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
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
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
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
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
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
Way down, deep and dirty, John Baldry pulls out all the expressive moans and howls of a white Wolf. Even in these days of traditional delta blues, new urban rocking blues, down south boogie blues and the rest, LJB is unique. On Evening Conversations, his powerful vocals, 12-string guitar and his arrangements of his own and others songs in the great British rhythm and blues tradition, (Tim Rose, Randy Newman, Sonnie Terry & Brownie McGhee, Tom Waits, Rod Stewart are covered here) show the master on superb form.
Now a Canadian citizen, this R&B legend first hit the UK clubs in the 1950s when Alexis Korner fathered a scene which now reads like a rock'n'roll Hall of Fame. He still tours despite bouts of ill health. Evening Conversation was recorded in the Down Town Blues Club in Hamburg in 1999 with his band, Matt Taylor on electric and acoustic guitars and Butch Coulter on harmonica and acoustic guitar. The blues is best played 'live'. This album catches the immediacy of the moment and serves LJB (and blues lovers) well.
The German label Hypertension (God bless'em) is to be commended for providing a niche for some of the best blues artists today and its catalogue is well worth checking out.
Sue Cavendish
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
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
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 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.
This is The Barcodes fourth album for the highly rated independent label, Note and their first live set. A selection of 10 covers and five originals opens with Statesboro Blues, a jazzy version of the Blind Willie McTell classic. Relaxed, but then I'm used to more frenetic versions such as those by Pat Travers and the like. Individually, Barcodes are great musicians and they transfer that to the band as a whole. Parchman Farm, from their earlier album Independently Blue, is a Mose Allison standard that was also done in the past by Blue Cheer. This is pacey and punchy. Johnny 'Guitar' Watson's Sweet Lovin' Mama, also from Independently Blue, is a laid back blues with Nick Newall on sax and Bob Haddrell on piano/organ up front again. Dino Coccia shows his class on drums as they drift into a percussion and harmonica segment. The intro to Crazy Life, from Keep Your Distance, tells the story of Zoot Money and, believe me, this is zany stuff! The song itself is little more than lounge room jazz. Halfway To Nowhere, from their last album, With Friends Like These, is a mid-paced blues with top class organ work and strong sax. They have a very clean sound but sometimes they may find it better to dirty it up a little.
That's Alright, another from Keep Your Distance, is a standard 12 bar blues and Comin' Home Baby throws flute and organ to the fore. This jazz/rock offering is like Ian Anderson in a cardigan. Willie Dixon's renowned 7th Son is played as a Professor Longhair tribute however, I prefer this song on guitar. Outskirts Of Town has Alan Glen's slide guitar heralding a slightly sleazy blues and Back At The Chicken Shack/T-Bone Shuffle is lifted by Glen's harp but is otherwise a little too lounge room for me. Sonny Boy Williamson's Checkin' On My Baby, from Independently Blue, is given a sultry, jazzy treatment and may not be everyone's taste. One of the self-penned numbers, Alan Glen's Be Cool, (also from the heavily plundered Independently Blue) is a piano led blues that will get you going. The second of a trio of originals is the Coccia/Haddrell written Undercover Lover. This is from With Friends Like These and the live version is more than comparable to the studio edition. The Snitch is another from With Friends Like These and is a bit of a jam as the band gets down to some grooves. They finish with a final cut from With Friends Like These, another archetypal Mose Allison song, I Don't Worry About A Thing. Allison flitted between blues and jazz and that just about sums up The Barcodes too. This is what they are all about, good musicianship and great fun.
David Blue December 2007
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
The Barcodes - Independently Blue (Note Records)
This opens with the night club jazz sound of Grits & Greens which could also be mistaken for a theme tune from a bad 1960s show and goes off into an album of 50% original material and 50% covers. Be Cool, a standard blues, introduces Alan Glen's harmonica which is fuzzed to good effect and Cast A Wider Net has him returning to guitar for a slow jazz/blues which is nice and easy and has Bob Haddrell excelling on organ. The last of four self written tracks is Turn My Back On The Blues and this is more like it! It's a bit rockier although the vocal is a bit staid.
The first cover is Sonny Boy Williamson's Checkin' On My Baby. There's a bit of a reggae beat going on here and I don't know if this is just the band trying to show their versatility. Whatever it is, even though it's pleasant enough, it doesn't work. A return to jazz for the self-penned T-Time still doesn't get the excitement going, although it is very well played. JJ Cale's Don't Go To Strangers is probably the stand out track of the album and is a rhythm and blues where everything just clicks.
Mose Allison's Parchman Farm is an understated jazz/blues that showcases Haddrell's piano playing. Didn't Blue Cheer do a cover of this? It couldn't be as different from this version if it tried. Any Which Way is a swinging jazz/blues but the singer's voice lacks any real depth but Motya with its fuzzed harp and jungle beats is another winner. The sophisticated jazz/blues of Little Walter's One More Chance With You fails to deliver enough passion and is a missed opportunity. Another one is Rosco Gordon's No More Doggin' - despite the pounding drums and the stinging guitar, the singer just doesn't seem to want to extend himself.
I found myself asking why we had to wait until now for this when I heard Sweet Lovin' Mama, the Johnny Guitar Watson song. This is classic R&B with cranked up slide guitar and rocking sax and finally the voice fits the song. This is a patchy album but there are a couple of gems that deserve to be heard.
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
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
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
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 L