again sounding like his heroes the Band. A bonus is Bruce Cockburn turning up for a solo.
Bennett's Red Dress opens CD2 sounding like Van the Man singing a Band song. Janice Power's blues-drenched Vale of Tears abounds with foreboding atmosphere. Featured on the Band's Jericho album, the Linden/Weider (guitarist with the Band) Remedy gives any other version a good run for its money. Some scintillating Wurlitzer electric piano from Richard Bell. Willie Bennett's guitar instrumental Andrew's Waltz is a sublime Linden moment or two. There you are, you've read enough about the tracks that do something for me. Of course there's always more, outstanding musicianship, beautiful harmonies, the hugely talented Linden's production, three distinctive lead singers and a great choice of material. Remind you of anybody?
cj holley
Blackmore's Night - Fires At Midnight (SPV Records)
Richie Blackmore, star plank-spanker of Deep Purple and Rainbow fame, has long been a fan of Jethro Tull's mix of folk and rock. Here, with his wife Candice Night (a former Purple/Rainbow backing singer), and a strong band, he gives his own take on the music pioneered by Tull in their Minstrel In The Gallery period, with added Renaissance touches.
It's an intriguing combination that has already produced two other albums. Blackmore is a talented guitarist - no question. Here he also contributes hurdy-gurdy and mandolin. Candice Night has a sweet and clear voice and plays electric bagpipes (!), harp, penny whistle, recorder, and the shawm, a renaissance reed instrument. They write interesting, imaginative songs, and use a wide variety of influences from the folk and "world music" spheres, as well as prog rock. Fans of Tull should like it - but maybe not love it.
Candice Night's voice is a dead-ringer for Mary Hopkin or Nancy Sinatra - almost too smooth and clean to be true. Rarely does she manage to get much emotion into her singing, so it's technically good and pretty but also pretty soulless, uninvolving and restricted in range. Couple that to the album's production style (another of Blackmore's responsibilities), which is glossy and over-polished, full of overdubs and reverb, and there are no rough edges to catch the listener's ear. It slips by in a not unpleasant fashion, but never quite manages to get a grip on the imagination.
Blackmore's guitars are often remote and processed; playing over layers of synthesizer strings, or double speed and ethereal. Again, it's technically impressive but doesn't reach off the record and grab the listener. The record doesn't start well. The opening track, Written In The Stars, sounds like an out-take from Europe's pomp-rock Final Countdown album, while track two is the worst-ever-cover of Dylan's The Times They Are A'Changing, which manages to make this angry and rather vicious song sound like something The Tweenies would jig around to. It's just horrible. However, things perk up considerably from the third song, I Still Remember, which is more honest and straight-forward. Here's the first example on this album of the clever interplay between Richie's wailing but unfussy electric playing and Candice's sugared voice. Home Again, a rock take on a Russian folk song that's ticklishly familiar (some have suggested it's the St Trinian's theme!), develops into a great singalong, full of what sound like balalaikas, recorders and accordions (but could well be hurdy-gurdy and shawm), and massed voices from a clapping, stomping rabble, presumably high on borsch and vodka! This is so reminiscent of Those Were The Days My Friends that that song would seem a natural for the band's next album. Crowning Of The King is full-on medieval pomp, full of brass and drummers a'drumming. Benzai-Ten is Japanese in flavour. All Because Of You is a pop song, while Waiting Just For You uses Jeremiah Clarke's Trumpet Voluntary as the tune. Surprisingly, the title track is not a cover of the Jethro Tull song of the same name but an atmospheric and haunting rocker about the Halloween bonfire tradition. Village On The Sand uses a flute, further suggesting Tullian influences.
Ian Anderson did guest on Blackmore's Night's first album, and this track is reminiscent of the kind of thing Anderson was writing 20 years ago on Broadsword And The Beast.
The best track on the album, however, is the aptly named Storm, which starts as an intricate zephyr of an acoustic guitar solo and brews itself into a howling gale with fiddle, drums and bass driving the song along. If Ian Gillan or Ronnie James Dio were at the microphone, giving it plenty of grunt and vibrato, this would be full-on medieval metal - especially if Richie switched from acoustic to electric guitar - but Candice Night naturally gives it a gentler, more feminine aspect that's fresh and less cliched, if also less powerful and gutsy.
Over all, there are many good things on this album, but Blackmore's Night have yet to find the perfect balance. It still sounds experimental and quirky, rather than natural. Candice's voice isn't strong enough to carry a whole album, but would work wonderfully in tandem with a male singer. There's a great deal of promise here but only when they start performing from the heart rather than the head will those promises be kept.
Phil Widdows
Black River Bluesman - Ants In My Kitchen (Gecko Yell Records)
This is the second album of alt.blues by Black River Bluesman and The Cockroach Combo and represents a certain musical maturity in these Finnish scamps. The album opens with Ain't No Good, an almost conventional start, by BRB's standard, but the edge is provided by Jukka Juhola's menacing growl of a vocal. The harmonica led title track follows and sees the band go hell for leather. This growling punky R&B sums up BRB'S attitude and their version of how the blues sound today. Day After Day however, is how the blues may have sounded the first time anyone played them - stripped bare to just voice and guitar. The 60s R&B influenced Jump And Run is a strange one and has Juhola twisting his voice to unbelievable levels. They can be conventional and the chugging Out In The Woods is a case in point and it leads into A Stone In My Shoe which is an amalgam of 60s R&B, 70s punk and contemporary blues. This is grungy in the extreme and Juhola's manic vocal tops the whole thing off.
I Got The Message is a chugging, earthy blues delivered in a menacing way – this is the blues of old. Next up is the Motorhead meets country blues of The Long Red Dirt Road – I'm speechless!! They continue to be on the edge with By The End Of The Day with its traces of British R&B and the 60s R&B feel carries on with Miss Captain Belle. The strangely titled Tiger Leaping Gorge has a live feel, even down to the small errors and the final track, Cranberry Railroad is about as straightforward a blues as BRB gets (apart from the Finnish lyrics) and could be classed as uninspiring compared to the rest of the album. However, that is not the case and it is just another example of how Jukka Juhola has matured as a songwriter.
David Blue
One for those who don't think The Tindersticks or Nick Cave are sufficiently bleak and mournful, the Black Swans hail from Ohio and are essentially a vehicle for baritone singer-songriter Jerry DeCicca, a man clearly steeped deep in the darker worlds of American gothic country and British folk.
His frames his haunted dirges of solitude and guilt with spare guitar, drums, bass and violin, often evocative of the early minimalist work of Roxy Music and the lugubrious Ferry on albums such as Siren and surprisingly more textured than their simple structures initially appear. Indeed, the slow swaying The Raft is a thing of true hushed beauty with Noel Sayre's violin lullaby drifting you often into dreams. Probably not an album you'd want to sit through in its entirety at one sitting if you're feeling in any way depressed, but taken in small doses the sombre, dolorous tones of songs like Days Are Long, Hours Never End, Rocks In My Shoes and the gorgeous backwoods waltzing Bring You Down prove unexpectedly inspiring and comforting.
Mike Davies, February 2006
The second album from these inexplicably undersung Celtic music specialists-par-excellence surpasses even their accomplished, well-received 2003 debut Far From Home. With an infectious musicality that's born out of many years' combined active service to the music business in various roles, the five members of Blackthorn together conjure a constantly bright, fresh and scintillating sound, one that's uniformly confident in all departments. Led by strong flute and whistle work (courtesy of Philippe Barnes and Sarah Mooney respectively) and bolstered by assured guitar and bouzouki rhythms, the breezy front-line textures are also inventively contrasted with fiddle (Alex Percy), concertina (Mannie McClelland) and occasional banjo and mandolin from bouzoukist and co-founder Fergus McClelland, with some nicely syncopated jazzy bass adventures to knit it all together in a thoroughly credible ensemble sound. In fact, all of the band members are multi-skilled as instrumentalists (no fewer than three of the five play guitar). As regards material, the band's stock-in-trade comprises tunes from all over Britain, with a natural (and perfectly reasonable) slight emphasis on Irish, along with the occasional self-penned item; all are intelligently realised and played, both with a real flair for clarity and variety of internal texture and a lively yet unassuming approach to maintaining momentum throughout a set. In addition to the tune-sets, Fergus also turns in honest and upfront performances of three songs from the tradition, including the infrequently-heard The Neat Little Bunch Of Rushes; Sarah joins him later, on Banks Of The Sweet Primroses. Present-day bands playing Celtic repertoire don't come much better than this, and their musicality has an even greater impact for its not thrusting its expertise in your face.
David Kidman October 2008
UK born but raised on an Indian reservation in Florida before decamping to California, Blake spent much of her twenties touring America, gigging and selling Native American jewellery. Now based in London where she runs the country lifestyle store Jessie Western, this is her second album and a firm reminder that she's kept Americana in her musical heart and voice.
Slightly twangy mainstream for my persaonal tastes perhaps, but you can hear her Southern influences (Skynyrd as much as Lucinda or Harris) ringing clear and, as things like You Go Your Way and Don't Try This At Home show, she's got a powerful set of lungs while You're A New Sky and Sleepy Eye Hill iluustrate the softer, more Dolly aspect of her voice. Not one for those who want their Americana dust coated and soaked in cactus juice, but there's plenty here to please anyone with a cowboy hat in the closet
www.jessiewestern.com
www.myspace.com/puffafishrecords
Mike Davies January 2007
The first career spanning anthology by the best old school American rock n roll band to have slapped a bass since the golden era of the 50s. Formed in LA by brothers Phil and Dave Alvin, John Bazz and Bill Bateman during the punk explosion of the late 70s, they pretty much single-handedly paved the way for a rockabilly revival as well as later laying the ground for the American roots-rock renaissance. Blues, doo wop, Chicano r&b, soul, country and rock n roll went into the melting pot that fed their recordings and sizzling live shows, producing the three albums, live EP and assorted rarities collected here.
Kicking off with Marie Marie (a UK hit of course for Shakin' Stevens), you get 52 stomping goodtime cuts that along with other such Blasters classics as American Music, Border Radio and I'm Shakin' also features two numbers (One Bad Stud, Blue Shadows) from the Streets of Fire soundtrack, the cassette only What Will Lucy Do?, out-takes that have only otherwise appeared on the 1991 compilation, and 8 previously unissued tracks of out-takes and a live 1985 cover of Jimmy Reed's Take Out Some Insurance that's the only extant recording of the two Alvins playing together on their own. And with all this they still find space for a bonus hidden track, a brief slow boogie-woogie piano Little Phil.
Served up with comprehensive new notes by Rolling Stone's Don Snowden, this is a long overdue recognition of the band's influential place in the history of contemporary classic American roots. Now, if someone could pull together a definitive Dave Alvin solo set too.
hello.apo.nmsu.edu/~sjnk/bullwinkle/blasters.html
Mike Davies
Blanche - If We Can't Trust The Doctors... (Loose)
More moody, melancholic dark country in the manner of the Handsome Family, the Detroit quintet can also boast rock street cred in frontman Dan Miller directing the Hotel Yoruba video for the White Stripes, he and wife Tracee having formerly played with Jack White in early hometown bands. But their own chosen musical groove is that of old school country (albeit with Do You Trust Me? recalling the trade offs of Lee and Nancy), even if they are channeling it through something like the Gun Club's swampy Jack On Fire. It's a spooked, American gothic sound of rotting moss, backwoods shadows, decaying cabins and wasted years, cranked up into echoey menace with Superstition, the death hovering So Long Cruel World, a poisonous anti-romantic stomping Garbage Picker and the pedal steel inflected The Hopeless Waltz, a marvellously sour hymn to disappointment and pain. Hardly Millers Lite then. White puts in appearance to play guitar solo on the opening scuffed shuffle Who's To Say (a creepy stalker song but arguably the most upbeat notes here), but Blanche (and surely there's a colour link here!) don't need any namedropping to earn their own stripes.
Mike Davies
Here's another Gurf Morlix discovery, in the shape of a historical artefact - a piece of "lost art", indeed - on which a bunch of session tapes vintage 1979 and 1980 are here released for the first time, continuing the label's mission to make available all of Blaze's extant recordings in some form or other. It follows on from two live collections (most recent of which was 2004's Oval Room) in presenting the definitive collection of Blaze's Houston recording days. The recordings sound great considering their provenance, being lovingly mastered by Gurf from studio safety tapes (remember, all of Blaze's master tapes were either lost or stolen – which only adds to his cult-legend status!). It's still probably safe to say, though, that despite Gurf's championing of Blaze's music, his name mightn't be one to cause the lightbulbs of recognition to flash right away, for he died in 1989, short of his fortieth birthday. A close friend of Townes Van Zandt (and subject of the Townes' song Blaze's Blues), Blaze was a maverick fellow-Texan singer-songwriter to whom Lucinda Williams's song Drunken Angel (from her Car Wheels album) formed an affectionate tribute. His work is characterised by an uncompromising emotional honesty, although its quality of invention might be considered uneven since it wavers uncertainly between keenly-observed lovelorn balladry (Picture Cards, Faded Loves And Memories), kinda wrily humorous material, some with an element of political commentary (Officer Norris, No Goodwill Stores In Waikiki), some more cuttingly ideological in stance (New Wave Blues). Some of the stuff in the latter category misfires a bit, but it's all invariably worth hearing, and New Wave Blues in particular contains some priceless (if cheesy) lines. Blaze's singing is interesting too, for he has a fine voice when he chooses to use it, occasionally also adopting a slightly lugubrious tone to good effect (as on Small Town Hero) and sometimes coming over more fragile than he probably intends; good though the later live recordings are, his fans will say the range of his voice is heard at its best on these studio tapes. Blaze may not have been a major talent in the manner of TvZ, but still, a few of his songs have been covered over the years (Lyle Lovett, John Prine, Merle Haggard) and a soon-to-be-premièred documentary by Kevin Triplett (Drunken Angel: The Legend Of Blaze Foley) will doubtless spark some renewed (and justified) interest in Blaze's music.
David Kidman June 2009
Well if ever there was a self-descriptive "exactly what it says on the tin" record, then this is it! Having recently celebrated their ten years as a band with a concert at this year's Celtic Connections festival, they've decided for their latest CD release to give their fans a permanent reminder of just how much they can still wow the village-halls with their immaculate and exuberant musicianship and joyous music-making presence that really involves their audience. The ten selections enshrined here come, uproarious applause and all, from recent recordings made at Glenuig Village Hall in remote West Lochaber where the band showcased a brand new live set. Engineer Calum Malcolm has captured every last detail of the spirit and essence of Blazin' Fiddles in all its glory, a truly white-hot experience that gets the spine tingling and the feet up and dancing. The thoroughly tried-and-tested lineup remains unchanged, the five fiery fiddlers - Allan Henderson, Catriona Macdonald, Iain MacFarlane, Bruce MacGregor and Aidan O'Rourke - again more than ably augmented by the trusty bedrock rhythm section of Marc Clement (guitar) and Andy Thorburn (piano). But quite honestly, I've never heard them sound better than this, ever: the Magnificent Seven they certainly are! There are no surprises as far as type of material or overall presentation method is concerned, but this is emphatically not to be counted against Blazin' Fiddles, for one thing they are not is predictable (other than predictably excellent in all departments!). The weight, and at the same time lightness, of the massed-fiddle texture is always spellbinding, even if you've experienced it before, and the band's selection and combining of tunes is as enterprising as ever, for they've unearthed several great tunes I'd not hitherto come across. One of my favourite tracks has got to be the exhilarating Miss Jena set, which starts out with a new tune by American fiddler Hanneke Cassel, before launching into a trio of spirited reels both Irish and Jewish in origin. Then again, the gorgeous slow air Smirisary, composed by Glenuig piper, singer and scholar Allan MacDonald, is a masterly evocation of the atmosphere of the deserted village nearby, with a stunning sense of almost classical poise (and a heart-stopping opening solo), while the set of "strathspeys with attitude", comprising Colonel Thornton's (track 4), and most especially the Highland Plaid set (track 9), are an ideal demonstration of the band's vivacity and abundance of gleeful energy. I can't stress enough, just how good this music makes me feel. Splendid!!
David Kidman March 2008
Peter Blegvad - Choices Under Pressure - an acoustic retrospective (Voiceprint)
If a central tenet of surrealism is the juxtaposition of disparate but commonplace ideas, Peter Blegvad is a casual surrealist in spades. This career retrospective is a re-recorded series of slightly quirky, irreverently approached but more or less conventional takes on blues, country or bubbling pop songs. Playing off these are lyrics with either simply bizarre topics told in simple terms or more conventional stories employing dramatic metaphors or images to powerful effect, Blegvad uses surrealism as an outlook, a casual tool; sometimes overt, sometimes just an underlying state of mind informing the lyrics, showing through between the lines.
On the one extreme we have 'Inside A Giant Eye', 'God Detector', 'Byron as an Embryo' or the exhortation to Astral Travel told in a late night lounge jazz-blues croon 'Let's Travel Light'. On the other, the touching 'Daughter' ('Everytime she blinks/She strikes somebody blind') or 'Scarred for Life' ('Leave me something to remember you by/More than a lock of your hair/Leave me scarred for life/Show you really care'). As with Blegvad's astounding newspaper cartoon 'Leviathan', reputedly Simpsons creator Matt Groening's favourite, the songs are highly literate & may harbour serious or philosophical points but are kept well clear of pretension by a wry humour. Three songs are co-written with XTC' s Andy Partridge, two with Blegvad's ex Slapp Happy colleague, composer Anthony Moore. Despite compositions originating between 1977 & 1999, the album has a cohesive, acoustic based feel with prudently spartan arrangements. Henry Cow's John Greaves & Danny Thompson share the bass chores on electric & upright acoustic respectively.
The overall sound is heavily influenced by producer, keyboard, flute & guitar player Jakko Jakszyk. Blegvad's acoustic guitar playing is accomplished & understated & his seemingly cigarette stained voice distinctive with splashes of Dylan & Harper. Mere written descriptions might invite comparisons to Syd Barrett, Beefheart or Robyn Hitchcock. While this would be no bad thing & there is some shared conceptual territory, this is an entirely distinct, inspired & highly listenable collection which may have you searching out the originals or the recent 'Book of Leviathan'.
www.voiceprint.co.uk
www.leviathan.co.uk
James Hibbins
With a repertoire that brought together the latest calypso favourites, string band tunes, traditional island favourites, and banjo led American minstrel songs with a band as well versed in jazz and ragtime as in the relaxed swing of the West Indies, Blake was a huge favourite around the Bahamian clubs and hotel circuit, his reputation such that he was enlisted to perform for the likes of JFK and Harold Macmillan.
Legend also recalls that, while he was forbidden from playing his most popular song, Love Love Alone's tale of Edward VIII's abdication to be with Wallis Simpson, at the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to take up the Governorship, the Duke invited him to play it at a Government House party where it received a standing ovation.
The first ever CD compilation of the five albums he made for the Art label, the album trawls through his early 50s recordings, including among them such gems as Run See Jerusalem's account of the 1929 hurricane, jaunty murder threat Jones (Oh Jones), J.P. Morgan, Gin And Coconut Water, Watermelon Spoilin' On the Vine, Foolish Frog and Peas And Rice.
Many of Blake's recordings found their way to the US where his influence spread among artists such as Dave Von Ronk, Pete Seeger, and Josh White, many of whom (like Johnny Cash's rewrite of Delia's Gone) recorded their own versions of Blake's song. And, of course, where would Harry Belafonte have been had Blake not been there first. Or, come to that, Leon Redbone.
Playful, unpretentious and full of an exuberance in the simple pleasures of life, it's a joy to hear. Employed in the late 70s and early 80s by the Ministry of Tourism to provide a musical welcome to arrivals at Nassau International Airport, Blake died in 1985, since when he's become something of a forgotten name, so full praise indeed to Megaphone's Stephane Mismuth for reviving his music for the appreciation of a whole new generation.
www.bahamasentertainers.com/Artist/BlindBlake/blake_bio
www.wirz.de/music/blakbfrm
Mike Davies June 2009
The Blind Boys have been together in one form or other for almost 70 years, but this is their first time of recording in New Orleans - and they've certainly pushed the boat out by engaging for backing duty those New Orleans musicians of celebrity status and high calibre Allen Toussaint, David Torkanowsky, Roland Guerin and Shannon Powell, as well as Crescent City icons The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the vital young Hot 8 Brass Band. Naturally enough, the album includes among its dozen tracks a couple of tributes to the city's most famous gospeller, Mahalia Jackson (with whom the Blind Boys had shared billing): these being sterling renditions of her songs How I Got Over and If I Could Help Somebody. The opener (Free At Last) sets out a delicious swampy boogie groove, and You Got To Move brings Crescent City right into your living-room, Uncloudy Day and I'll Fly Away bluster joyously into Dixieland (the latter a touch rough'n'tumble but hey, who cares?!). The album's not all gospel by any means tho', for the Blind Boys also tackle the soulful strut of Earl King's Make A Better World. Committed, energetic performances and excellent backing musicianship - the Blind Boys will sure see you into heaven afore them!
David Kidman January 2008
Tom is one of that rare breed of performer who really is the epitome of consummate. Not only does he possess a virtually unrivalled ability to write songs with strong tunes and memorable lyrics (and diligently undertake the necessary background research), but he's also a really characterful singer and a true virtuoso on too many instruments to name. All of these attributes are allied to a freshness of approach and delivery on The Whisper, definitely Tom's finest record yet. Sure, Tom's talents have been a best-kept secret for too long, but he seems at last to be achieving a measure of that overdue nationwide recognition, which this new solo album should cement. The sheer breadth and accessibility of its extensive menu invites deliberate comparison with Tom's whole attitude and devotion to his craft and to his role as an entertainer (he congenially tailors his live sets to the preferences of the clientele, invariably ending up winning over all its factions!).
The CD displays Tom's multifaceted talent in all its glory, and genially conducts us on a tour of this fair land introducing us to places and people who have fascinating histories or important tales to tell. Tom has a real flair for getting right inside his characters and bringing out both their essence and their aspirations. The title track concerns Eleanor Thornton, model for two statues which became Rolls-Royce mascots, whereas The Sin Of Mary Prout relates a harrowing sequence of events that took place in west Wales in 1864. Mark Purdey is a biographical narrative tribute to an unsung hero of the world of science, and The Mighty Montagu jovially recounts the exploits of the hapless naval anti-hero Captain Thomas Adair. And I'd defy anyone to remain unmoved by the simple poignancy of The Four Foot Track (even if not everyone will get all the more personal references therein). Furthermore, Tom shows his prowess as a keenly humorous wordsmith on the delicious Middle English (And Welsh) Pie (a veritable tour-de-force of tortuous toponymy!), whereas The Tumblebum Tongue-Twister is delivered by guest reciter Louis De Bernières at a lick that even Tom and his merry band of musicians can't quite match! As an encore, there's also a "full band" version of God Speed, Tom's take on the story of the Snow Goose (one of the most-requested of his own songs, incidentally).
Alongside his own compositions, Tom proves his aptitude for intelligently adapting traditional sources with fine versions of John Riley (here done most persuasively as a duet with Alderney singer Alex Birch, who lends her lovely voice to several other songs on the disc too) and The Handsome Cabin Boy, and a couple of inspired reconstructions from fragmentary (at best!) sources (Sound The Drum and The Bristol Lady). Other gifted musicians taking part on The Whisper include guitarist Ned Darlington, saxophonist Matt Nelson and Tom's fellow-Pipers-Sons Tony Taffinder, Tom Napper and Chris Parkinson; production, recording, balance and liner-notes are all exemplary. A whisper would be far too muted a response to this exceptional CD.
David Kidman November 2008
Though still retaining a base in mainland UK, singer/songwriter and multi-multi-instrumentalist Tom still considers Alderney his home, and this CD is his tribute to the immense long-lasting (and continuing) inspiration he derives from the Channel Islands, their history and landscapes. It collects together from Tom's five CDs to date (one solo, two with Tom Napper and two with his "old combo" Slide) all of his original songs and instrumental pieces which have Channel Islands connections; these demonstrate a striking consistency of approach and vision, each one a nugget of true quality (you could say mined from the very silverlode of Sark!). Amongst these we find such key works in the Bliss canon as the reflective The Race, the haunting story-songs The Merry Bells Of Helier and The Grey Lady, and the touching anthem Turn And Face The Wind. But although this CD is termed (and marketed as) a compilation, just under half of its contents consists of brand new recordings, which in turn fall into two specific categories: three of the songs have been vitally reinterpreted by Tom's recently-constituted three-piece band The Pipers Sons (in which he's joined by Tony Taffinder and Chris Parkinson), while four of the items embrace previously unreleased material. The latter category contains one of the CD's highpoints: Homecoming Day, the story of the Alderney islanders' return after World War II and their welcome-ashore by the cornet-playing of John McCarthy (here replicated by Charlie Greenslade, additionally backed by a brass ensemble). There's also Tom's lively take on the catchy traditional song J'ai Perdu Ma Femme, which provides an emotional counterweight to Where Strangers Stare, a powerful Bliss composition that postulates on the mystery of Alderney's Elizabethan wreck, and features the beautiful singing voice of Alex Birch. Finally, I shouldn't need to mention – given Tom's track record – that not only is the songwriting unerringly craftsmanlike, strong and characterful, but the playing and singing throughout the whole CD is first-class (Tom plays a dozen instruments, all of them brilliantly!), as is the sound quality, allied to the excellent, informative and attractive packaging and presentation (all in the now-familiar Bliss house-style).
www.tombliss.co.uk
www.myspace.com/tombliss
David Kidman April 2007
On first acquaintance, DoorWay might seem a fairly straight-down-the-line set of soft-edged acoustic bluegrass-tinged gospel-inflected songs, much in the mould of the music associated with the band for which Ron plays banjo, Alison Krauss's Union Station. But there's an intimacy and overall thoughtfulness about the songs - all Ron's own compositions - that sets them apart from the more predictable generic gospel fare, and the ten songs therein together run through the varying moods of man's struggle with the concept and practice of faith. Ron deals sensibly and inspiringly with the relevant personal issues, while not force-feeding you religion - which is both welcome and refreshing. To help him spread his message, Ron receives some typically expert playing from his reliable mates (including Messrs Tyminski, Duncan, Douglas and Krauss), and his own playing leaves nothing wanting. It all sounds just so, in place and well controlled, but there's also an edge to some of the songs (the rocky Above The Line in particular) which shows that Ron's musical stance, like his faith, is not complacent. Neither is the neat and relaxed instrumental work on the whole album (and there's also two purely instrumental tracks, segued together near the end of the disc). In the end, DoorWay is a feelgood album, but a feelgood album with more substance than might at first be credited or admitted by those inclined to distrust any gospel record. It's certainly somewhat of a personal and artistic triumph for Ron and his team, so (like his deeply-held beliefs) it should not be criticised for what it is not, but instead celebrated for its self-confidence and sincerity.
David Kidman June 2007
This new album from blues supremo Rory features her unique takes on 13 of Robert Johnson's greatest compositions. However, the first sound we hear on this disc is that of a gospel choir, the Straightway Ministries Choir of Utica, Mississippi, setting the scene spiritually for just a gloriously open-throated half-a-minute before handing over the stage to Rory and her guitar for a more direct retelling of the classic Crossroad Blues. In celebration of her discovering, only last winter, that Johnson's family are alive and well and living in Mississippi, Rory's been on tour with a special concept show (Down At The Crossroads: Blues Meets Gospel) this very summer. Now those shows must've been something ... But for now, and for the remainder of the CD in fact, it's just Rory and her guitar, and we never hear the choir again. Shame. Even so, nothing wrong with that, when Rory's own performances are so fresh, full of that trademark true grit and intense feel for the music. The drawback for a reviewer now is trying to find anything new to say about Rory, for she's so consistent a performer, her renditions of these now-classic standards like Ramblin' On My Mind, Come On In My Kitchen, Walkin' Blues and Hellhound On My Trail (and a clutch of lesser-known numbers) are so darned Right, sacrificing nothing either in integrity or in peerless execution - and yet somehow when Kind Hearted Man faded from the speakers at the end of the disc I was left wanting something more. Something different? Perhaps something more radical? Well maybe I should've seen the show. Go figure ...
David Kidman, October 2006
Luka (once known as Barry Moore) still keeps well out of his elder brother Christy's shadow on this new collection (his twelfth, if I've counted right!) of pleasing, often country-tinged contemporary folk songs from his own pen. To a certain extent, Luka shares his brother's command of dynamics, light and shade within his vocal work, but lacks Christy's gorgeous deep, velvety tone, instead possessing a personal brand of expressiveness that displays a more overt passion. The key to Luka's own songwriting is maintaining the necessary balance between intimacy and universal sentiment, which he does here on this new collection more successfully, I feel, than on his arguably less accessible previous album Tribe. Luka has described his own music as "stadium folk for the bedroom", and there's more than a grain of truth in that tag, since the lyricism of his anthems remains intact within the full and finely-graded acoustic-based instrumental settings, for which enjoys both abundantly high production values (David Odlum) and a classy crew of musos, with some especially felicitous touches of scoring (clarinet, string quartet, harp, flute, pedal steel) alongside the guitars, bass and gentle percussion strokes, and even a gospel choir intoning on three songs (notably the delicious Eastbound Train). The tender balladry of See You Soon, Everyman, Sunday and When Your Love Comes is, I find, more satisfying than the slightly forced nature of some of the more uptempo numbers (like Fire) which seem to rely a little over-much on mantric repetition for their effect. But Luka's sensuous delivery always tends to compensate for any momentary melodic shortcomings, and overall this new set, which gets stronger as the disc progresses, may prove to be among his best in a 20-year-plus career (so far) whose biggest mystery has always been why he's not had a higher profile.
David Kidman April 2009
It's a lot more musically ethereal in mood than his past folkier offerings, variously (as on I Am A River or Peace Rains) conjuring nights under open skies, ploughing earthier bluesy furrows (Change) or, as on the instrumental Star Of Doolin, shimmering with a spiritual Celtic transcendence. But Bloom's hushed vocal warmth is as soothing as ever, just as his songs continue to explore such thoughtful themes as the nature of patriotism in a global village (Tribe), mankind's interconnectivity (I Am A River), the situation in the Middle East (Lebanon) and, more than a hint of irony on the spoken Homeless, the fact that the homeless are model urban citizens with their low carbon footprints.
I'm not sure it's an approach I'd care to see repeated next time Bloom's contemplating a new studio album, but as a one-off musical diversion it has a beguiling luminescence.
Mike Davies October 2007
Poster boys for 80s blue eyed soul and funk dance grooves, they hit big with 1986's Digging Your Scene but, save for It Doesn't Have To Be This Way the following year, never really persuaded the British public to take them to their heart. They called it a day in 1990 with Robert Howard aka Dr Robert - going on to work with Paul Weller and carve a low key solo career. However, the original four members reunited last year and, with financial funding from fans, put together this comeback album.
There is, as you'd imagine, a bit of that old jazzy soul, best exemplified by the sax swaggering I Don't Mind, Save Me (very Style Council) and the staccato swamp funky Only Joking. But, what makes it worth exploring for none Monkey devotees are the tracks that steer away from their old template. The opening The World Can Wait, for example, which, splicing West Coast vibe and spooked folk, sounds much more like a vintage Zombies number. Or there's the folk-country inflections to the shuffling Travellin' Soul, a gentle Scottish-Occidental lilted When Love's In Bloom, the 60s psychedelic pop of I Dream Of You and the urgent rhythmic drive of The Bullet Train, a number that along with Frontline, suggest our Bob may have been listening to a few Alabama 3 albums in the past year or so. Unlikely to see any major - or even middling - revival of fortunes, but certainly worth bending the ear.
Mike Davies September 2008
David Kidman October 2007
David Blue - David Blue/Singer Songwriter Project (Elektra)
It had to happen one day, David Blue reviews David Blue. I've known about the other David Blue for some time but, other than Outlaw Man which was covered by The Eagles, I didn't really know too much about his work. Blue (real name Stuart David Cohen) was a contemporary of Bob Dylan and was one of his closest friends in Greenwich Village. These two albums from 1966 and 1965 respectively are the first two of his all too short career.
The eponymous 1966 album opens with The Gasman Won't Buy Your Love, a fractured blues that shows Dylan's influence, especially through the vocal delivery. Blue covers a number of different bases on this album as the bouncy 60s pop of About My Love and the Byrds style pop-folk of So Easy She Goes By shows. Bob Dylan meets Phil Spector's wall of sound on If Your Monkey Can't Get It. The album symbolises the 60s and although some of the songs remain rooted there, that's no bad thing. Midnight Through Morning and It Ain't The Rain That Sweeps The Highway Clean are two cases in point. The former is beautiful in parts and the latter is unashamedly entrenched in that decade. The point is that they are a snapshot of the time. Arcade Love Machine was possibly an influence on The Doors. Grand Hotel has a country feel to it and could quite easily be quoted as a reference point for the alt.country genre. Justine is only one a few electric tracks and it just reminds you of when Dylan went down the same road – very much blues influenced. There's more fractured vocal on I'd Like To Know but this is pleasant and nothing more. Like others, The Street is vocal, guitar, bass, drums and organ and his influence on those who followed can be heard in this sedate offering. This is certainly not the work of a second rate Dylan. The album finishes with It Tastes Like Candy, another of his electric songs and that about sums it up.
The Singer Songwriter Project was the first introduction of David Blue (under the name of Dave Cohen) and sees him have three tracks on this compilation in addition to three from Richard Farina, two from Patrick Sky and four from Bruce Murdoch. House Un-American Blues Activity Dream is the first of Farina's songs and, although it could stand on its own musically nowadays, the lyrical content may be a little suspect. Birmingham Sunday is more of a folk song but Farina does this so well, showing many facets to his performance. Farina's last song is another English folk style song, Bold Marauder, and again it is very enjoyable. Patrick Sky opens with Talking Socialized Anti-Undertaker Blues, which is a hillbilly tale about undertaking costs and is a great romp. His other offering is Many A Mile, which shows Sky's lovely voice and could have propelled Sky to greater things if everything had been equal. Bruce Murdoch's contribution begins with Rompin' Rovin' Days, another well sung, charming folk song and then goes onto Down In Mississippi, which is a 60s political song which still has much relevance these days – this is a highlight! Farewell My Friend is classic Americana and it still sounds fresh today, 40 years after its release. This shows that Murdoch had a voice to be reckoned with. His final song, Try An' Ask is another fine example of Murdoch's sweet singing voice and it also shows that he could master the guitar as well. This song, much in the Bob Dylan mould, is another highlight. Dave Cohen's offerings give us the Americana tale of how to live, or not live, your life (I Like To Sleep Late In The Morning), a blues influenced acoustic classic (It's Alright With Me) and excellent guitar and voice folk (Don't Get Caught In A Storm). These songs indicate what was to come from Cohen after he became a Blue.
David Blue
BB3 is essentially just a bunch of good ol' mates having a great ol' time playing a selection of their favourite country blues and death folk songs, twanging and plonking away to their hearts' content on a sundry grab-bag of guitars, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo and relative exotica such as saz and cumbus. But these mates just happen to be three pretty fine musicians: Ben Mandelson and Lu Edmonds (both members of Billy Bragg's Blokes and 3 Mustaphas 3) and Ian Anderson (English Country Blues Band, Hot Vultures and fRoots supremo).
The story is that BB3 came together in spring last year just to pay tribute to Shirley Collins who'd just been awarded the MBE, but their impromptu set made such an impression they were quickly signed up to make an album and to appear at further events. Their delirious, deliciously skewed music sounds like a more world-savvy Y2k version of those devil-may-care 60s string band-type ensembles (Famous Jug Band, Holy Modal Rounders etc) who cheerfully reworked ancient good-time, R&B and country material, some of which had already been recycled by that era's bluesmen.
The melting pot is well and truly cookin', with a surprise round every corner too, as bluesy chestnuts and English folk songs alike are hijacked for global trips and effortlessly transmuted along the way. Particular successes include a creative conflation of Fred McDowell (A Few Of Your Lines) with the germ of a Coppersong, also Me And My Chauffeur Blues (where Memphis Minnie betrays her Romanian gypsy lineage), a crazed Don't You Just Know It (the lunatics have taken over the asylum!), a pseudo-Siberian romp through Elmore James's Sunnyland, and (arguably most memorable of all) a shimmering, Cooderesque ramble through Hank Snow's A Fool Such As I. The trio also revisit some obscure ECBB numbers like the knockabout gutbucket Crazy Fool Mumble, the mongrel-hybrid Preacher's Blues and the traditional ballad of Lovin' Henry.
Finally to the disc's title, which could well refer to the unashamedly raw, rough nature of the growed interpretations - which are filtered through decades of musical adventures around the globe. Often as not they come out decidedly wonky, but proudly so - and fun fun fun.
www.myspace.com/blueblokes3
www.blueblokes3.com
David Kidman October 2008
The Bluegrass Patriots - Springtime In The Rockies (Copper Creek)
www.bluegrasspatriots.com
www.coppercreekrecords.com
David Kidman
Blue Highway has over its impressive longevity proved itself as one of the most consistent, versatile and influential groups in contemporary bluegrass, winning a large number of awards along the way, most recently IBMA Song Of The Year in 2008 for Through The Window Of A Train, which naturally is included on this collection celebrating the group's first 15 years.
Blue Highway comprises Tim Stafford (guitar), Wayne Taylor (bass), Shawn Lane (mandolin), Rob Ickes (dobro) and Jason Burleson (banjo) – all names to conjure with – and each one's a darned good singer too, as the brilliant acappella gospel of Wondrous Love and Some Day proves. But this is a well-rounded compilation that brings together a decent selection of tracks from the group's four Rounder CDs, one from Rob's solo disc Big Time, topped up with three fine new cuts from a more recent session in March 2009. The latter includes a brand new joint composition by Tim Stafford and Darrell Scott, Bleeding For A Little Peace Of Mind, a standout cut on which Darrell guests on guitar and vocal.
Although the soloing is expectedly first-rate on all the chosen selections, the group chemistry is also persuasive, and the Ickes/Haynie instrumental Monrobro is a timeless showcase that wears its age lightly. The relaxed steering of the musicians through genial, well-crafted bluegrass waters on cuts like Still Climbing Mountains, the haunting The Seventh Angel (which has Alison Krauss guesting with an ethereal backing vocal), the switch to hot playing for Elzic's Farewell, the plaintive tenor of Cold And Lowdown Lonesome Blues, the more ambitious episodic structure of Sycamore Hollow, and those effortlessly accomplished grooves throughout, whatever the balance or the complementary parts.
It's a pity that Rounder couldn't have licensed some tracks from the group's '90s Rebel/Ceili Music albums and made this a double-disc collection that could've been more legitimately claimed to cover the whole 15 years, but even as it is this 13 tracks still presents a real fine anthology of classy contemporary bluegrass from one of the genre's most expert, and yet still proudly evolving, practitioning outfits.
David Kidman February 2010
On July 1st 2005, those fab Celtic rockers Bluehorses played a blinding headline set at Saul Festival to a 1200-strong crowd under canvas. They were filmed by a crack TV crew, and sound was recorded using 24-track technology. The resultant two-DVD set proves the finest possible vehicle for celebrating ten years of BlueHorses: a mighty chariot, charging full ahead and flattening everything in its path yet treating its passengers with due respect and honour. It's a summation of everything that makes BlueHorses so special, so much more than the glib big-white-hope of flawed legend: a real antidote to all the flaccid pomp that folk-rock has always threatened to become. It's a long time since I watched a DVD of a live show that's made the neck-hairs prickle like this one; the fantastic electric sense of sheer presence is but one abiding factor. This is a band on a distinct creative high; while heavy-duty and built to last, they've taken their craft deep to heart and had (and still have) great fun doing it, and have taken their crowds with them all the way to the lofty heights of thundersome psychedelic goth-folk-metal, truly like no other band on the scene. Now with the unit shorn slightly down to an even tighter four-piece, Nic and the lads have enabled the forestage focus to fall firmly on the increasingly multi-skilled (and still forbiddingly tasty) Lizzie Prendergast, who moves with consummate ease between her trademark fiery swooning soaring electric violin and mandolin, synth-keyboard and space-Celtic harp - and has the vocal dexterity of a fiend from hell to boot, the feisty belter and the seductive crooner both held captive within the same demonic frame. The storming, commanding presence of Lizzie herself, and her innate theatricality, both characterise and determine the at times surprisingly delicate balance between darkness and light that pervades the band's music: one that, while always thoughtfully contrived, nevertheless seems infernally natural. But let's not for one moment play down the contributions of the other band members, all modest almost to a fault: Nic Waulker's simply one of the most resourceful drummers on the circuit, with an unrivalled ear for arrangement and technical balance too (the sound quality on this set is top-bracket), while Nathan Waulker's bass and Jay McDonald's guitar together supply a breathless, towering wall of sound that can also be supportive and/or sensibly subservient when the occasion demands. The stunning 80-minute set (disc one) blazes through a veritable parade of Horses classics, including their typically supercharged renditions of trad-folk items Mad Tom's Song (the lunatics have taken over the asylum where Steeleye left off!), Blackleg Miner and Black Is The Colour, alongside the anthemic fave Witch In Wedlock and the staple Ostara/Morrisons tuneset. But glory, the concert also proudly brings out a generous helping of then-previously-unshowcased material: Billy Boy, Viv Aldi's Hot Metal Lucky-Dip Extravaganza, the Gravel Walk/Beltane/Litha set and a menacing, gutsy Night Visit. The energy of the performance and the enjoyment of the crowd fairly bound out of the screen, making this one of the most iconic, most desirable live records I know. The second disc contains all manner of bonus material including off-stage jamming and rehearsal footage, bootleg video clips, discography and interviews held with Nic and Lizzie positioned in front of a roaring fire: interesting and often illuminating though this all is, it's bound to be a lightweight companion to the meat of the utterly thrilling concert disc, a gig I've replayed many many times and still can't tire of, such is the frisson it produces each time.
2008 Footnote: Things are a mite different now in the BlueHorses camp, with a new studio album just received for review. Check out the website for latest news.
www.nativespirit.co.uk
www.bluehorses.co.uk
David Kidman May 2008
Tennessee husband and wife duo Ricky and Micol Davis' third album has been mastered by Motown legend Bob Ohlsson who worked on many of Stevie Wonder's hits. Heaven & Earth bears the Ohlsson stamp but is very far removed from those Wonder tracks. Always Lookin' is a mid-paced Country rocker with a little funk on the side. A rasping vocal from Micol Davis makes for a good opening. The slow and hypnotic eponymous title track is played on piano and there is something spiritual about it. Give It Away/Hard Times has a grinding boogie slipping into a rhythmic Delta blues before reverting back to some grinding to finish the duet of songs off. The War is a beautiful piano ballad and their voices work well together on Goin' Down Midnight, a mid-paced rocker. Wandering Soul is gentle Americana and so easy to listen to. Tupelo sees the introduction of saxophone to back up the slide guitar all played in a laid back Southern US style.
Ramblin' Train is a bit heavier and darker than its predecessors although it is a bit out of sorts with the rest of the album. There is some more gentle Americana in the form of the Jesse Winchester written Biloxi and their strong harmonies underpin a classic Southern Country rock on Hand In Hand. The traditional I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down brings Janis Joplin to mind and the gentle High In The Sky is much akin to Krista Detor in its execution. Runnin' Around is rousing, rocking Country and they finish with the swamp music of Gustard Bellue. This is a jaunty end to an overall excellent album and it is split into two tracks, in effect. There are children singing on the second part and dogs barking in the background which gives a homely feel. To give more of a background, Gustard Bellue is the dog of the story - imagine calling out for him in the park!!
David Blue January 2010
Having returned to life by way of Omnibus' re-recorded versions of earlier material, the alt-country pioneering trio speedily follow-up with a set of all new numbers. Well, save for Butterfly, Free State of Jones and By Your Side which are band versions of songs from Cary Hudson's first solo album, recorded after his divorce from bassist Laurie Stirratt and the band's implosion.
The hiatus doesn't seem to have made any difference, the trio essentially picking up where they left off with the mix of alt-country, bluegrass, Southern country soul and country-rock that set the template for those who followed in their wake. Enough troubled water's flowed under the bridge for them to slot back together fluidly, trading licks and meshing like the well oiled unit they are.
With a guitar line that vaguely recalls Bowie's Sound And Vision, the album opens with the mid-tempo soulful Groove Me, which is exactly what they proceed to do; ringing out the chords for the Mexico-set She's A Wild One, scuffing up hard dirty Southern rock and harmonica for the title cut's tale of cheap hotels and bad connections, riding a chugging train rhythm rebel roller Gentle Soul (very Jason & The Scorchers) with its slide guitar and getting into some serious gutbucket blues stomping for play out track Skinny Dipping.
With Omnibus having both drawn a line under and reinvented their past, welcome return may not be offering anything new in the genre stakes, but it certainly points to a healthy future.
www.myspace.com/bluemountainlauriecary
Mike Davies October 2008
Having recorded three albums for Roadrunner before disbanding, the Oxford, Mississippi trio have got back together and set up a new home. Since they couldn't take the old furniture with them, they've made a set of reproductions. Which is, to say, that, ahead of an album of new material, they've re-recorded 14 of their old songs (stripping away the distortion in the originals) as a sort of all new Best Of.
Comprising Cary Hudson, ex wife Laura Stirratt (twin sister of Wilco bassist John) and drummer Frank Coutch, they were among the pioneers of the alt-country movement with numbers such as Wink Of An Eye, Blue Canoe, Soul Sister, and Sleeping In My Shoes all stalwart genre classics. A handy introduction for those coming at them new and, being new, reinvigorated interpretations, also great value for old fans who should really find their blood fired by the rousing rework of the guitar ringing Generic America. Nice to have them back
www.bluemountainbandoxfordms.com
www.myspace.com/bluemountainlauriecary
Mike Davies September 2008
If there's a British answer to the Carter Family it has to be the Carthy/Waterson axis. They come together again here with Norma, Mike, Martin and Eliza joined by Barry Coope, Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson to form the premiere supergroup of trad folk and vocal harmony. This is mountain music if the mountains were the Peaks and Lake District and the valleys the Yorkshire dales, steeped in spirituals, songs of love and yearning, songs of the lust for life.
Of the 14 tracks, half are traditional, among them Gown Of Green, The Banks of Sweet Primroses and a quite magnificent Standing On The Promises of God and Stars In My Crown, while Mike Waterson contributes the jokey music hall informed Rubber Band, Mole In A Hole and Three Day Millionaire and Boyes the closing The Goodnight Song (where someone's microphone seems to have been placed at the back of along hall) leaving a remaining brace of covers, the Texas born Blue Mountain and the opening No One Stands Alone, another of the album's stirring folk hymns.
Although there are solo spotlights, most numbers get the full seven piece acapella harmony treatment, a glorious rush of perfectly pitched and counterbalanced vocals that offers up a spellbinding celebration of the human voice and makes this a firm contender for Folk Album of the Year.
Mike Davies
In 1979, in response to countless demands at live gigs for a permanent memento, the Blues Band marked the start of their record career with The Official Blues Band Bootleg Album, a set which in the end sold very well (and was taken up by Arista). Thirty years later, in November 2007, the band revisited that seminal collection during the course of the live concert which provided the source for the Bungay Jumpin' Live DVD release (itself reviewed below). Delivered presents most of the material from that original album (though exactly how much I can't check 'cos I don't have the original!); but what's important is that the performances are brilliantly fresh and stacked full of the easygoing musicianship, affection, commitment, total respect for the material and attention to detail – and sense of enjoyment – that have been hallmarks of this band's work right from the start.
The now-familiar lineup (Paul Jones, Dave Kelly, Tom McGuinness, Gary Fletcher and Rob Townsend) comfortably maintain the highest standards of performance and professionalism yet retain the sense of keen spontaneity for which any blues band worth its salt should be aiming. For me, the highlights of this 50-minute, 12-track set are Paul's heartfelt rendition of Son House's Death Letter, Gary's tender singing of his own composition So Lonely (which he's taken over from Dave!), and Paul's own Noah Lewis Blues (written in tribute to the unsung harmonica player). But there's not a dull moment, and once you're past the comparatively routine opener Come On In there's a feast of blues-based music on offer; only the obligatory audience-participation-laden Shake Rattle And Roll outstays its welcome on this occasion. Better than reliable, and most often decidedly inspired, it's obvious why this band are still going strong nearly 30 years on from their formation!
David Kidman July 2009
This superb hour-long set was recorded at the same Suffolk venue as Delivered, seemingly at the same concert, and proves an even finer outing for the versatility and showmanship of the individual band members. They prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the blues can encompass many colours, shadings and moods, and that it's not all tediously predictable within the confines of the 12-bar format (a popular misconception, even now). Each of the musicians is on excellent form, and they ably ring the changes and switch instruments (and vocal duties) as appropriate. Dave picks up the mellifluous twelve-string for Charley Patton's Moon Going Down, and Tom turns in some particularly fine mandolin playing to counterpoint Paul's harmonica and Dave's slide on You Got To Move (in fact, Paul's exceptional harmonica work is a constant source of delight throughout).
The sheer energy and drive the band brings to numbers like Jim Canaan and I'm Moving On is well contrasted with Gary's showstopping, intensely powerful composition World Gone Crazy (written back in October 2001 in the aftermath of both personal tragedy and 9/11). After all these years in the biz, the Blues Band clearly know how to come up with the goods time after time without getting stale or tired, and here they deliver a supremely well-rounded set of which repeated viewings will prove highly satisfying. Any audience noise is entirely unintrusive, and yet the sense of occasion is well captured and straightforwardly conveyed in the direct, no-nonsense filming method. This DVD comes with a 13-minute interview segment (entertaining and reasonably informative), and a bonus (audio) disc of the same concert set (which sounds great too). One for the fans, sure, but also persuasive enough to foster some conversions to the cause of well-played, well-sung blues-based grooves from a band at the top of their game.
David Kidman July 2009
The Blues Band - Be My Guest (BGO Records)
