www.sawdoctors.com

Arthur Wood, Kerrville Kronikles, May 2009

As a teenager, Philip Sayce was held in such high regard as to be invited to join the Jeff Healey Band and played with them at the Montreux Jazz Festival and many other sold out gigs around the world. After moving to Los Angeles he joined Uncle Kracker and was with the band when they had their massive US number 1 with Drift Away. He then joined Melissa Etheridge's band and was with her until 2008. Now temporarily on his own, he releases his debut solo album on Provogue, a label that is getting a reputation as the home of guitar players.

Peace Machine opens with One Foot In The Grave (not the theme to the popular sitcom), a high energy rocker. Save Me From Myself continues the hard rocking – classic stuff. Slip It Away is a Jimi Hendrix style hard blues which speeds up as Sayce launches into a solo that will take your breath away. The title says it all on Powerful Thing – think Lenny Kravitz and you'll almost be there. This is followed by the acoustic led Angels Live Inside before he turns the power back on for the ballad, Dream Away and the rock with Sweet Misery.

Blood On Your Hands is a standard rocker but a classy example of one. Sayce doesn't go in for too many solos but he puts in a good one here with touches of Bon Jovi. Cinnamon Girl is a classic Neil Young song and Sayce stays very close to the original feel. It flows well with archetypal riffs helping it to do so – psychedelia lives! The acoustic led Over My Head is a classic American MOR rock tune and Sayce finally unleashes his guitar as he builds the song layer by layer. Alchemy is a slow, bluesy instrumental which showcases his playing ability and it works very well. All I Want is another Lenny Kravitz style rocker and Morning Star stays in the same mould. Sayce is very easy to listen to although he is getting more and more adventurous as the album goes on. The title track has echoes of Foxy Lady at the beginning before going onto a heavy blues riff. This is a big, blues rocker and a feast of guitar playing. The bonus track, Arianrhod is another instrumental to satisfy the guitar lovers. Sayce uses just about every effect pedal in his collection. At over 7 minutes, it has a bit of a break just after 4. He then goes off into what is effectively a reprise of the title track, this time played on dobro. Philip Sayce is a worthy addition to Provogue's excellent stable of guitar players.

www.philipsayce.com

David Blue December 2009

Boz Scaggs - Dig (Virgin Records America)

When you see the words Boz and Scaggs on the cover of an album, you can be pretty damn sure that you're in for some smooth, sophisticated soul, leavened with a fair smattering of grit - just to keep things interesting. Dig delivers all that, served up with the degree of professionalism you'd expect from a man who's been plying his trade for more years than he'd probably care to admit. Of course, the Scaggs man can't do it all himself and, for his first set of original material in more than seven years, he's called upon the services of lots of old pals to produce a sound that gels and flows despite the changing personnel from track to track. Thus, at various times across the 11 songs, we hear the likes of Danny Kortchmar and David Paich - who, in addition to guitars and keys, co-produced Dig - Ray Parker Jr, Greg Phillinganes, Steve Lukather, Nathan East and Roy Hargrove Jr; each top in his field and on top form here. 'Payday' sets the ball rolling - a nice bluesy piece taken a respectable lope with some tasty guitar and a first opportunity for Hargrove to flesh out a song with some effective horn fills. Tracks two and three - 'Sarah' and 'Miss Riddle' - show the side of Scaggs' music which least excites the old Hall backbone. Cool, smooth, laid-back, soul-tinged love songs that ought to be listened to only after midnight in an expensive penthouse apartment with the Gucci loafers casually kicked off on to the hand-woven Persian rug. It's really not my cup of tea at all but either of these could do a fair job of work of getting the likes of Barry White or Teddy Pendergrass back into the charts. And I suppose that, if push came to shove and I had to listen to this kind of thing, I'd rather it be by Boz Scaggs than many others I could name.

By way of complete contrast, Scaggs can also offer up the wonderful 'Get on the natch' - all growled vocals, choppy guitar, upfront drums and sharp angles. Reminds these ears of the Alabama 3 and is the dirty, raunchy side of Scaggs that I could happily groove along to from dusk 'til dawn. 'King of El Paso' has a similarly lived-in appeal and, in addition to the guitars of Scaggs and Kortchmar, features a great backing vocal from a lady called Monet, of whom more will undoubtedly be heard. 'I just go' sees Scaggs playing the part of the perennially selfish and ultimately lonely man, once again having to apologise to his love for thoughtlessly taking off without a word of explanation. The rhythm section of East's bass and Robin DeMaggio's hand percussion lends the slow pace real depth. It is, quite simply, lovely. Possibly more renowned for his ability to achieve a certain sound and feel, it could be said that Scaggs' songwriting has taken something of a back seat in the past. That's not the case with Dig as, whether singlehandedly or in collaboration, the tunes and lyrics bear close scrutiny. It's an album with a variety of moods and one which is destined, I reckon, to become known as one of Scaggs' best.

www.bozscaggs.com

Fred Hall

Minnesota-born Martha has latterly relocated to Montana; she's worked on the Cold Mountain movie soundtrack, and spent six years in East Tennessee as a key member of the highly regarded Reeltime Travelers until they disbanded in early 2005. During that stint, she won both first and second prizes at a songwriting competition at 2003's Merlefest; meeting up with Dirk Powell provided just the catalyst she needed to get on down and make a solo record, and The West Was Burning is the result. Martha's songs are at once straightforward and enigmatic, with a gentle organic feel, and really capture the essence of the backroads of the west ("places where there's no exit number", as Dirk puts it!) where she's most at home. Having said which, it's not always easy to say what they're about, for even the more tangible imagery she uses has a peculiarly elusive quality that comes as much from an appealing looseness of expression (matched in the music) as from succinct, even wry observation from the other side of the barroom or tracks. The downhome authenticity and no-nonsense emotional intensity of Martha's personal vision at times recalls that of Gillian Welch, but hers is arguably a more measured, less overtly bleak view, with telling resonances evoked from the most simple activities ("riding on a troublesome vine", indeed). Her musical settings complement the quivering timbre of her teasing, intimately fragile singing voice: pure and sensitive, characterised by her own rippling guitar and clawhammer banjo (Riley Baugus), with bass (Eric Frey) and occasional steel (Guy Fischetti), dobro (Michael Juan Nunez), fiddle (Gina Forsyth) and piano (Glenn Patschka). Many also boast a raw, edgy rhythm coming from what often seems like a back-lot garage drumkit (interestingly, drum duties are shared between Levon Helm of The Band and Amy Helm from Olabelle). The sound just sort-of comes together, I can't put it any other way. And naturally, Dirk himself augments his producer's role by playing (among other things) fiddle, electric guitar, banjo and mandolin, for he can't resist contributing just one instrumental (Call Me Shorty), where his mournful fast-drivin' fiddle is very much in evidence. This album may sound at times slightly low-key, but it proves to be of significantly deeper impact - quite irresistible, in fact - and the quietly grainy charms of its music and poetry readily, if subtly, insinuate themselves into one's consciousness.

www.marthascanlan.com

David Kidman 2007

Pauline Scanlon - Red Colour Sun (The Daisy Label)

A native of Dingle Co. Kerry, although Scanlon had been performing round the Galway pubs since she was 15, she first came to most people's attention when she provided the vocals for John Spillane's All The Ways You Wander on Sharon Shannon's Libertango album. Shannon repays the favour on Scanlon's debut, produced by and featuring Lunasa guitarist Donogh Hennessy, lending her accordion to a breathy voiced but jauntily earthy bodhran driven version of Cyril Tawney's Sally Free and Easy. Scanlon claims her singing style to be influenced by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos, and while that's not immediately obvious there's no denying the quality of her timbre, not as ethereal as, say Maire Brennan or Sally Oldfield, traces of both in evidence, but still suggesting faerie folk qualities behind the cut peat flavours. Despite her background, there's only a handful of traditional interpretations here, the murder ballad What Put The Blood and the equally cheerful Molly Ban, but she has selected her diverse covers well. Peggy Seeger's The Springhill Mining Disaster, on which she duets with Damien Dempsey, is a suitably brooding affair that stands in distinct contrast to the dreamy love beneath the stars readings of Don McLean's And I Love You So and Willie Nelson's Valentine while, along with the equally a capella interpretation of Kerry folk tune The Boys of Barr Na Sraide, her haunting drone accompanied version of John Spillane's All The Ways You Wander is one of the album's most striking moments. She writes too, and while Churchyard's the only one self-penned contribution here, it's something of a gem, a trad styled ballad inspired by False Knight On The Road and veined with Eastern textures. It's an impressive debut that bodes well for Scanlon's future. She's generous too. She actually has no input at all on the title track, a 90 second instrumental epilogue written and performed by cellist Caroline Dale.

www.daisydiscs.com/pauline.htm

Scatter is a somewhat indescribable outfit. After releasing their acclaimed album Surprising Sing Stupendous Love back in 2004, they then by all accounts made a hell of an impression at last year's Green Man Festival. Scatter turns out to be a loose Glasgow-based collective (here comprising nine participants) with one foot in the folk/world camp and another in improv, yet their second, and latest album, The Mountain Announces, while generally veering (sometimes a little queasily, one might say) between the two poles, in the end sounds like neither and actually provides stimulating and often pleasing listening. Deconstructed folksong meets organised confusion, one might say...Three (possibly four) of its eight tracks are ostensibly based on folksong - or rather, derive their inspiration from the mood of a particular folksong: She Moves Through The Fayre brings the most audibly recognisable statement of the source song itself, and here it's sort-of-chanted, wailed, by the ensemble's new vocalist Hanna Tuulikki. Instrumentally, the band sound is now darker than previously, with the recent addition of viola and trombone to the bouzouki/guitar, drums, cello, trumpet, double-bass, harmonium lineup (and the departure of their flute player too) - though dark doesn't necessarily mean gloom-filled, and Scatter's music can be strangely uplifting, as on the perversely beautiful celebratory processional that forms Delitier The Organ (a rolling snowball of sound where triumphant ululating voices perch atop Brass Monkey chordings and a bouzouki that sounds like a hammer-dulcimer). The title track nosedives off a Beefheartian pseudo-Japanese guitar riff to a jabbering cacophony of public-address and into a strident jazz ostinato passage. And by transporting the Dowie Dens Of Yarrow to the home of rebetika they're evoked as "a place of mystery and misery" in Scatter's intriguing arrangement. O Death is perhaps the strangest of all: dubbed by group vocalist Oliver Neilson as Scatter's "hold-music", its "call-centre field-holler" reminds me more than anything else of the pitch-and-toss sequence on the Incredible String Band's Creation, with its discordant keening and tumbling storm-racked drumming. All told, this is an extraordinary album, which takes the concepts both of folk-drone and radical jazz to new and often dizzying heights; but it takes an open mind and close listening to unravel its curious tapestry of delights, a mind that will be receptive to following Scatter's tangents wherever they may lead.

www.blanktapes.org

David Kidman, July 2006

Mark Schatz & Friends - Steppin' In The Boiler House (Rounder)

Mark's one of those enviably talented performers (Bruce Molsky's another one!) who might in all honesty be termed jack-of-all-trades, for he's a gifted singer and dancer as well as banjoist. It's primarily the latter, however, which is on proud display on this, his second solo album. He plays the banjo - and how! - in the approved clawhammer style, but his playing blends the precision and attack of traditional bluegrass with the soul and grit of the real old-timer, and he's unafraid either to bring in some swing-band influences or to mix new tunes in with the old. Steppin' In The Boiler House starts out with just that - Rig Root, like the title track later on, features Mark's "rock clogging" feet alongside his banjo - but then settles down to an enticing and varied menu that's not by any means all "flash Harry" picking. The enchanting delicacy of Eileen's Waltz forms a perfect foil to the rootsy galumph of the preceding Cajun Stomp, and the expertly controlled hoedown stringband runpast of Last Old Dollar (featuring Tim O'Brien guesting on vocals and mandolin) leads through naturally to the more reflective Season Of Joy and the beautifully poised original tune Robindale, inspired by the mountains around Asheville, North Carolina, that ushers in some seriously blistering picking on Slate. Mark's "house band" for the album sessions unites two seasoned veterans Missy Raines (bass) and Jim Hurst (guitar) with "young turk" fiddler Casey Driessen (fiddle), while Tim helps out on several cuts and there are some notable contributions from Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Jerry Douglas (dobro) and Bela Fleck (mandolin) too. There's a grand sense of fun on these sessions, everyone's having a ball yet they're content to let the pace ease back apiece rather than go hell for leather for effect - and the miracle is that there's still plenty of excitement and internal tension in the performances. And that makes all the difference of course. Tim puts it exactly in his booklet note: "Mark Schatz's music echoes and freshens those many shared experiences of good times, good music and good friends"; and you too will feel you've made a few new good friends after listening to this spirited disc.

www.markschatz.com

David Kidman

Andy Scheinman - Make Amends (Tangible)

Thank goodness for labels that release albums outside the celebrity/marketing-led loop. Tangible of New York is one such and they have some wonderful surprises in their catalogue. Signed to the label is New Yorker Andy Scheinman, whose debut album has recently been given distribution in the UK. This is one to seek out now and play often during those moments when you need the Linus-blanket of feel-good music and a sunny day smile.

We are in familiar Nashville territory but it is refreshingly good. For all of you who are tired of polished mediocrity, this is unvarnished honesty, impossible-to-resist rootsy, hatless 'country' fare with a 'recorded live' energy and songwriting of the highest calibre. His are catchy tunes with great hooks and lyrics which had me suspecting that he has his tongue in his cheek some of the time! Andy cites The Band, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash as some of his influences. Their echoes are all there on this 13-track collection in the best possible way. Make Amends is produced by Tommy Spurlock who adds his own steely talents on guitars, mandolin, pedal steel, dobro, lap steel and bass. His assured, no-nonsense contribution made me check him out. He's produced albums for Dave Olney and Chip Taylor, played on the albums of artists such as Delbert McClinton, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell and The Band and he's a member of cult band Jon Wayne. What a pedigree and what an album!

www.tangible-music.com

Sue Cavendish

www.stefanschill.com

David Blue April 2010

www.dannyschmidt.com

David Kidman April 2009

So here's the promised new Waterbug release from the Texas-born songwriter whose 2005 set Parables And Primes so impressed me on its way-belated UK release last autumn. And it lives right up to expectation in just about every way (even tho' there's no epic track like Stained Glass on this record). Unlike Parables And Primes, though, Little Grey Sheep draws on seven years of Danny's writing. It "takes its title from the fact that at one point in time or another, each song had been deemed too askew to fit neatly alongside its peers", yet its unity - as a "flock", if you like - resides in that each song can be traced back to a very particular episode in Danny's life, and in Danny's special worldview as applied to the personal rather than (as on Parables) the generalised human experience.

The album as a whole still compels close listening and commands (and gets) your undivided attention right from the outset. Danny's beguiling and highly individual brand of apparent gentility emerges from the ether on the opening song, Leaves Are Burning, a jaw-droppingly atmospheric piece dripping with highly sensory imagery and cocooned with ear-burningly eerie female harmony vocal (Joia Wood, who shares this role with Devon Sproule over the course of the album). Danny goes on to examine the ambiguities of relationships on Cliff Song and Around The Waist: the former is a seemingly simple relationship song, sung in a quivering tremolo that emphasises the utterly scary nature of the predicament, while the latter is a lighter reflection on the mystery of emotions. Towards the end of the record, though, Danny presents a more straightforward stance on the constancy of love and friendships, with the beautiful and delicate Song For Judy And Bridget and the powerfully valedictory litany-cum-credo Company Of Friends (this itself complements the fairly cautious optimism of Drawing Board earlier on the disc).

The disc's two parables provide contrasting experiences: Go Ugly Early is steeped in desperate southern-gothic familial mythology while Tales Of Sweet Odysseus is a more overtly ironic twist on a mythological adventure that's craftily set to a sideways cod-Irish slip-jig (as a companion to Beggars And Mules, it's almost kind of another in-joke for Danny's muso friends, I suspect). Then there's an almost-too-easy Guthrie-esque demeanour to the next pair of songs, Emigrant, MT and the quirkily double-edged California's On Fire, but both make their points concisely and attractively. The only track I'm unsure about is Adios To Tejasito, which may well be summed up by the "It's nice enough to visit, It's nice enough to get back in your car" couplet for which sentiment the song's general of air of too knowing over-flippancy and somewhat sloppy rhythm-section input don't hope to compensate.

Helping Danny with production this time round is Paul Curreri, a genius who plays a large assortment of instruments very sparingly and is blessed with an acute ear for just what limited textures should grace each of Danny's compositions (banjo, guitar, piano, whatever); other Charlottesville musicians (fiddle, accordion, harmonica, steel guitar, bass, drums) are also occasionally brought in for softly judged traceries and subtle effects. Even the "heavier" electric arrangement for Trouble Comes Calling isn't allowed to swamp Danny's lyrics. This convincing new set from Danny was worth waiting for, sure.

www.dannyschmidt.com

David Kidman March 2008

A cult figure on the Austin indie rock scene with former bands the Scabs and Ugly Americans, the Michigan born singer-songwriter's Schneider's now carving a successful solo career, cropping up on such film soundtracks as Miss Congeniality, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back while this, his first to get a UK release, was named Album of the Year in his hometown Music Awards,

He's been compared to such names as Counting Crows and The Wallflowers, to which, judging by the laid back shrugging lazy rock of Captain Kirk, you might also want to add Steve Miller, the track clearly owing a debt to The Joker.

He's got a relaxed, warm style, easing through mellow Americana hued numbers like Come With Me Tonight, A Long Way To Get (shades of Paul Simon here) and the string enhanced lullabying ballad Love Is Everywhere while a sparkier side's revealed with the Dylan-like jogging rhythmed title track and a Tom petty flavoured C'mon Baby with its hard guitar riffs. And, as The Bridge Builders demonstrates, he can whip up a beefy quiet-to-a-storm moody rock ballad too.

With broken relationships, alienation and drugs on the lyrical agenda, he deals in the darkside but there's a sense of wit and ironic humour in there too; viz God Is My Friend which, nodding melodically to Joan Osborne's If God Was One Of Us, offers the image of the Almighty lounging around on a cloud snorting coke or wearing Italian shoes and chugging on a Coors Light.

The album takes a while to work its way inside your head and there are a couple of tracks that probably won't figure on the repeat play button, but it is something to which you will find yourself returning.

www.bobschneidermusic.com

Mike Davies

Manchester's finest Matt Schofield returns with his fourth album and makes it a set of two apiece for live and studio albums. He has recently been voted by Guitar & Bass magazine as one of the Top 10 British Bluesmen of all time and that is some accolade. Just as he was influenced by Albert Collins and Robben Ford he now is regularly quoted as being an influence on many a young British guitarist. Although a studio album, Ear To The Ground was recorded live with the band in a single room and the overdubs were kept to a minimum. They open with Freddie King's Pack It Up and turn it into a funky blues, strong both musically and vocally. Nine Schofield and band written originals follow and start with Troublemaker. This gives Jonny Henderson on keyboards a chance to shine, and he takes it. Schofield joins in with Albert Collins influenced runs as he burns up the frets. The eponymous title track is a grittier, tougher blues altogether and the trio get into a groove. Heart Don't Need A Compass is a slow brooder. Schofield's guitar is a star - jazzy and much influenced by Albert King's Stax period. Once In A While is even slower and has a Gospel feel surrounding it - classy guitar.

Room At The Back, a short instrumental that allows free flow guitar, allows Schofield to tip the nod to such bands as The Meters and Soulive. Someone has a full blown harmonica burst from 'Big Pete' Van Der Pluym and is heavier than most on offer. It builds well and the guitar and harp work well together. Searchin' (Give Me A Sign) is jazzy blues with an edge - slinky guitar and reputed to be Matt's favourite. Move Along is full blown jazz/blues with Schofield and Johnny Henderson in synchronization. A fast paced, energetic instrumental with drummer Evan Jenkins chipping in to complete a classic organ trio song. Cookie Jar is organ based but Schofield steals the show and turns it into a highlight. When It All Comes Down is a BB King cover and a great finish. It is different enough from the original but still keeps the ethos. Schofield manages to sound like the great man on guitar and it sounds as if everyone who was in the studio that day is involved in the sing-along finish. The Matt Schofield trio have an album that keeps them in the highest echelons of British Blues.

www.mattschofield.com
www.nugenerecords.com

David Blue June 2007

Matt Schofield is a bright young light in British guitar playing and this debut album recorded at the Bishops Blues Club shows why. There's a strong guitar and drum start on the funky, jazzy Uncle Junior and Evan Jenkins provides a continuing rhythm, for over 8 minutes, on his kit. The classic Everyday I Have The Blues is given the treatment and showcases Schofield's excellent guitar style. His voice is silky but it's not BB King. Bloody Murder is done in a John Mayall style – just close your eyes and listen. The stunning guitar work on this make it a highlight.

Treat Me Lowdown is a swinging jazzy blues and Jonny Henderson is given his chance to shine on the organ. There's some good interplay between guitar and organ on Cissy Strut and this 8 and a half minutes of virtuoso playing just makes you realise how good a guitarist Schofield is. I don't know many people who would cover an Albert Collins track but Matt's version of Travellin' South will have made the maestro proud. His chopping, snappy guitar and vocal are delivered with feeling.

There's another blues classic next, it's Sitting On Top Of The World. This is different from the original and also from the version done by Cream and Schofield has managed to put his own stamp on the song, something very difficult on a much-covered track. The trio belt out the jazzy blues Hippology to finish and I detect the Albert Collins style in there once again. The trio are a very good live band and the only thing that I can criticize them on is that they did not offer up any self-written material. Maybe they are saving that for the next studio album and I wait in anticipation.

www.nugenerecords.com
www.mattschofield.com

David Blue

Many readers will remember encountering the spellbinding Canadian fiddler Oliver Schroer when he performed regularly with singer-songwriter James Keelaghan during the earlier part of the decade; tragically, however, Schroer, an intensely gifted musician and composer (and noted music educator) in his own right, died of leukaemia in July 2008. At the time of his initial diagnosis in the spring of 2007, and while awaiting treatment, Oliver recorded Hymns And Hers, an ensemble project on which he collaborated with friends old and new including some of Toronto's finest musicians (including David Woodhead, who's also worked with JK) and vocalists.

In direct contrast to many of Oliver's earlier compositions, the music of Hymns And Hers is altogether more spiritual in character, in that it expresses important things about his relationship to life. It does this by means of more rarefied kinds of forms and melodies (outside of pure entertainment vehicles like jigs, reels and waltzes), instead now bringing forth prayers, incantations, melismas and suchlike in lovingly textured musical settings that are sometimes quite plush yet remain pure and intimate.

Each of the disc's dozen items possesses a special character all its own. The opening "prayerful hymn" A Song For All Seasons gradually unfolds like a Mike Oldfield piece (Oliver even plays a burst or two of electric guitar), while Flowers centres around a playful baroque fiddle-and-piano arabesque and She's With The Angels Now is a peaceful and reverential (though almost unbearably touching) piece written after the death of a close friend. Roses For The Lady, written for Oliver's mother, resembles a slightly cheeky variant of an elegant Edwardian salon-piece, contrasting with the desperate discords (and strange vocal juxtapositions and ululations) of Hymn For The Dispossessed. The Morning Star joyfully unites brass and fiddle choirs in hope and jubilation: qualities which also resound through the rippling wedding-tune Chel's Bells and the reposeful beauty of the final pair of pieces on the disc. So OK, we understand the hymns, but why the "hers", you'll now be asking? – according to Oliver, these he calls "the other part of the divine duality", being the tunes that felt like they belonged here but did not feel like hymns. Fair explanation… Hymns And Hers is a delightful release, although be warned: its distinctive, intensely sweet poignancy may at times catch you unawares.

Camino, recorded three years before Hymns And Hers, is here re-promoted, hopefully to gain wider circulation. Both albums share a basic quality of intimacy, but Camino's intimacy derives from the purely solo nature of the performances enshrined within as much as from their ambient settings. The disc presents a series of excerpts from a vivid audio record of Oliver's trek along the Camino de Santiago pilgrim trail, the major element of which consists of pieces Oliver played on the violin that he carried with him like a precious relic on that pilgrimage, wrapped not in a violin-case but in a sleeping-bag in his backpack. These musical items are like limpid fantasias, both highly ascetic and deeply emotionally charged, like a disenfranchised parallel universe where time stands still for the duration of each piece and the austerely quasi-improvisatory world of the Bach partita meets the mesmeric but spacious liturgical iconography of John Tavener, at times also hinting at indigenous Canadian fiddling traditions. Oliver's playing is both graceful and evocative, it forming a two-way process whereby the attractive remoteness of the settings informs the almost religious spirit of Oliver's communing with the genius-loci. Each sonic space is acoustically enticing in its own way, each church possessing its own special resonances, while the trail's various environments also provide the ambient sound-sketches that punctuate the musical performances: the pealing of bells, street sounds, birdsong, praying and chanting. Immerse yourselves in this rich and rather magical experience; though it may prove all too easy to get lost in its charms and you may not want to return to our world.

www.oliverschroer.com

David Kidman January 2010

Willy Schwarz - Home (Clearspot)

The second album from Tom Waits' raspy-voiced New York German-Italian Jewish keyboard player bears the subtitle Songs of Immigrants, Refugees and Exiles. It contains exactly what it says on the label. The opening track's clattering rhythm may initially recall his former paymaster, but as it opens out into Native American tribal colourings the album's globe hopping musical and thematic nature is quickly signposted. Calcutta, Italy, Malawi are among the places Schwarz's stories visit, taking potent angry, sorrowed or yearning photos of the socio-political landscapes and emotional climates. Here are the world's unwanted and rootless, forced to move on (Same Old World), work in menial jobs (Lavaplatos), left 'pacified' in their own blood (Refugees) or trying to scrape a life in the land of the free (Taxi). Here are personal stories of torn dreams and crushed hopes but also of the tenacity to survive (Mother of Exiles) and the strength of love (Wind In Our Sails) in the face of adversity. Musically eclectic, it journeys through the blues, Hindustani tala, Bulgarian trad, Tijuana waltzes, Celtic twilights, African funk, Jewish roots, show tunes and Kurt Weill cabaret, constantly and consistently in tune with the humanity from which it's birthed and which it observes. A quite magnificent and moving work.

www.efa-medien.de/frankf/frame_hausgemachtes_clearspot.htm

Mike Davies

Lo-Fi/garage/punk from an American boy and girl duo (boy on guitar and girl on drums). Sound familiar? No it's not The White Stripes. Schwervon! is Nan Turner and Major Matt Mason USA (Matt Roth) and they hail from the Lower East Side of New York City.

This, their debut album, opens with the angst ridden American Girl (not the Tom Petty song) and continues to ask questions about your musical leanings for the next ten tracks. The only song not written by the duo is the final offering, the classic Surfin' Bird which is given a slower treatment than the original but when it gets going it is the best track on the album. This would be the ideal song for them to do on 'Later With Jools Holland' if they get an invite.

Songs like Holy Cat and Twin Donut could easily be modern American classics although the formers title sounds like one that Phoebe from Friends would sing. The simple yet effective Dinner is one of my favourites and the equally simple and powerful Springtime may have you humming 'Don't Fear The Reaper' before it settles down.

They do tackle the classic them of love as well as the offbeat. Breaking In is their version of a love song. Something Else (again a title from days gone by but this is a new song) is very reminiscent of The Eels and Schwervon! could be a classic 60s TV theme but with a contemporary twist..

Schwervon! will find a market for their music and they may even achieve the cult status of that other aforementioned duo.

www.olivejuicemusic.com
www.shoeshine.co.uk

David Blue

[Ed. See NetRhythms reviews of urban-folkster Major Matt Mason USA's albums Honey, Are You Ready For The Ballet and his debut Me Me Me at Major Matt Mason USA
Look out for the excellent Call It What You Want, This Is Antifolk on Major Matt's own label Olive Juice Records - a collection of performances, including his own, from other New York anti-folk acts.

Patti Scialfa - Play It As It Lays (Columbia)

"I'm going to find my state of grace," sang Scialfa on 2004's 23rd Street Lullaby. Judging by the follow-up, it seems the quest took her deep into the American south. Indeed, on the opening Looking For Elvis she pretty much lays out her map and motivations as she sings "I'm just looking for some inspiration, I'm looking for something to rock my soul, I'm looking for for a brand new destination, I'm looking for Elvis down a Memphis road."

She certainly seems to have found it, producing an album steeped in Memphis rock n soul and gospel, a vintage R&B mood that sets the mind thinking of such names as Laura Nyro, Bonnie Raitt and, with the 'doo-lang doo-lang' back ups culled from He's So Fine on Like Any Woman, such girl groups as the Chiffons.

That's not the only specific 60s reference either. A smoulderingly earthy acoustic blues-soul number, The Word features elements from folk staple Sally Go Round The Roses while the bluesy groove swagger Town Called Heartbreak quotes Janis Ian's Society's Child. And although there may be no sample as such, the lyrics of a slinky love fever Bad For You surely deliberately reference both Say A Little Prayer and Knock On Wood.

But then the whole feel of the album harks back to those musical streets, Play Around a gently rippling ballad that Ben E King might have sung had he been Dion De Mucci while Run, Run, Run struts the sort of dirty heat Tina Turner patented back in her scorching raw youth.

There's a strong sense of melancholy, of falling from grace, finding salvation and getting back up, to several of the songs, a mood that fuels the album's strongest, simplest ballads, the dock of the bay/back porch feel of the reflective world weary title track and the love pledging Black Ladder, that bring things to a hushed, evening calm close. I suppose I should mention that, yes, husband Bruce does play some guitar and organ, while the musicians also include E-Streeters Lofgren and Soozy Tyrell, but, more than ever, it's clear from this album Scialfi's standing in no one's shadow.

www.pattiscialfa.net

Mike Davies September 2007

Patti Scialfa - 23rd Street Lullaby (Columbia)

It's been over a decade since Mrs Springsteen released her excellent but underestimated debut album Rumble Doll, immediately attracting speculation that hubbie had anonymously provided the songs as well as playing on the album. The domestic connections are evident again, Bruce providing occasional guitar and keyboards (fellow E Streeters Nils Lofgren and Soozy Tyrell are also present and correct) while the nostalgia steeped atmosphere and images of streets, rain and romance recall much of his own work. No great surprise there, but this is patently Scialfa's baby, the songs hewn from her own and her family's experiences and while the melodies may conjure him indoors its influences hark more to the guitar ringing Jersey soul of Southside Johnny and the delivery to Dylan.

"I'm looking for a piece of my past," she sings on the Lou Reed-like You Can't Go Back, recalling New York City 1988 when she "used to walk invisible." It was a time and place caught between faith and failure, of searching for a place in the American Dream (State of Grace, Young In The City), of kindly waitresses with wordly wise words (a sha la la ing Rose), of getting knocked back (Stumblin' To Bethlehem) and finding solace in lovers arms (Each Other's Medicine, Romeo) however temporary they may be.

Rich in hooks and harmonies, tumbling emotions caught in folky vocal catch on songs that veer between the Mink De Ville meets The Corrs of Love (Stand Up), the swaggering bluesy City Boys, the gospel hued piano ballad showtune that is When You're Young in the City and the wonderful title track's down on the avenue and up on the Brill Building rooftop city valentine. "I'm going to find my state of grace," she vows. Musically speaking, this album suggests the quest's well underway. A ltd edition also includes a bonus disc with three live tracks, 23rd Street Lullaby, Spanish Dancer and As Long As I (Can Be With You)

www.pattiscialfa.net

Mike Davies

This sparkling new set of 13 contrasted songs also moves their musical development on a stage further, taking their basic approach and extending it with some finely contoured musical arrangements which, while remaining tastefully minimal, really do enhance both the songs and the singing. Credit here to producer Dave Walmisley and engineer Ken Powell, both formerly of the well-regarded trio Risky Business, whose trademark gentle mellifluosity pervades the proceedings to good effect (and all of whose members appear sporadically during the course of the disc). Both Sue and Liz happen to be really good singers, either heard individually or together in attractive harmony, and their thoroughly professional attitude to their craft enables them to relax sufficiently as they demonstrate their affinity with their chosen material and communicate its essence directly to their audience. Their delivery is captivating, refreshing and entertaining, and often very moving; coincidentally perhaps, the latter quality characterises my personal highlights: the powerfully evocative Siren Sea (one of Alan Bell's finest compositions in my opinion, and complementing his beautiful Sailor's Sky which closes the CD) and Briege Murphy's The Sea (some nice whistle playing from guest Phil Brown on all three of these songs by the way), also the unjustly neglected Dransfields song Fair Maids Of February, and a sensitive interpretation of the traditional Rigs Of Rye. I also really liked the ladies' tender setting of Ron Baxter's succinct yet poignant character portrait Molly, also their unsentimentalised take on Mary Benson's Sail Away, both of these done straight acappella (the latter with Felicia Dale guesting), and their lovely treatment of Allan Taylor's deceptively simple Come Home Safely To Me. But Scolds Bridle can make you laugh as well as cry too - the disc's "fun" song, Lynne Heraud's piquant little discourse on The Menopause, is a perfectly acceptable interlude in this context, while one has always to acknowledge that "fun" songs tend to wear less well in the cold light of home listening (hmm, I'm tempted to label this particular song "less suitable for regular periodic (sic!) replay"!)

Any minus points? - well, some may consider the similarity of tempo marking for the vast majority of the material to be a drawback, but I'd say the variety in the actual songs more than compensates. Recording-wise, there's an occasional tendency to fierceness or over-closeness in capturing Liz's lead vocal contributions, but this is a minor point that's more noticeable on some CD players than others. In summary, this is a very lovely CD that, while almost effortlessly pleasing Scolds Bridle's growing loyal fanbase, really ought also to bring them plenty of new admirers.

www.scoldsbridle.co.uk

David Kidman August 2007

www.annscott.net

Mike Davies February 2009

For some years now, the Irish music scene in Liverpool has been a vibrant one; the charming and distinctive singing of Liverpool Irishman Bruce Scott, one of that scene's most charismatic performers, is captured faithfully on this disc, which has been put together exclusively from recent recordings. Bruce's performing style is both a reflection and a consolidation of a lifetime spent singing; it embodies a bold and quite florid use of decoration and vibrato, while retaining a fluent sense of pacing that does not destroy the internal rhythms of the songs. This collection of 15 songs brings together both strands of Bruce's artistry - his interpretation of existing (principally traditional) song and his own songwriting (the latter being a comparatively recent venture, we're told). The former is the source for just over two-thirds of the CD's material, and includes versions of The Rocks Of Bawn, Easy And Slow, The Month Of January and She Moved Through The Fair which are very characterful indeed, if at times some listeners may find some of the slower songs a mite strident perhaps, or even slightly laboured. To introduce a bit of tonal variety into the proceedings, Bruce is accompanied on five of the songs, on whistle or flute, by Terry Coyne (who you'll know as member of Garva). Good though Bruce's renditions of traditional songs may be, his own compositions, very much in the traditional style, are uniformly excellent; this CD's title track won him the title of 2004 All-Ireland Champion in the category of newly-composed ballads, and no wonder - although all four self-penned songs display a comparable flair for composing within the tradition, especially in respect of Bruce's creative adoption of traditional airs. This well-presented CD makes for mesmerising listening, and proves a worthy addition to Veteran's catalogue.

www.veteran.co.uk

David Kidman

The status of this release is readily apparent right from the first chords of its opening track, Darrell's cover of the undersung Gordon Lightfoot "prayer" All The Lovely Ladies: Darrell's long-term admiration for Gordon's artistry is present in every lovingly phrased note of his interpretation. Modern Hymns is, unusually for this noted songwriter, an album of covers – but what superbly judged covers. As confirmed in his own companionable and anecdotal booklet notes, Darrell similarly conveys his desire to make other folks' great songs truly his own, in the easy company of a stalwart roster of musos that includes Dirk Powell, Danny Thompson, Andrea Zonn, Stuart Duncan, Casey Driessen, Ronnie McCoury and Danny Flowers, with extra vocal support from (among others) Del McCoury, Kathy Chiavola and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. In terms of material, Darrell draws on the work of writers whom he clearly considers personal heroes, in a special category which he rather appealingly terms "lock-myself-in-my-teenage-bedroom-and-absorb affairs". There's Bob Dylan, Hoyt Axton, John Hartford, Kris Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury, for a start; and yet there are also some pretty unexpected choices here, while even the more familiar of the songs are invariably dealt with in intriguing ways. Paul Simon's American Tune gets a neat bluegrassy treatment, with Tim O'Brien tagging along, while Mary Gauthier adds exemplary gravitas to Darrell's magnificent cover of Leonard Cohen's Joan Of Arc (now there's a modern hymn for you!), itself further enhanced by Alison Krauss's contrastingly angelic tones (on the chorus-vocal part) and an atmospheric string section backing. On the final track, Darrell repays the compliment of Guy Clark covering one of his own songs, by turning in an affectionate rendition of Guy's That Old Time Feeling (he even gets to play Guy's old #6 flamenco guitar on the track too!). The only cut where I'm not quite sure Darrell convinces is his pacey 2/4 trot through Joni Mitchell's Urge For Going. The one strictly non-vocal number, Pat Metheny's James, is bestowed with a gorgeous wordless part (Moira Smiley) that when it's not keening the main melody forms a counterpoint to the sensitive newgrass-style instrumental treatment. No other word for it - this disc is a gem.

www.darrellscott.com

David Kidman August 2008

Grammy-winning country musician Darrell Scott is not your common or garden variety of singer/songwriter.

And it's not just because he's a member of Steve Earle's Bluegrass Dukes, or the producer of two of Guy Clark's albums or even that he plays with John Cowan or Sam Bush, the real reason he's so special is revealed on The Invisible Man - the title shows a nice line in irony because it is going to make him anything but invisible.

The songs on the album aren't plucked from the imagination of a writer, they're hewn from the beliefs and experiences of a man who just happens to be one of the most talented musicians around country music today. Even if he weren't, the passions that drove him to write and perform I'm Nobody would have to find an outlet somewhere, it's music's gain that his safety valve is a guitar and a lyric.

Darrell Scott's brand of country is deep-rooted, there's a substance and solidity to his music. He opens up his soul on Looking Glass but he's not about to crumple while he's doing it. But the 'messages' are also wrapped up in some great country-rock riffs and melodies, not once has Scott forgotten that he's also an entertainer.

While Darrell Scott was born in London, it was a tobacco farm in London, Kentucky that was his first home and it may be fanciful notion to suggest that, alongside Kris Kristofferson and Micky Newbury, Scott picked up on the late, great Lindisfarne front man Alan Hull. However with In My Final Hour and the title track, he steps out of country and taps into the same passionate, conscience driven folk that was Hull's genius, a fanciful notion maybe but for those moments they are kindred spirits.

There is another British connection on The Invisible Man, the eerie, haunting Shattered Cross was written by the late Stuart Adamson, founder of Scots band Big Country and a friend of Scott's, the track was recorded a month after Adamson's death, Darrell Scott does his friend proud.

And, like most great writers, music or otherwise, Darrell Scott is able to look beyond his own horizon and Goodle, USA and I'm Nobody are uncomfortable songs, only because they grab hold of equally uncomfortable truths.

Whatever it is you search for in music, Darrell Scott shows himself to be a master. All of the narratives on The Invisible Man are deeply personal, 'with my head in a song and a song in my head, let me live until I'm dead' from The River Is Me doesn't need a genius to work out its meaning and it sets the scene for songs like The Dreamer. Darrell Scott follows the old adage 'write about what you know', it's lucky for us that he knows himself so well.

www.darrellscott.com

Michael Mee, July 2006

Darrell Scott - Theatre of the Unheard (Full Light Records)

The question is not how good is Darrell Scott on Theatre of the Unheard, East of Gary, the opening track will tell you that this is a very, very good album.

The 11 tracks that follow, will serve to confirm the opinion that this is surely destined to become a treasured album, not just of this year either. The real question is just WHAT is Theatre of the Unheard?

There is a real sense of journey running throughout the music. East of Gary and Uncle Lloyd have a suffocating desolation hanging over them like a storm cloud. When Scott sings of the bleakness of the steel mills, he delivers it with an industrial tempo. He's not looking back through rose-tinted glasses but through steel-grey eyes that recognize harsh reality.

If music does have a 'higher' purpose than to be simply entertaining, then that purpose is well-served by Six O'Clock In The Morning, it's the kind of song that makes you squirm in your seat but it's hold is unbreakable. It also has an intro that is indescribably sad.

But like life, the journey moves on and almost imperceptibly but surely, the mood lightens. Like the sun rising the soul of songs like River Take Me is warmed. Miracle Of Living is both funky and forward looking, enough of emotional baggage it's time to hit the road.

Darrell Scott seems as comfortable with the confessional Full Light as he does with the free-rocking I Wanna Be Free, by now we're into the real guts of the album, having shed the weight of the past he cuts loose and with Jonelle Mosser as the voice of Sally by his side, the song climbs and soars. And yet, as if to burst the bubble of passion that is now suspended over the album, the sweet folk charms of Alton Air soothe and calm the whole thing down, they blow through like a warm breeze.

But it's back to business with the wonderfully evocative The Man Who Could Have Played Bass With Shanana, it is so beautifully woven that even if it isn't true (and it must be) I'd rather be left in ignorance and believe it is.

The sleeve notes set the album out as scenes of a play. If Theatre of the Unheard is to be thought of as musical drama then Darrell Scott's role is that of the 'honest man' making his way through life and sharing his thoughts the best way he knows how.

But is it country rock, blues, folk, folk/rock or pure Americana, it's all of those and more. The sum of its parts is made greater by the hand of a maestro, Darrell Scott.

www.darrellscott.com

Michael Mee

Our favourite Bradford-on-Avon songwriter (not the Waterboy!) here swiftly follows his quirky (if at times stark) Irregular release Shedsongs (reviewed here last summer) with a new, independently-produced collection that may be more ambitious (in terms of arrangement and sound production) but just as intelligent and unpretentiously idiosyncratic as before in both content and basic outlook. Mike's lyrical meanderings convey life-experiences that we can, and do, all share; at times it's like we're hearing a Bristolian Loudon Wainwright, and at others Mike's gift for laconic, wry observation recalls Ivor Cutler. If I were completely honest I might opine that, in terms of almost surreal absurdity value, one or two of the songs on Um don't quite measure up to the level of memorability of invention of the majority of those on Shedsongs (but then, how do you follow some of those celebrated utterances?!). But Mike's still got the gift of being very entertaining while remaining thought-provoking – and vice versa – on observational gems like Domestic, Wealth and Mr Wilson in particular. Maybe in comparison songs like Corridors seem to sprawl a little more aimlessly, but when Mike's focus returns it's as sharp as previously. Sharp and focused, too, are the contributions of Mike's backing musicians (notably Graham Ball, Mark Griffin, Mark Jones, Carmen Mirza and Kate Riaz). Perhaps I'll give a better flavour of Mike's creative endeavours by quoting from the priceless, if pithy putdown that masquerades as a liner-note: "… I don't feel inclined to explain these songs. They are, in the aggregate, the dropped underclothing of an unremarkable life, you may choose to launder or bin them, secretly sniff them, or metaphorically wear them, hold them at arm's length or you know I mean… um…" (As we fade somewhat less than coherently into the sunset of our thoughts)

www.myspace.com/bristolsmikescott

David Kidman June 2007

Not to be confused with the Waterboys main-man, this Mike Scott is a songwriter of some 25 years' standing who hails from the Bradford-on-Avon area, well-regarded locally yet has yet to gain acceptance nationally; Shedsongs, his first recording to be issued on a more widely-distributed label, may help in that respect. His style of delivery is direct and involving, with a definite Bristolian burr, and his simple guitar accompaniments are attractively mellifluous, skilled but unflashy enough for you to be able to concentrate on the lyrics. These largely consist of directly expressed observations on the incredible absurdities of normal living, observations with most of which almost all of us can identify I'm sure, and they're often very funny indeed. (Who else might be able to get away with following an accurate commentary on the appalling state of today's Cornish pasties with a questionably delectable ditty on the peculiar properties of feline excrement...?!!) "My songs will not offer you many solutions to the difficulties we all wrestle with, but I hope they might pose a few pertinent questions, and cause the odd chuckle", says Mike. The direct and sometimes superficially simplistic nature of his observations actually conceals an innate keen intelligence and a real gift for irony. In the latter respect Mike recalls Loudon Wainwright III (whom he acknowledges as a major influence) and perhaps also Jake Thackray (without quite the same degree of laconicism). He possesses a skill that's increasingly rare these days - that of being genuinely entertaining without descending to the WMC gambits of patronising his listeners and drawing attention to himself over and above the call of duty. He achieves a good rapport with his audience (as the four live tracks on the CD amply demonstrate) through his straightforward communication of the shared life-experiences with which we can all empathise. In other words, there's an unpretentious, and also disarmingly self-confident, take-it-or-leave-it aspect to Mike, his songs and his performance of them, which paradoxically often verges on self-deprecation: a combination of qualities which we find in ourselves if we have the percipience to look deeply enough and be prepared to admit, but one which Mike forces out in to the open and invites us to examine. Highlights of this little collection include the priceless The Door (a stark yet right-on exploration of one's standing as an artiste in today's folk clubs), The Bridge (an ode to dumping) and the hidden bonus track Men Bugger Off, while the less humorous side of Mike's writing - every bit as valid both as comment and as commentary - is represented by 25 To 3, Miss Appleton's Bell and Warstars. Mike's a treasure, an individual among songwriters, his writing not exactly reminding you of anyone in particular - a good thing in anyone's book. I'd like to hear more of Mike's work, and I do hope this CD brings him some more lucrative gigs out with "The Door", for surely he does deserve them!

www.irregularrecords.co.uk
www.myspace.com/bristolsmikescott

David Kidman April 2007

Wayne Scott - The Weary Way (Full Light)

Surely the only reasons that Wayne Scott recorded a debut album at age 71 are that he is in love the music and he still feels has something to say with it. The Weary Way passes with flying colours on both counts but Scott was a reluctant recording star, having to be coaxed into the studio by his son Darrell.

After building cars in Michigan and working in the Indiana steel mills, Scott Sr made his way to California where, at the ripe old age of 40, he formed his first band.

He played the West coast for 20 years, joined by his five sons but he was definitely a 'play for pay' jobbing musician and never aired the hundreds of songs he had written throughout his life, preferring to give people what he thought they wanted. Many of those covers were infinitely inferior to the songs which appear on The Weary Way.

Then Wayne Scott put all his songs into a songbook as a Christmas gift for Darrell, who instantly recognised that his father was a born storyteller and who, eventually and thankfully, coaxed him into the studio to record The Weary Way.

Joined by Guy Clark and, of course, Darrell, Wayne has made an album that has the relaxed feel of music made and recorded by friends on the spur of the moment. In fact many of the tracks come from sessions in various living rooms.

We'll never know what Wayne Scott would have achieved, had he had the opportunity to record earlier, but The Weary Way has the grounding and ruggedness of music made by a man who has lived a full life outside of the cloistered confines of Tin Pan Alley. He has poured a lifetime's expereinces into every song, in place of a professional writer, striving to put together the perfect song, the man himself is etched into every line and every verse.

He mines the same harsh truths as a musician he admittedly admires, the late great Johnny Cash - the album ends with a wonderfully gritty Folsom Prison Blues. They share the common bond and belief that a song is something more important than merely a vehicle to impress or pay the bills. Like Cash, Wayne Scott uses music to explore, heartbreak, faith, family and the restorative powers of whiskey all come under his gaze.

The album's title, The Weary Way, is a bit of a misnomer, Wayne Scott displays the passion and energy of a man a third his age. Sunday With My Son, My Last Bottle Of Wine and When It's Raining After Midnite may be reflective, but they are the words and music of a man who is brutally honest with himself, the power derived from that honesty makes The Weary Way electrifying.

At the heart of Wayne Scott's music is an optimism and belief in the future epitomised by Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. He may be 71 but Wayne Scott is far from finished with music.

www.waynescottmusic.com

Michael Mee

Scottish Guitar Quartet - Fait Accompli (Circular Records)

This CD, the Quartet's second recording, bears a 2002 date, yet it has only just reached me – some quirk of distribution no doubt… Anyway, suffice to say that it does largely what it says on the proverbial tin, being a spirited 40-minute set of pieces played by four acoustic guitarists, mostly in the jazzy-classical-folk mould that would be regarded as, or at least bordering on, easy-listening if the textures weren't so perennially busy. And as such some listeners are likely to find them too "twiddly" for continued or repeated listening - so this may not be a CD for listening to all in one sitting (except in the context of superior background music for relaxation perhaps). But taken individually, each track has much to commend it, whether in the ever-stylish, highly accomplished playing or the idiomatic compositions (all originals by one or other group member). Influences and styles range from flamboyant flamenco (Dance Of The Gypsy King) to classical Spanish to classy incidental music (From Dawn To Dust) to gentle bossa-nova (Simplicity Itself). I don't normally appreciate over-tricksy playing, but here the virtuosity is altogether unassuming and is channelled creatively - I specially liked the fascinatingly awkward Sideways Mobile, From Dawn To Dust and the softly-characterised After Hours. The quartet comprises Malcolm MacFarlane, Ged Brockie, Kevin Mackenzie and Nigel Clark; of the ten tracks, Ged gets the lion's share as regards composing credits (six), Malcolm three and Kevin just one. The recording quality is predictably excellent, with individual lines perfectly clearly delineated at all times. The potential drawback is that the unvarying timbre of four guitars could prove tedious for the non-aficianado. However, whatever your musical tastes, basically if you enjoy the likes of Martin Taylor, or just love the sound of the guitar well played then you just know the quartet can't put a finger wrong. If you don't, then keep well away – but then, fair dos, you wouldn't give it a second glance if guitars weren't your bag would you?… A fait accompli in both senses – an accomplished feat and a foregone conclusion (if ever there was one!).

www.scottishguitarquartet.com

David Kidman

The Scottish Power Pipe Band - Cathcart (Greentrax)

The Scottish Power Pipe Band is a - well, what other word can I use but powerful (sic) Grade 1 ensemble that's featured as a regular prizewinner in all major piping competitions over several decades, and in 2004 came fifth in the World Pipe Band Championships. But this release is a pipe band album with a difference - well, a few differences in fact, most notably in texture. The first track may sound straightforward pipe band fare, with a brief skirl of reels on pipes'n'drums, and there's a mighty six-minute tune medley near the end of the CD, but track 2's Gaelic Air And Jigs set breaks with piping tradition by incorporating electric and bass guitar and drumkit and threatens to really rock; as does track 9 (somewhat imaginatively titled Jigs Set) from the very start. The track 5 set is a more restrained affair, ringing the piping changes as a strathspey/reel combination played on smallpipes with guitar accompaniment, while the Asturian Set introduces keyboard too and later on the CD there's a rendition of Amazing Grace in the Gaelic psalm version which is sung impeccably by guest Karen Matheson (though I do feel this is the one isolated instance on the whole CD where the actual arrangement is rather bland, albeit anchored more or less at the tasteful end of the tourist-board-type spectrum). Lest you begin to think that members of the pipe band are moonlighting by throwing down their bagpipes to pick up all these other instruments, I'll scotch that immediately - it's none other than the CD's co-producer Phil Cunningham, who's persuaded a host of other top-class Scottish roots musicians (Malcolm Stitt, Kevin MacKenzie, Matty Foulds, Stuart Nesbit, Foss Paterson and Alan Thomson) to take part. Their contributions are extremely well balanced within the overall mix, and clarity of texture is paramount. The commercial-concessional gesture of Amazing Grace aside, this is overall a significantly refreshing release that brings the standard sound and repertoire expectations of the pipe band into new territory and without playing too safe.

www.greentrax.com

David Kidman

Paul's first solo album has been a long time in coming (I know I'm not the only one who'll have been trying to persuade him to record something after seeing him perform at one or other of the many festivals he's played over the past few years), but the lengthiness of its gestation has evidently enabled him to produce something very worthwhile indeed. Although the principal melodic focus falls naturally on Paul's abundantly stylish squeezing and singing, there are times when it feels to be nearly as much of a showcase (albeit almost incidentally) for the criminally undersung talents of his duo partner Jon Loomes, that intensely skilled guitarist/fiddler/singer whose own album Fearful Symmetry has stayed with me ever since its unnecessarily low-key release. Freshly Squeezed is an apt title, for the music therein - an intelligently sequenced and finely balanced mixture of tunes and songs - always comes up fresh (there's the obvious bit), and (not so obvious maybe) it's been put through the blender and yet come out the other end as a delicious confection with a piquant flavour, rich and full in texture but retaining all the essence of its original fruit. OK, that sounds a mite laboured, but I trust you get the gist. Paul's been careful to vary the moods and textures throughout, and his (and Jon's) consummate musicianship winningly carries through the sequence, both leaving you generally wanting more and also desiring to revisit a large number of the tracks at an early opportunity. Paul's roots as a dance musician (and his current membership of "innovative ceilidh band" Chalktown) are evident in his infectious, well characterised melodeonship, particularly in qualities such as the sense of fun in rhythm and embellishment which I suspect arises out of the strong and lasting influence of his mentor John Kirkpatrick (seeing John at a folk club had originally inspired Paul to take up the melodeon in the first place!); having said that, Paul's playing is in no way imitative. The tunes he's chosen for this CD enterprisingly range from "good old English" dances (eg. the sparkling opening set) , original compositions by Dave Whetstone and Paul Burgess, a slow air, a suitably dignified retreat march, and even a Schottische associated with (or was it written by?) the singer Harry Cox. Who (neatly and coincidentally) provides the source for two of the six songs on the disc, Spotted Cow and Bold Fisherman. I wasn't entirely convinced by the irregular step of the latter, but the remainder of the disc's songs all benefit from Paul's vital approach (although, as is sometimes the case with the source recordings which surely form Paul's vocal inspiration, the phrasing and distinctive basic timbre of Paul's singing voice might take a little getting used to for some). I especially liked his take on the simple but evocative poetry of Bill Meek's Another Morning; and there's even one unaccompanied song: the fetching, slightly silly tale of Billy Bones And His Dancing Cat! The arrangements, mainly collaborations between Paul and Jon, are attractive and ingenious, making great capital out of the particular instrumental combinations: melodeon and fiddle work especially well in counterpoint (check out Beetle On The Wine), and Jon's guitar work on the final hornpipe is absolutely outstanding, while Jon's various contributions on hurdy-gurdy make for a scintillating addition to an already fulsome sound. Paul also doubletracks a mandola on occasion (it sounds a bit like a hammer-dulcimer on the aforementioned Schottische, I thought), and Michael Beeke adds English border pipes and recorder on the track 9 set to form The Mad River Band! Oh, and we have Jon to thank for the excellent recording too. A most creditable disc, well worth that long wait.

www.paulscourfield.co.uk

David Kidman October 2007

Chris's contribution to the music of alt-country legends BR-549 (and many of their peers) is already well-recognised, so his solo album is rather eagerly awaited in many quarters, and I'm glad to report that it doesn't disappoint - although at times it may rock a little heavier than some will expect (and the press release quite helpfully tags it as close to towards the far left of alt-country).

Although Chris himself is responsible for all the writing (bar one track), its dozen cuts initially seem a bit of a mixed bag, whose slightly thrown-together nature nevertheless makes for a refreshingly ragged disunity. I wouldn't exactly class Chris as a maverick, but he sure has a taste for lively eclecticism. There are a few tracks where the unusual combination of electric guitar, steel guitar and vibes imparts a kind of weird signature to Chris's music, but there's also a fair bit of variety when guests like Howe Gelb, Chuck Mead and Harvey Brooks add their own imprimaturs to the versatile musicianship of Chris himself. Following the full-on barrage of sound of the opening salvos (Josephine, the Dylanesque-rockabilly-styled It Ain't Right, and the outright rockers Running From The Graveyard and Troubled Times), things then settle down a bit, with the disc's middle stages embracing the cool vibes-bedecked swagger of A Victim's Song and a plaintive voice-and-guitar take on The Open Road, The Open Sky (penned by Chris's late uncle Ron Davies, who was best known as writer of It Ain't Easy from Bowie's Ziggy Stardust LP).

Thereafter Chris whips things all up again for one of the standouts - the juicy, twangy hillbilly honky-tonk of Where The Wind Might Blow (Don Herron's sparky fiddle fair lettin' its horse-hair down!). In the pure backwoods campfire ambience of Old Souls Like You And Me Chris is joined for some vocal harmony by Kelly Hogan no less, and the jazzy swoon of the closing Change Your Made Up Mind (complete with lazy piano solo from Nick Luca) drifts us back in time to the western-swing era. Perhaps Open Letter and Sing Your Tune are a touch self-consciously gawky, but the rest of the songs all ring true and there's some interestingly crafted wordsmithery at the heart of the best of Chris's writing.

www.chrisscruggs.com
www.myspace.com/chrisscruggs

David Kidman August 2009

The phrase "all-star extravaganza" might have been invented for this pair of vintage albums that provided the legendary Scruggs with some rare album-chart action in the mid-70s. The good Mr Scruggs, veteran exponent of the three-finger banjo style, had recorded prolifically after splitting up with his famous longtime partner Lester Flatt in early 1969, and the esteem in which he was held was reflected in the stellar cast of guest stars he was able to command to augment his sons Gary, Randy and Steve and their rhythm section in the Earl Scruggs Revue lineup which recorded over a dozen albums between 1969 and 1984. Anniversary Special and its sequel were titled to mark the 25th anniversary of Scruggs signing with CBS. So it was fitting that the roster of special guests for these recordings would be an extraordinary one, a real who's-who, comprising not only some of the most celebrated and ubiquitous session men of the time like Jim Messina and Jim Keltner, but also an impressive array of names from country, bluegrass, pop and rock, all knitted together on volume 1 by producer Bob Johnston, who had himself produced (or was shortly to produce) almost anyone you could name (and many you couldn't!). Although Earl and his Revue-compadres play on virtually all the tracks, many of the individual numbers (at least on volume 1) tend to feature one principal "guest" - eg Loudon Wainwright III on his own Swimming Song, Rambling Jack Elliott on Dylan's Song To Woody, Johnny Cash on I Still Miss Someone. And on volume 1, a host of honorary luminaries (Joan Baez, Michael Murphey, Bonnie Bramlett, The Pointer Sisters, Leonard Cohen and Buffy Sainte-Marie) also put in fleeting vocal appearances. As well as half-expected names like Roger McGuinn, Charlie Daniels, Doug Kershaw, some tracks (like the instrumental Bleeker Street Rag) feature a number of players more associated with rock than country - (eg Billy Joel and TYA guitarist Alvin Lee). For Volume 2, the lineup was less ambitious, and settled down to just the basic Revue band expanded out with sessioners like Pete Drake (steel), Teddy Irwin (guitar) and Shane Keister (piano). On both volumes, though, there was room for the more intimate country material alongside more blowsy, slightly overdone production numbers like Gospel Ship. The key attraction of these two albums, here usefully reissued on the one disc, is the timeless nature of their music. Not all of the material is top-drawer in my opinion, but it's worth hearing, and star-spotters and completists will doubtless have a field-day here. And even hardened banjo enthusiasts will find much to delight in these recordings. The booklet notes (by John Tobler) are in the best Gott tradition, admirably comprehensive and full of intriguing details and fascinating tangential connections, from which even the most well-travelled listener is likely to learn much.

www.gottdiscs.com
www.myspace.com/tombliss

David Kidman April 2007

He may be 77, but the king of the blue grass banjo clearly has no intentions of settling for a life of pipe, slippers and chewing baccy on the front porch. & Friends albums are a regular occurrence in the country world, but this is one of the best and with the revival of interest in trad American music in the wake of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Also one of the most timely. Elton John's the first at the party with his own Country Comfort, Earl taking an underplaying role that quickly transforms into more prominent picking come the second track, joining Dwight Yoakam for a hillbilly Borrowed Love. It's a joyful bubble of a noise that defies any attempt to keep toes from tapping, which is pretty much the mood sustained for the rest of the album as such names as Scruggs is joined by such names as Sting (Fill Her Up), Travis Tritt (True Love Never Dies), son and album producer Randy (Somethin' Just Ain't Right), John Fogerty (hoe downing it with Blue Ridge Mountain Blues), Vince Gill & Roseanne Cash (I Found Love) and, reworking gospel blues to their own means Don Henley and Johnny Cash trading it out on Passin' Thru. Least memorable is Billy Bob Thornton growling his way through Ring of Fire while on the other hand Scruggs and a throaty voiced Melissa Etheridge find something rather special together on the ballad The Angels, but if you really want a quick summation of what the man and the music is about then check out Foggy Mountain Breakdown, a yeehawing breakneck banjo and geetar instrumental jamboree with Scruggs and sons, Gill, Marty Stuart, Albert Lee, Leon Russell, Jerry Douglas, Paul Shaffer, Glen Duncan and Steve Martin. Fire on the mountain indeed.

www.earlscruggs.com

Mike Davies

This documentary DVD is an illuminating and mostly satisfyingly incisive look at the life and music of the legendary Chicago bluesman, who died in December 2004 at the age of 62 after complications from diabetes. Frank "Son" Seals was one of the more exciting of the Chicago axemen, with a thrusting, intense expressive style all his own. He made seven albums for Alligator over a 30-year period, and label boss Bruce Iglauer is but one of the folks interviewed in the 30-minute documentary film that forms the backbone of this DVD release. The film intersperses interview segments with footage of Son Seals in performance, during which he drives his band through excerpts from 12 of his best-known numbers (two-thirds of which were his own compositions, including the celebrated instrumental Hot Sauce, with which he habitually closed his set in later days). It's a straightforward documentary, which illuminates Seals' life through the reminiscences and insights of his sister Kat, his son Rodney and luminaries like Dr John, Koko Taylor and Stephen Seagal. It points up the Seals' courageousness in the face of struggles with ill-health (not just the diabetes but the effects of a bullet wound in his brain), and examines his philosophy behind the business of personal his music-making. The bonus feature on the DVD consists of three short (10-12-minute) segments of live performance, recorded in Chicago (Rooster Blues, House Of Blues and the Chicago Blues Festival) around five or six years ago. These show Seals and his band on blistering form, although the recording quality of the second set is a tad distant and lacking in presence compared to the immediacy of the other two. And personally I'd have liked to have longer extracts from his performances within the documentary (some are very brief indeed). But anyone who desires a permanent visual and audio memento of this honest, down-to-earth blues legend who thrived on live performance and as-live studio music-making, should find no disappointments in this package.

www.vizztone.com

David Kidman January 2008

www.seasicksteve.com
www.myspace.com/seasicksteve

Mike Davies October 2009

Literally thrown out of home when he was 14, Oklahoma born Steve Wold opted for the hobo life, riding the rails, working carnivals, sleeping rough or in flophouses, and frequently passing a few days in a variety of county jails. During which time he learned to play the blues, picking guitar on street corners for loose change before eventually winding up living in Norway where he recorded his debut album, Cheap, with Swedish band The Level Devils.

Then, two years back, came Dog House Music, a collection of stripped to the bone Mississippi acoustic/electric blues in the tradition of John Lee Hooker, Son House and Blind Willie Johnson that'll have many checking the man's skin pigment. That and his charismatic live performances, suitably grizzled in battered hat, dungarees and grey beard, perched on a stool playing three string trance guitar, a one string 'diddley bow' and stomping out percussion on the wooden box he calls the Mississippi Drum Machine, also attracted major label attention.

Which brings us to his wittily titled first release as part of the Warner conglomerate. Good career news for him, but mixed blessings for fans who might feel that the studio polish, backing singers and guests that include Ruby Turner (duetting on the gospel hewn Happy Man), KT Tunstall, and Nick Cave take something away from what attracted them in the first place. Certainly, Walkin Man and St Louis Slim veer dangerously close to the somnambulance of JJ Cale, though admittedly he'd never be found providing drawled explanatory spoken introductions about riding the freight cars and picking artichokes. Or, indeed, including a hidden 11 minute spoken track simply reminiscing about living rough and cooking up blackberries and peanut butter on a pot-belly stove.

However, the good news is that while parts of the album sound like they've been designed to lure in listeners for whom down and dirty blues doesn't extend further than Eric Clapton doing Layla, there's a considerable element that retains his unfiltered approach to the music and songs that draw on his former life.

Cases in point being Thunderbird, a scuzzy throaty blues celebration of the wino's chardonnay, the wicked slide work on Chiggers, a talking blues about dealing with some nasty little bugs, and the slap leg train rhythm chug of Prospect Lane. As it turns out, the contribution from Cave and his Grinderman buddies on Just Like A King is also one of the album high-spots, an easy rolling blues strum laced with sexual innuendoes.

Closing with the unadorned My Youth, a stark mediation on growing old and the memories that have amassed, at the end of the day the score board is in Steve's favour and it's to be hoped that in albums to come he continues to remember that a battered guitar and a wooden box can work more magic than a state of the art studio desk.

www.seasicksteve.com
www.myspace.com/seasicksteve

Mike Davies October 2008

Literally thrown out of home when he was 14, the Oklahoma born Steve Wold opted for the hobo life, riding the rails, working carnivals, sleeping rough or in flophouses, and frequently passing a few days in a variety of county jails. During which time he learned to play the blues, picking guitar on street corners for loose change before eventually winding up living in Norway.

All of which, feeds into his Dog House Music (Bronzerat) album, a collection of stripped to the bone Mississippi acoustic/electric blues in the tradition of John Lee Hooker, Son House and Blind Willie Johnson that'll have you checking the man's skin pigment.

The hardship subject matter of songs such as Dog House Boogie, Fallen Off A Rock, Things Go Up and Hobo Low doesn't stray far, but it's Steve's playing and talking style delivery that invest them with real individual personality, elevating above the blues cliches.

Looking suitably grizzled in his battered hat, dungarees and grey beard, perched on a stool and simply playing the blues, he's cuts a mesmerising figure, an authoritative booming voice underpinning the tales of a drifter's life. He also throws a few musical curves with a three string trance guitar (heard to great effect on Cut My Wings) and even, as on Save Me, the twangy one string 'diddly bow', stomping out the percussion on a wooden box he refers to as the Mississippi Drum Machine.

Returning to live work after being struck down with a heart attack a year or so back, he arrives now packing a four track single of new material, It's All Good, following the same slap blues storytelling pattern, scuzzing it up on Thunderbird (the cheap wine not the car) and simply keeping you rapt as he talks his way through The Jungle.

www.myspace.com/seasicksteve

Mike Davies May 2007

David Kidman August 2007

These two guys are icons in their own fields, and it's no surprise that they'd first operated in tandem during the revolutionary Greenwich Village folk revival days circa '63 (as fellow members of the Even Dozen Jug Band with Maria Muldaur and Stefan Grossman). Following which, of course, John led the eclectic band The Lovin' Spoonful and wrote some brilliant songs, while David spearheaded the acoustic music revolution with his genre-defying "Dawg" music that took in elements of bluegrass, folk and jazz. The genesis of this new record lay in a meeting of the two musicians some 40 years on at a benefit concert, where they greatly enjoyed their evening of spontaneous music-making. The resultant album's more than a bit of a treat in many ways, with some absolutely superb playing from both musicians that's better than we've probably any right to expect! Their skills shouldn't be taken for granted, I know, but instrumentally speaking David and John are so in their element on whatever tune they choose to pick up and the result is always classy and never less than wholly technically expert. John's harmonica playing (oft underrated in the past) is fabulous, and totally spot-on too, with a real feel for the collaboration and interaction with David's multiplicity of mandos. Just under half of the tracks are instrumentals, and these sure provide the set's high points: new takes on David's delicious Dawg's Waltz and his perennial EMD, and a particularly tasty cover of the Everlys number Walk Right Back, all demand instant replay, while even the obligatory jamming cut (Harmandola Blues) scores with its sparkling, as-live interplay. It's a shame that the vocal items aren't as distinguished, largely due to the fact that John's delivery, though perfectly amiable, exhibits a tiredness that (I'm sorry, but there's no kinder way of saying it) betrays his age somewhat and to a certain degree negates the brilliance and liveliness of the pair's instrumental work. Best of the vocal numbers, perhaps, are John Henry, It's Not Time Now and a reworking of the old Spoonful hit Coconut Grove, whereas these latest renditions of Deep Purple and Passing Fantasy verge on embarrassingly indulgent and yawningly complacent. Satisfied then? - Well, to be fair, not entirely - but it's still not a bad record by any means, and the musicianship still shines from every digit!

www.acousticdisc.com

David Kidman January 2008

This is the final instalment in Peggy's "home trilogy" of recent recordings for Appleseed, following 2003's Heading For Home and 2005's Love Call Me Home. It consists for the most part of newly-recorded versions of some of Peggy's favourite traditional (or near-traditional) folksongs from the US and UK, to which 12-track sequence is appended the beautiful, poignant, reflective self-penned title track, which forms the most fitting conclusion to (and consummation of) the trilogy that one could imagine. It's a deeply personal composition (how could it be otherwise, with lines like "The first time ever I saw his face, his heart became my own"?), and yet its sentiments and experiences also can be seen to have an embracingly universal import; this aspect, together with its very simplicity of expression, renders it profoundly moving. As for the traditional material, well these new renditions are uniformly superlative and often intriguing; not only do we get here the voice of a master interpreter of these songs of many years' standing, one who loves and knows the songs in depth and clearly truly understands them, but Peggy's also a lady who has immense experience of actually thinking about these songs and carefully choosing the ideal versions for her to perform. Not least with regard to the tunes she uses: a case in point is Molly Bond, which Peggy sings unaccompanied here, to a tune which conveys the intrinsic eeriness of the ballad and is commendably far removed from the significantly sweeter "usual" melody, while conversely her chosen tune for Newlyn Town is sweeter and more plaintive than the "usual" one for this broadside. In fact, some of the tunes Peggy calls into service here were new to me, and these prove especially intensely rewarding and refreshing. Peggy's choice of songs is an interesting one by any standards, containing as it does variants of the fairly well-known (Home Dearie Home, Hang Me, Roving Gambler, Little Birdie) alongside other material which, though not exactly obscure, can be regarded more as the province of the hardened folksong buff (the Texas holler Dink's Song and the industrial complaint Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine, for instance). Aside from Peggy's own excellent performances, the songs are also blessed with beautifully considered yet spontaneous-sounding down-home-style backings courtesy of Cary Findley, Calum and Neill MacColl, John Herrmann, Rosemary Lackey and Vollie McKenzie (in varying permutations), and a further contributing factor in the success of the whole enterprise must surely be the sympathetic yet upfront production by Calum himself. Not to mention the ingenuity of the at times uncannily simple instrumental arrangements (special mention for the ghostly drone-enhanced concertina-and-harmonium backing for O The Wind And The Rain and the unusual use of slide-guitar on the Napoleon ballad). This is an exceptionally lovely release; in fact, the whole trilogy has proved eminently treasurable - thanks, Peggy, for everything.

www.pegseeger.com

David Kidman January 2008

Peggy's 70th birthday celebration, held at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 29th May 2005, began (in Peggy's own words) "with a wish" (for a cake!), and "a deep desire to see as many of (her) family and friends in one place as possible". Naturally (and through the good auspices of Peggy's children Neill, Calum and Kitty and her partner Irene Pyper-Scott), Peggy's wishes came true – albeit while she was still 69 (though only just!)… She says she felt born again when she "walked out on that stage and knew that so many of the people who had touched (her) life were there, ready to touch again and bawl the choruses out." And this aspect is certainly captured by the faithful recording of the event by BBC Radio 2, now given a proper release on this fine two-disc set. (Well I think it's virtually the whole concert, but newspaper coverage of the event made mention of at least one other item that's not included on the discs, so I'm a little confused.) Inevitably, Peggy dominates the proceedings, but what a presence - imperious sometimes, yes, and definitely in control (in the nicest possible way) of proceedings, but also much humbled and even awed by the presence and contributions of those so important to her. The gig was emphatically not an excuse for an exercise in arrogant self-congratulation, but a highly organised, affectionate and sincere thankyou that flows both ways between Peggy and her fellow singers and musicians (and indeed her public). If occasionally there's a faint whiff of didacticism about the event, that's not entirely inappropriate in view of Peggy's enormously influential role in the development and wider currency of folk music in all its senses over the past half-century; let's face it, she still has plenty to teach us all!…

The celebration concert covered all possible bases from the broad church of folk that forms Peggy's musical world: from the traditional ballads she so loves through to her own original compositions that so ably and memorably espouse her personal preoccupations and responsibilities, particularly in the areas of war, feminism and union politics. These songs so deserve to be more widely heard, and if this CD is regarded even partly as a taster for Peggy's songwriting then that's no bad thing in my book (folks can then go on to investigate the lovely trio of albums Peggy recently recorded for Appleseed). So finally to the performances – Peggy's cohorts did her proud, fully rising to the occasion. Some were granted solo or lead appearances, and shone accordingly without eclipsing Peggy's own personality. Memorable moments include: Cindy, on which Peggy, brother Mike and half-brother Pete perform together for the first time in decades; Che Guevara, with Peggy leading the ensemble (Eliza & Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson, Calum & Kitty MacColl) in rousing chorus; Billy Bragg's unrehearsed duet with Peggy on Darling Annie is quite touching in true downhome "all fell together on the night" fashion. There are inevitably some entirely forgivable lapses in intonation, but the charm of the performances and sense of occasion overrides any concerns of a purely technical nature here. At times Peggy even leaves the stage completely, yielding the spotlight to Norma and Eliza (for Lowlands Of Holland), and later on to Mike and Pete individually. Of course, the items which Peggy performs solo – and there are quite a few – carry an intimate resonance all their own, and the gentle power of her sharing these songs with us is well communicated even through the CD medium. And the rather special bonhomie of the final two items, Sing About These Hard Times and Love Call Me Home, is genuinely irresistible. As is the whole concert (in spite of one or two "you really had to be there" moments that you may find less-conducive-to-home-listening). Yes, these two discs are definitely to be cherished.

www.pgseeger.com
www.appleseedrec.com

David Kidman March 2007

Peggy Seeger - Love Call Me Home (Appleseed)

This is a truly delightful record. I absolutely loved Peggy's last two releases on Appleseed, especially the beautiful Heading For Home (released in the fall of 2003) which formed the first instalment of a projected "Home Trilogy" (the fluid concept of "home" embracing her American birthplace, England, stages where she's performed, her physical body and the music that has shaped her career) - of which Love Call Me Home is now the second. Believe it or not, Peggy's fast approaching her 70th birthday, but on this record she sounds virtually ageless, ie every bit as fresh as she has in ages, radiating the good vibe that can only come from a singer so deeply connected to her material and displaying that innate and comprehensive understanding of the songs she chooses to sing.

Love Call Me Home is Peggy's 21st solo album, on which she again mixes old songs with new compositions of her own, of which here there are just two, bookending the album. Dealing with the latter category first, these - although highly contrasted - are particularly fine examples of homage-writing; Sing About These Hard Times is kinda based (at any rate musically) on the spiritual Down To The River To Pray, and updates the mood of the times as a contemporary response to an exhibition of artwork of the Great Depression, whereas the album's title track is a tenderly felt remembrance of a friend Christine Lassiter who died of cancer four years ago (for in the end, love calls everyone home).

The rest of the songs are traditional in origin; as Peggy explains in her liner notes: "I love new songs, yet I still find myself returning to the old ones… songs handed down to us by singers who loved and tended to them, as I love and tend to them for those who come after me." These are loving performances indeed, and tremendously affecting; they include a stark, superbly authentic unaccompanied rendition of Bad Bad Girl (a song her mother had transcribed from a 1936 recording of Ozella Jones), while the second of the unaccompanied tracks - Love Is Teasing (where Peggy uses the American melody, different from the usual English and Irish versions, which is well worth reviving) is delectable. There are also very fine versions of Rynerdine and Loving Hannah, not to mention two hanging ballads (Hangman and Poor Ellen Smith), an eerie, quite chilling rendition of Who Killed Cock Robin? and a derived playparty song (London Bridge).

Accompaniments are homely and simple, using favourite instruments like autoharp, Appalachian dulcimer, banjo, psaltery, guitar, fiddle and mandolin; musicians include two of her sons by Ewan (Calum and Neill) and daughter Kitty contributes some backing vocals. Much of the album was recorded in England in fact, five of the tracks at Calum's studio here. The whole project has a tangible and highly satisfying unity that's brought to it by Peggy's own potent and thoroughly likeable presence (the personification of a folk artist) and her inborn understanding of the repertoire, songs with which she's truly at one and at home. The press release is spot-on - for this is indeed an album that will call you (too) home.

www.appleseedrec.com

David Kidman

www.appleseedmusic.com

David Kidman January 2010

Pete Seeger is a living legend, and unquestionably one of the greatest living Americans, let alone one of the most important musicians of our time. And at age 89, he's still vibrant, interested and creative. So here, on his first new recording in five years (the Pete & Friends disc on 2003's third volume in the Seeds series), Pete himself surveys the progress that's been made during his lifetime and what still needs to be done to create a society of equals and to ensure continued world survival, taking this opportunity to guide us through music and songs which reflect all the key aspects of his life's work. Its 32 items (mainly original compositions of Pete's, and including 26 tracks never previously recorded by Pete) have been sequenced using brief spoken introductions and solo instrumentals as links to provide a series of organic suites that address Pete's leading concerns - welcome, fellowship and community, ecology and peaceful coexistence, the tragic uselessness of war, the dangers of blind obedience and finally the need for saving the planet. Some of the songs are rewrites or updates of earlier material and others have been included to demonstrate their continuing relevance (Waist Deep In The Big Muddy is probably the best-known of these), whereas some are comparative squibs, but there's no excess fat anywhere: everything is relevant to the cause. These fresh recordings have all been made suitably democratically (in Pete's preferred fashion!). Many are performed by Pete himself either taking the lead or supported by fellow-activists or fellow-musicians (among them producer David Bernz), but he yields the lead voice part on key songs, eg to his niece Sonia Cohen for a sublime performance of When I Was Most Beautiful, and to the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus for a truly joy-filled version of the Weavers' favourite Tzena, Tzena, Tzena. Perhaps the most poignant item of all, however, is this latest rendition of Little Fat Baby, where Pete (in company with James Durst, David Bernz and Martha Sandefer) confronts his own mortality (it's close on one of those Joy Of Living moments).

This CD is an important release, one of historical significance and contemporary celebration, and is complemented by some splendidly joyous photographs. All throughout the disc's hour-long span, what comes across so very powerfully is Pete the survivor, his eternal optimism, his abundantly generous personality and intrinsic humanity, his deep personal involvement in everything that's important in life and his desire to involve us all in necessary activism of some kind... even if at this remove all we can do in respect of some of the issues will be to join in heartily with him and sing along, for someone somewhere will be listening!

www.appleseedmusic.com

David Kidman October 2008

Pete Seeger and Friends- Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger Vol 3 (Appleseed)

Disc 2 gives Seeger the day off as assorted friends take over for interpretations of songs either written or made famous by him, a roll call of whom highlights include Tony Trischka and Jennifer Kimball with Seeger's arrangement of Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring, Dick Gaughan's sombre take on Bells of Rhymney, Martin Simpson and Jessica Radcliffe's Turn! Turn! Turn!, Carolyn Hester with One Man's Hands, the protest number Seeger co-wrote with Joy of Sex author Alex Comfort, Janis Ian's stark guitar and vocal reading of Who Killed Norma Jean and a frankly stunning funereal version of Florence Reece's union song Which Side Are You On. Three Volumes, 5 CDs in, and they're just beginning to scratch the surface of Seeger's legacy and influence.

www.appleseedrec.com

Mike Davies

If I Had A Song: The Songs Of Pete Seeger, Vol 2 (Appleseed)

Steve Earle, Jackson Browne & Joan Baez, Billy Bragg with Eliza Carthy, John Wesley Harding and the Minus 5, Dar Williams & Toshi Reagon, Arlo Guthrie & Pete Seeger, and Kate & Anna McGarrigle, are just some of the 16 collaborators who sing the songs of 82-year old Pete Seeger - little masterpieces all, mostly recorded specially for Appleseed - on this second volume celebrating his songs.

What can one say about this man that hasn't already been said? He's a living treasure, a tireless activist for social justice, a singer and songwriter who's influenced the politics of his audiences as well as a host of traditional folk musicians for decades. He's irresistible - if you've been to a Seeger concert, he will have had you singing harmonies and loving him for his aura of amiability and his honesty.

The sixteen songs on this album, some his own, some adapted, are unique personal interpretations. Predicable (but nothing wrong in that) are Guantanamera (Brown & Baez), and If I had a Hammer (Bragg & Carthy). But the beautiful Oh, Had I A Golden Thread (Williams & Reagon), a rap version of Talking Union (John McCutcheon & Corey Harris) and Little Boxes (McGarrigles) in French, are amongst the many recorded delights. There's something here for everyone.

www.appleseedrec.com

Sue Cavendish

This band are Big! Not just in the sense that there's lots of them, or that they appear for all the world an extended family. Their ideas are big, their presence is big. You just can't ignore them (and so you shouldn't!). You have to sit bolt upright and take notice, then be drawn in to the flow and end up embracing them wholeheartedly. Live, they're right there in-yer-face, onstage appearing as an uncompromising wall of people with an engagingly upfront and often positively provocative stance and sound. They're so totally persuasive, however, that you can't help but be won over. It takes boldness and expertise of a very special kind to get their kind of message put across. And it's a hell of a message, whether political (in any sense) or environmental and humanitarian, it's intense and packed with evident commitment, passion and an unstinting zeal, reflecting a total and unshaking belief in their mission - ie., to make this world a saner, greener (and thus better) place. Now me I'm always suspicious of the religious zealot with the happy-clappy, sickly smile, and though Seize The Day might by some folks be viewed superficially as card-carrying evangelists of a kind, their shining integrity and grass-roots cred had impressed me right from the outset due to the integrity with which they present their social commentaries; they clearly have all the courage of their deeply-held and unwavering convictions, total confidence in their talents and in the nature and worth of their message. If you don't seize the day, they're saying, we'll all be so much the worse off. And if they need to shout it, to get their message across, then so be it.

Formed around seven years ago by two exceptional singer-songwriters (Shannon Smy and Theo Simon) to celebrate and inspire the country's environmental movement, Seize The Day quickly developed into a vibrant acoustic band that at once became the hit of Glastonbury (their "home patch", in effect) and subsequently many other festivals up and down the country. STD's first two CDs had presented their all-embracing outlook on a wealth of highly relevant contemporary issues. First, It's Your Life… it's our world set out their stall in defiant and emphatically energetic fashion, with some awesomely good singing (whether solo or harmonised) that despite its well-rehearsed polish still retains a healthy element of spontaneity in the delivery. Plenty of active percussion and other imaginative instrumental arrangements set the seal on the excellent songwriting and ensured the album was a real winner. Then, All Hands That Are Ready… ran the gauntlet with opposite extremes of the emotional spectrum, featuring on one hand some wonderfully upbeat and stirring protest anthems and on the other hand harrowingly tearjerking ballads that really tested the comfort threshold for repeated listening. And now the band's third release, Alive, gives us two CDs-full of STD in all their moods, captured very much live at various festival stages (Stainsby, Glastonbury, Whitby World Music, The Big Green Gathering) and live in the studios, with only six of the tracks on CD1 having appeared before at all (on the first album), the rest either previously unrecorded or recent additions to the set. Shannon's Sweet Love is a standout of sensitive writing that's not overdone, and Theo's fine creation United States appears in two different forms on this set of discs, of which the more impressive is the impassioned unaccompanied rendition on CD1. Maybe Guantanamo Bay falls a tad flat without the visual impact of the accompanying dance routine, but what the hell, STD can't be beat for two-way involvement with their audience and sheer professional entertainment value, that much is obvious. There are also a couple of examples of what might appear to be slightly mannered in-jokes: G'n'T comes complete with rather exaggerated accents and role-playing that fairly quickly wears thin on the listener, then there's a lengthier (though paradoxically, rather better focused) cod-hicksville-country-style vaudeville-satire piece where the band rail (not unjustifiably) about their unfortunate experience last year when they won the BBC Radio 3 audience poll for the World Music Awards but were denied the award merely because they sang songs opposing the war in Iraq. But the band's lively agit-folk approach scores - indeed, as Leon Rosselson has observed, "their songs live because they live their songs". Well, "you don't want any more…" says the festival compère at one point on CD1 - but of course you do! We need bands like Seize The Day around to stir the action, to entertain and inspire - which with their undoubted "power to empower" they do so outstandingly well. (Buy the album and buy the songbook too - there's a special deal from the website…)

www.seizetheday.org

David Kidman

Oooh! yes, can I have some more please? Here are crunchy guitars, solid rock riffs, weary blues and not a 'cover' in sight. All the songs here are Selby's own or co-written and his songs and co-writes have been recorded by a host of Nashville names (including Trisha Yearwood, Dixie Chicks, Wynonna Judd) and blues rocker Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

More Storms Comin is Nashville-based Selby's debut album, and it's a roots-rocker with all the right musical influences; Stones/Clapton rolling songs; gritty John Hammond-style vocals; electric guitar-hero techniques with a dash of acoustic Mississippi delta blues. The title track, More Storms Comin', is an example of the latter; blues at it's most despairing, spirit-broken and haunting, sung with only national steel and bottleneck slide accompaniment. Elsewhere his band: Denny Dadmun-Bixby, bass, Chuck Fields, percussion, Reese Wynan, keyboards, are able, assured and perfect for the job at hand. Choice backing vocals come from Crystal Taliefero and Bekka Bramlett (Delaney and Bonnie's daughter, of course).

It's his wonderful catchy (and more accessible) rockers which will grab most people straight off. There's a new generation of skilled young blues rockers strutting their stuff, some of it lack-lustre, much of it not very original. We need to hear more of Mark Selby - he's skilled, original and exciting.

www.markselby.com

Sue Cavendish

A San Diego native, she's got a killer voice as big as Southern California, as capable of honeyed sweetness as it is sandpapery rasp. She calls her music Roadhouse Rock, though Nashville Soul might be an equally succinct label for her mix of country twang and muscular rock n roll where echoes of Bonnie Raitt, Maria McKee, Steve Earle and Wanda Jackson hit you between the eyes.

It's been four years since her last release, Nothing But The Truth, and while that one passed me by, its 2002 predecessor, Do You Know Me?, was one of the year's best. This is album number five, another fine set of countrified rock that sees her covering Patty Griffin's tear-stained Goodbye and turning Gram Parsons' classic She into something The Band might have written.

The upbeat bluegrassed title track and the Texas twangy Cryin' Eyes are both non originals, but the remaining 10 cuts are all self-penned, taking her from swaggering ringing guitar barroom rockers (I Believe In Love) to blues hued tough guitar chuggers (Street I Grew Up On), gutsy rebel yell bluegrass (One Day At A Time) and wistful aching ballads (That's Enough). Soulful gospel hints are there on Love You Away From Me while Welcome To Paradise is moody bluesy country and 1000 Kisses veined with strong pop colours, which, all put together packs a poke and a punch that warrants much wider exposure.

www.eveselis.com
www.myspace.com/eveselis

Mike Davies July 2008

Eve Selis - Do You Know Me? (HCT)

There's a clutch of hold love together uptempo numbers variously etched in bluegrass, country and twangy pop colours (of which Love Came Just In Time stand tallest), but it's the quieter, more thoughtful numbers that really stamp on the seal of quality'; the 9/11 inspired hymn to the forgotten angels on the street who toil behind the scenes, the dedicated second grade teacher, the bus driver who keeps spare change for those who can't pay, her lullaby to her kids My Whisper, and a heart tearing cover of Julie Miller's Broken Things.

As yet, Selis has gathered more glowing reviews than she has actual commercial success, but if she keeps them coming like this it won't be long before the title's a redundant question.

www.eveselis.com

Mike Davies

Sid Selvidge could hardly be classed as a prodigious source of material - he releases one album per decade - but if they are all as good as this then he's worth waiting on. He's a bit of a Memphis institution and has been around since the 60s when he was signed to, of all labels, Stax as a white folk singer.

The title track, and opener, is a gentle introduction to the world of Sid Selvidge. It's a world of Folk, Blues and classic Americana. Hobo Bill has the feeling of a children's song, much akin to Puff The Magic Dragon but he's back in adult land with the bluesy Mama You Don't Mean Me No Good, Long Tall Mama and Every Natural Thing. Although there's only one original song on the album the covers are pure Selvidge. His voice has a warble to it and is as sweet as syrup on the country style Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? and one of the highlights of the album, John Hiatt's, The River.

Blues and country are mixed in together for Real Thing and we hear another level to Sid's voice, there's a bit of grit in here for this one. Folk blues for the excellent Swannanoa Tunnel will have the hairs on your neck standing to attention and the straightforward folk offering Long Black Veil is a lovely song. The album finishes with Pickin' Petals and Arkansas Girl. The former has one of my pet hates, yodelling, although I can forgive him because of what has gone before and the latter takes us out in the gentle manner that we began with. Both of these songs remind me, vocally, of Leon Redbone. Take a few listens of this album because Sid Selvidge will grow on you.

www.archer-records.com

David Blue

In its majestic pomp was there a more theatrical band than SAHB? I doubt it, it took showmanship and gave it a rock n roll soundtrack.

It's 24 years since the death of the great Alex Harvey and now with The Shamen's Max Maxwell out in front, Zalvation shows that Zal Cleminson, Chris Glen and Ted and Hugh McKenna have lost none of the devil that drove them on in the first place.

Zalvation is a glorious resurrection of 'old-style' 'no prisoners' rock n roll, recorded live and loud it begins with the manic The Faith Healer and ratchets it up from that point.

Obviously listening to SAHB on CD, in the comfort of your own home, won't capture the full force of the sweat-soaked roller coaster ride of a gig but it's still a breathtaking experience that many of today's 'young guns' would struggle to emulate.

With Cleminson looking like the latest Batman villain, Zalvation is in your face, in your ears and in your brain. It's theatre allied to the white heat generated by a real rock band and it is infectious.

To be this madcap you also have to be very good and Swamp Snake for one, is a perfect example of the band's pure musical talent, it's hard driving, hard living rock n roll, it proves that SAHB would be a great band even without the attendant circus.

www.sahb.co.uk

Michael Mee, August 2006

Sequoia - Ebb & Flow (High Desert Music)

Such is the sweet softness of Surrey-born Andy Stedman's bruised voice that, on first playing the title track I found myself searching the credits to find who the female vocalist was. The more you listen though, the more evident it becomes that he's of much the same timbre as Iain Matthews, Paul Heaton and Lloyd Cole, the latter two surely an influence if Laura Valentine, Day To Drink To and Boy Who Saved The World are anything to go by. It's chiming country rock pop with the requisite jangling guitars, tumbling chords, harmonies and gentle melodic ache that's been compared to Brinsley Schwarz but is probably closer to Starry Eyed and Laughing but without the overt Byrds feathers.

Brand New Day and Smile To Take show their more uptempo rock inclinations but for the most it's the reflective ballad that's the album's backbone, at its finest with the gorgeous September Sun (so good they play it twice, closing on a more dying fall version with cello), Ebb & Flow and Close To The Sun which swells from a folksy English pastures feel to a big piano, guitar and cello climax. Probably unlikely to turn them in giant redwoods, but it's an impressive enough little acorn to build an oak upon.

www.sequoiauk.co.uk

Mike Davies

The title pretty much tells you what to expect, and the stetson sporting Southern Californian doesn't disappoint, serving up a solid set of revved up honky-tonk boogie in tandem with sidemen that include guitarist-producer Ed Tree and Dwight Yoakam bassist Taras Prodaniuk.

Get It In Gear provides an appropriately titled opener, the album drawing on such legends as Merle Haggard and Buck Owens as well as contemporary kindred spirits like Yoakam and Dave Alvin as he boogies atop the barrellhouse joanna with Permanent Position and dances around the bar for If You're Serious, beers and tears ballad I Only Smoke When I'm Drinking, and the cowboy coloured Country Couples and The Heartache's On The Other Sleeve.

Selby doesn't stray far from his comfort zone, but he does pay visits to Western Swing with The Grass Is Always Bluer, the choppy guitar Southern soul of Honky Tonk Affair and the Bakersfield Tex-Mex polka of For Cryin' Out Loud.

At the end of the day, he's probably too much in thrall to his heroes, Yoakam especially, to be his own man, but he plays with a relaxed confidence and an authenticity that won't ever get him thrown out of a bar room.

www.myspace.com/davidserby
www.davidserby.com

Mike Davies August 2009

Serious Kitchen serve up a really succulent menu that'll leave your taste buds wanting more, I'll wager (and you can get more by purchasing the band's previous album On The Mash, in fact)! But to start at the beginning - Serious Kitchen is a three-piece acoustic outfit comprising Nick Hennessey (vocals, harp, concertina, bodhrán), Vicky Swan (Scottish smallpipes, flute) and Jonny Dyer (guitars, low whistle). The band's artistic credo was set out in the insert to On The Mash - they "embody the folk tradition and make it their own, from kicking jigs and reels to the most ancient of ballads", cooking it all up into something seriously fresh. And why kitchen? Well, after house and garage, it's perfectly logical I suppose and an ideal venue for a party!… On The Mash was a well-balanced, inspiring brew concocted from newly composed tunes and fresh readings of traditional songs, and Tig retains that mix, Tig was recorded down in Steáfán Hannigan's studio in Milton Keynes, with Steáfán himself at the helm, and sounds every bit as good as its predecessor. The relatively unorthodox instrumental complement is just one of Serious Kitchen's unique features, but in their case it's even more of a bonus because they can all really play those instruments! Even so, they wear their virtuosity very lightly, with a modesty that belies their considerable skill as individual musicians. This modesty extends to the arrangements too, where ostensibly quite simple basic material is treated with both style and innovation a-plenty (as on Stable Door, where the tune first appears as a reel and then a jig, and the opening Kilt Set - named after Nick's curious predilection for the wearing of the aforementioned garment - no, I won't go into that!). Although rhythmic urgency is the keyword, there's an occasional ensemble tendency for the tempo to appear to run away with itself; this, I suspect, is more the result of youthful exuberance than any deficiencies in dexterity. Having said that, they can relax by doing gentle and slow too, as they prove on Bowland Bridge. But, formidable though the band is instrumentally, they've another trump card to play with Nick's singing; indeed, he's already well regarded on the folk circuit as a fine interpreter of traditional ballads and as a master harper and storyteller of no little accomplishment (do check out his solo albums, but better still catch him live - absolutely spellbinding!). Nick's contributions to Serious Kitchen mustn't be underestimated either; his solid yet responsive reinterpretations of what might be regarded as over-common material are impressive and unexpected - just sample Sally Gardens, worlds away from the sickly-sweet tune we're accustomed to, and you'll hear what I mean. There's a slight nagging feeling though, that Serious Kitchen's approach to The Blacksmith (in matters of basic thrust, rhythmic and melodic contours) might appear a tad uninvolved, or at least suspiciously similar to that adopted on Seven Little Gypsies (comparably placed on Mash, as it happens), while some ballad-aficionados may feel that the delivery of the more uptempo of their ballad readings might appear a little casual on first acquaintance, but these are minor points set alongside the band's pervasive enthusiasm and inventiveness. Whatever, don't let this outfit pass you by!

www.seriouskitchen.co.uk

David Kidman

Take four of Scotland's finest fiddlers (Capercaillie's Charlie McKerron, Wolfstone's Duncan Chisholm, Croft No Five's Adam Sutherland, and Gordon Gunn), plus a "dream team" of a backing band comprising luminaries from the Scottish music scene (Brian McAlpine, Kris Drever, Tim Edey, Ewen Vernal, David Robertson), and put them into a studio, letting them loose on a mixture of traditional and modern-day compositions, and the result is Session A9. And aptly named the project is too, for the end product is rather more like a session than a studio concoction. The players' freewheeling, innovative approach to the material and playing together comes across in spades, captured vibrantly by the production team. One or two oddly polite and straight-laced moments aside, this is a pretty exciting CD, and one which you'll want to return to often I imagine. I specially liked the fiery energy of the set of jigs at track 8, the altogether more sedate drive of The Aird Ranters set (track 5) and the reels on track 11, as well as Kris's vocal contribution to Shady Grove, but throughout the CD quality is assured, no mistake, with fresh delights round almost every musical corner. And glory be - those corners aren't compulsorily taken at breakneck speed!

www.rajrecords.com

David Kidman

www.17hippies.com

David Kidman May 2009

Ten albums in (11 if you count Rarities), Sexsmith's settled into an easy groove, reuniting with Martin Terefe who produced 2004's Retriever and has again pulled out the Beatles colours and mingled them with an r&b soulfulness.

The opening hymnal piano instrumental Spiritude gives way to the gospel inspired, This Is How I Know that sees Ron on his best McCartney, the hints of brass there blossoming into fullness for the deceptively jaunty eco-themed One Last Round.

Although recorded in London the horn section was added in Cuba, an idea that not only brings an extra warmth to the likes of Brandy Alexander (co-written with Feist, who's also recorded her own version) and the gospel infused Hard Time but also prompted him to write the uplifting Bill Withers-inspired Brighter Still on the plane over, recorded as is with a bunch Cuban session musicians.

Interestingly Sexsmith says a strong influence was his discovery of cult '70s singer-songwriter Judee Sill just as he was starting to write for the album. You can certainly hear what he means, both musically and her themes of people searching for solace in life, when you listen to the gentle acoustic Thoughts And Prayers, piano ballad The Impossible World and Chased By Love though Music To My Ears sounds a lot more like he's been filtering early Jackson Browne through the spirit of Buddy Holly. "I can't give up on all these poor helpless dreams," he sings on the song written prior to his first album and finally finding a proper setting here. Neither should you. Sexsmith's dreams might take a while to seep beneath the consciousness, but they'll prove lasting lullabies.

www.ronsexsmith.com

Mike Davies July 2008

Ron Sexsmith - Time Being (V2)

Reunited with producer Mitchell Froom (and working with Elvis Costello's rhythm section), this, Sexsmith's tenth album, is his most reflective with songs that, sporting titles like I Think We're Lost, Reason For Our Love, Some Dusty Things and Hands Of Time, ponder mortality, the passing years and why we're here in the first place.

As befits the subject matter, the approach is relaxed and mellow and although he does turn up the heat slightly on the jangling I Think We're Lost (with a guitar solo that surely nods to George Harrison) and the poppy singalong Ship Of Fools, is mostly acoustic strummed soft folk pop that recalls vintage McCartney lullabies on more than one occasion.

There's a nice bluesy groove at work for Jazz At The Bookstore, a lament about how great music is so often relegated to in store aural wallpaper while The Grim Trucker is a witty if slightly unsettling number that breaks out into cod burlesque vohdeodoh jazz routines, but it's fair to say the best stuff here is the softer balladry, Sexsmith's husked croon lulling you into a cosy melancholic warmth on the spare beauty of And Now The Day Is Done, and the tenderly lovely faded love of Snow Angel.

www.ronsexsmith.com

Mike Davies, June 2006

Sexsmith & Kerr - Destination Unknown (V2)

Although Ron Sexsmith's been working with multi-instrumentalist and harmony vocalist Don Kerr for some twenty years, this is the first time they've actually shared credits as a duo. Inspired to produce an album in the style of the Everlys and Louvins, the pair got together with a couple of mics and a clutch of Sexsmith songs and put together this 13 track set.

There's nothing earth-shaking, but these easy on the ear folksy, countryish acoustic strollers more than live up to their ambitions, some like Chasing Forever even harking back to 40s crooner balladry in a similar manner to recent work by Art Garfunkel.

Opening with the dreamily lovely Listen, sweet lullabies drip from the speakers; One Less Shadow conjuring images of prairie twilights and your best girl in lace dresses, Lemonade Stand a gently funky affirmation of life's enduring beauties that evokes thoughts of There Might Be Giants, You've Been Waiting a lilting, mandolin rippled love song that laps on tropical sands while the jazzy shuffle Your Guess Is As Good As Mine and the slow waltzing Evspop of Raindrops In My Coffee are crystal perfect broken heart laments. One for the mellow moments.

www.ronsexsmith.com

Mike Davies

www.myspace.com/shabbyrogue

Mike Davies March 2010

Sam Shaber - Eighty Numbered Streets (SMG)

She calls it acoustic soul, which seems reasonable enough though you'd be advised not to go in expecting unplugged Aretha. Rather you'll hear traces of Sheryl Crow ( Make It Up To You), early Joni (All Of This), and the young Janis Ian (the potent protest number Simon Says written in response to 9/11) amid her New York folksy pop, produced here by Shawn Mullins who also contributes the guitars and keyboards. You might even note Dolly Parton on the bluesygrass country talk-singing affirmation of love When The Roses Run Dry and Ani di Franco mixed up with Tom Waits on the brief scratchy blues n rap Intalood.

As a songwriter she knows how to hook an emotional nerve. A gentle, tinkling acoustic guitar number with a string arrangement, Rain and Sunshine sounds like a gentle enough simple song of loss and the natural cycle until you learn it's dedicated to her friend Maribel who died following a car crash during their first cross country tour while the album's bookended by moving healing hymns of love and gratitude to her mother (Eldorado with its haunting mandolin intro) and (Solitaire), her late father David, the screenwriter of cult movie The Warriors. On the appropriately unaccompanied Bare she also takes time out for a self-portrait of the singer on the road.

Mixing in the uptempo foot-tappers with the reflective ballads, all deceptively catchy and all graced with a voice one part dust road and two parts the creek at the end of the meadow, it's an initially unassuming album that becomes increasingly essential the more often you play it.

www.samshaber.com

Mike Davies

They've had something of a low key build up over the past year, but the time's now ripe for Birmingham's environmentally friendly alt-folk five piece to burst into the national consciousness with their debut album.

With instrumentation that includes French horn, glockenspiel, violin, cello and ebow as well as your regular acoustic guitars and drums, and featuring shared vocals between Lawrence Becko and Jasmin Hollingum, they weave a wonderful, achingly world weary campfire melancholy that variously prompts thought of the Super Furries, Arab Strap, the more sublime moments of Radiohead, Sparklehorse, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Tim Buckley.

Gathering together tracks from their previous limited edition EPs, it's a glorious, tranquil listen, at times so fragile and delicate you can hear the wind whisper between the notes of something like Memory Tree, Summer Came When We Were Falling Out and the shimmering Fires, Becko's phrasing oddly evocative of the Incredible String Band).

At others it builds to the sort of lysergic fuzzed storm that blows through Treeology, the warm brass enfolded Winter Coats, and the windswept landscapes of the title track. Best of all though is the transcendentally soul-tingling, frost-lined Penguins which rivals the very best of Sigur Ros.

Like many of the songs here, it illustrates Becko's use of synaesthesia, a condition that pairs to or more senses, so that words appear as colours, here light blue, white and green to match with the imagery of ice and nature.

Hewing lyrics from ecological themes and images of nature, matching melodies to the seasons and the weather, and built upon a deep, honest emotional core that reverberates through every song, Shady Bard are a band for the ages, music for eternity.

www.shadybard.co.uk
www.myspace.com/willymason

Mike Davies May 2007

www.myspace.com/annashannon

David Kidman January 2010

Over the past couple of years in particular (following the winning of two prestigious songwriting awards), Scarborough-based free spirit Anna's been gaining a deservedly enthusiastic following due in no small measure to a succession of brilliant live performances; these have enabled us to savour close-up her wide range of assured performance skills, which set the seal on her increasingly compelling songwriting. Seen live, her presence is very intense, and her latest CD brings us the closest possible representation of that experience with a set of intimate performances of a dozen uniformly excellent new songs which run an impressive emotional gamut with a complete lack of pretension. Partly I suspect due to Anna's bewildering prolicity, each of her solo releases thus far has been mildly compromised, either by a degree of stylistic or artistic inconsistency within the material chosen or by occasionally less than convincing musical arrangements.

Notwithstanding her enviable accomplishment as a multi-instrumentalist, Anna has this time resisted the temptation to over-egg the pudding: indeed she's steadfastly refused to indulge in any overdubbing at all. For on When We Were Young, Anna goes back to basics, utilising a pure, stripped-down texture of just voice and guitar throughout - and it's much the better for it, I believe. Not only because it imparts a strong sense of unity to the proceedings, but also because it allows for maximum concentration on the lyrics, which are a fabulous and ever-intriguing combination of simple, evocative poetic imagery and deep compassion, underscored by an uncanny ability to get inside (and really inhabit) the psyche of her protagonists. The upfront confidence of Anna's personal and idiomatic singing, with its own special, innate sense of dramatic flow, conveys both a wide-eyed innocence of immediate experience and a more composed maturity of attitude and reflection. Anna's stylish and distinctive mode of self-accompaniment (mostly on a Spanish guitar) provides the ideal foil for her voice: its filigree textures, gently plucked out of the ether much in the manner of a courtly medieval troubadour performing for you alone, are aided by the close-miked and faithful home-recording.

There are some startlingly good songs here - almost too many to take in at one hearing! First cherrypick yields the delicate tone-picture Frost On The Larch, the poignant, questioning introspection of The Childhood Place, and the magnificent brace of songs inspired by Irish settings (The Gathering demonstrates just how fine an acappella singer Anna is, while The Magic Of Fae is a notable addition to the pantheon of Silkie-legend songs). Then there's the fond remembrances of the lovely title track (whose appealing melodic contours and genially singable chorus seem much inspired by the songwriting of Stan Graham), while at the other end of the spectrum the inner turmoil of often painfully conflicting emotions is tenderly expressed in Rachel and the ballad of The Farming Boy. The momentum generated by a more insistent rhythmic backing on A Little Piece Of Africa embodies a different kind of passion, one born of childhood ignorance as well as innocence perhaps, which inexorably propels the story's events forward. The wilfully independent come-what-may defiant spirit of Damselfly mirrors the mercurial (almost Anne Briggs-like) character of Anna's eldest daughter depicted within, and can also be taken to symbolise both those very qualities in Anna's own personality and the endearing qualities of this CD in general, which are further enhanced by its attractive booklet design, complete with photos and helpful background notes.

www.myspace.com/annashannon

David Kidman November 2008

The CD is ostensibly first and foremost a showcase for Anna's own original songs, but its appeal extends much further, to her finely-honed skills in arranging and performing those songs. The songs themselves occupy a range of subjects and emotions, their very real concerns being expressed in admirably direct imagery and language that's mildly poetic and (refreshingly) never descends into navel-gazing. The brilliant title track opens the disc, and is probably not the obvious ideal introduction to Anna's art, for its narrative takes the form of an ambitious extended opus that's cast into distinct sections. It does, however, serve to introduce the seafaring theme that surfaces periodically (the four songs that bookend the disc): the sea, and the experiences of those who depend on it for their livelihood, clearly exerts a fascination for Anna, and she writes of its magnetic pull with much feeling and understanding. Those latter qualities turn out to be central to the appeal of Anna's songs, whose essence is an air of atmospheric magic built around a gentle observation of realism and an acute (yet not over-the-top) observational gift that doesn't draw attention to itself. For instance, a song called Rabbit Skin Mittens could all too easily be an exercise in pretentious nu-folk, but it turns out to be a wholly charming depiction of "a special time for a young girl living on a remote Dales farm", and contrasts well with the playful Back Lane Wars, the tale of rivalry between gangs of travelling children, and the wistfully reflective country-tinged Sticks And Stones. Anna's singing voice, too, is both confident and distinctive both in tone and phrasing: she knows exactly where the ideas and melodies are going and is clearly intent on communicating them fully to her listeners. Anna provides her own vocal harmonies too, and has a really canny sense of instrumental colouring, playing all of the (very many!) instruments herself (except for bass and harmonica). It's not easy to pin it down, but the whole disc has a really attractive, slightly earthy homespun DIY quality which is perfectly aligned to Anna's personal life-vision through its credible high degree of artistic and technical accomplishment; what comes across so very powerfully is Anna's honest delight in the creative process and her personal music-making and an evident eager desire to share that delight - and its final fruits - with us. So bursting with ideas is Anna that she's got two further albums of original material planned already - I can hardly wait to hear them.

www.myspace.com/annashannon

David Kidman August 2007

I Won't Back Down is the Tom Petty song and I'm disappointed in this as I love the song. Mem's treatment is not a success despite his strong guitar work. No Such Thing has him back to what he does best - funking up the blues. Keyboard player glides across the keys. Forget About Me is slow soul and heartfelt. His deep voice booms this out. Voodoo is the first of two epic tracks to finish off with, this being just under 12 minutes long. This is a funk-fest with an outstanding rhythm section in Josh Milligan on drums and Angelo Nocentelli on bass. It's a great version of the Neville Brothers song and the full band is on top form. Phunkville is from his last album and he goes out with a bang on this grinding blues-based funk.

www.memshannon.com
www.northernblues.com

David Blue August 2007

www.sharonshannon.com

David Kidman December 2009

Clare-born Sharon is an excellent musician, and she has been playing music from an early age, yet only got round to recording her first solo album in 1989. Even then, she was always keen on musical collaboration, and the majority of her records since have focussed less on her own individual instrumental skills than on her role as a catalyst for the performances of other musicians. This compilation, which spans the years 1990 to 2007, seems to be making this point, and at least is capably reflecting that role, even if in the end it produces a frustratingly uneven musical experience. We simply don't get to hear enough of Sharon's own superb accordion playing - even the breathtaking Music For A Found Harmonium is an edited version. There are some classic moments captured on this compilation - the original (1999) Steve Earle rendition of the disc's title number, a fun-filled Courtin' In The Kitchen from the 2005 Big Band tour featuring Dessie O'Halloran, the classy Jackson Browne take on Man Of Constant Sorrow (from the 2000 Diamond Mountain Sessions set). The two medleys of rocked-up reels featuring Renegade are predictably exciting, typical of the crowd-pleasing "big session" approach; the famous "dance remix" of The Bag Of Cats has a certain incongruous charm (heard once!); and it's good to hear again the famous Libertango (with Kirsty MacColl), which is very well managed, if arguably more of an acquired taste.. but then we also have to contend with the truly dire rap of What You Make It and the overkill of Damien Dempsey in full flight on I've No Alibi. Sure, Sharon's been responsible for producing and arranging some stimulating blending of traditional with world music influences, but that shouldn't be the whole story. And the lack of discographical detail in the booklet is inexcusable - that is, if one key objective of this compilation is to entice purchasers to delve deeper into Sharon's back catalogue. And I can't resist making the obvious point: that it seems more than a touch illogical to title the disc The Galway Girl when Sharon's a Clarewoman.

www.sharonshannon.com

David Kidman October 2008

Sharon's first studio album since 2003 is a new project bringing her renegade spirit to bear on a selection of tunes and a few songs which cross the boundaries and straddle the genres in an often surprising manner. For this album, Sharon again teams up with her long-time guitarist Jim Murray, but additionally she's brought whistle/flute virtuoso Michael McGoldrick and fiddler Dezi Donnelly into the mix, and the result is scintillating and vibrant. Additional spice in the rhythm department is brought in courtesy of some creative looping and programming as well as "conventional" drums and bass (Jason Duffy, John Reynolds, Paul O'Driscoll and Clare Kenny), and a small brass section makes suitably funky contributions to the Freemount Bypass set. A certain degree of instrumental overload is acceptable on the straight instrumental tracks, where there's room to experiment and stretch out the arrangements, but overkill sets in occasionally, as with the intervention of hip-hoppers 2Play & Roachie on Got A Hold On Me, the disc's "must-skip" track, one which just feels totally out of place here even under the potential aegis of fusion. Far more successfully integrated are the heady electric drive of Neckbelly and Madonna Groove, and there's a suitably joyous session feel to Michael's composition The Full Set. And Sally May Melia, an aggregation of the gorgeous, gentle Aggie's Waltz with two other recent compositions by Sharon and Jim, is a refreshing and invigorating highlight almost worth the price of the album on its own. The disc also contains two vocal numbers (Jim does the honours here): an attractive enough, carefree, casual treatment of The Curra Road and a delicately accompanied but finally fairly bland rendition of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Overall, Renegade can be considered a success, but there's still a distinct feeling that Sharon and her cohorts are sometimes trying too hard, firstly by packing too much into the disc's 38 minutes and secondly by mixing in flavours that in the end don't necessarily taste well together.

www.sharonshannon.com

David Kidman January 2008

Sharon Shannon and Friends - Libertango (Independentrecordsltd)

Originally a member of The Waterboys way back in 1988, the Clare born accordionist/fiddle player's career has seen collaborations with such diverse musicians as Bono, Nigel Kennedy, Denis Bovell and the Kodo Drummers of Japan as well as a steady stream of well received solo albums, reaching a peak with 2000's The Diamond Mountain Sessions. For her latest (the first release on her manager's new label) she's brought together a number of female vocalists to join her road band and such guest musicians as Donal Lunny and Steve Wickham, for an album that combines the traditional flavours of her native Ireland and the kindred musical spirits of Scotland with the warm exotic tones of Latin America, pulling them all together for the opening slow jig lazy fiesta of The Whitestrand Sling. First recorded by Grace Jones and covered for the Each Little Thing album, the late Kirsty MacColl's version of Libertango (based on the tune by Astor Piazzolla) gets a re-arranged treatment to draw out even more of its lazy sultry rhythms and serve reminder of what a talent has been lost. The other well known guest is Sinead O'Connor, with whom Shannon's been touring, who joins her for The Seven Rejoices of Mary (an ancient chant learnt from the monks of Glenstal Abbey) and the traditional Anachie Gordon. Perhaps the best performance though comes from newcomer Pauline Scanlon who takes vocal duties on John Spillane's All The Ways You Wander while by far the most unexpected is the closing What You Make It which reworks the opening track with rap and backing vocals by Marvel and Lady K. A surprise hit single in the making perhaps. If that raises traditionalist eyebrows, they'll be lowered and soothed again by the more familiar Celtic strains of such instrumentals as Shannon's own Hogs & Heifers (a pub as it happens), the waltz and jigs of The Burst Mattress, Tommy Peoples's The Wishing Well and, sounding nothing like the title might suggest, Space Party. And for those who've long wondered what Fleetwood Mac's Albatross might sound like played with accordion, mandolin and fiddle, well look no further.

www.independentrecordsltd.com
www.daisydiscs.com

Todd Sharpville - The Meaning Of Life (Cathouse)

Three naked women wearing angels' wings and dropping wads of cash into a guitar case surround Todd Sharpville on the cover of his album. On the back the girls are still naked, but now they're horny devils. Could this really be 'the meaning of life'?

With album artwork of the kind not seen since Jimi Hendrix made naked women a cliché image - and which make a visit to the till to pay for the record a potentially embarrassing experience - you wouldn't expect anything too subtle from this new album from inveterate session guitarist Sharpville; you won't be disappointed by the rather formulaic, big production blues that pours forth with a push of the 'play' button.

Todd writes the songs - apart from a couple of covers, including Magic Sam's 'Look Wacha Done' - plays guitar and sings, and clearly wants to be Gary Moore. However, although this is billed as a solo record it sounds much more like a band effort. With no fewer than than four guest vocalists, plus some C-list musical celebrities thrown in, there's no real feel of it being the work of one person. Those guests include Mick Taylor on slide guitar, Eugene Bridges (Hideaway Blues Band), Snowy White, Paul Lamb and even Leo Sayer doing the microphone duties on one track, and showing what a good, ballsy singer he still is. It's a fine array of musicians but, with such strong talent vying for attention, Sharpville himself too often disappears into the background, behind a sound that's got everything but the kitchen sink. When he does step up and flex his fretboard fingers, it's fine if rather anonymous stuff. In fact, this album is more memorable for the work of veteran blues vocalist and harp man Keith Dunn, who has worked with the likes of Joe Louis Walker, Jimmie Vaughan and brother Stevie Ray, and here appears on no less than seven tracks.

Nice album, Keith. Not sure about the lead guitarist, though...

www.cathouseblues.com

Phil Widdows

It's hard to think that the unbelievably young-looking face staring out from behind the fiddle on the booklet photo portrait belongs to the voice you hear singing on the record, but it's true! Not only does seventeen-year-old Amanda sound more mature than her years, but her fiddle playing is pretty special too.

There's a spiky gutsiness about her musical personality that's most attractive, and she probably owes much of that to her New Orleans background and the vibrant Cajun spirit of that community which pervades this disc along with the region's steamy brand of funk and a seasoned pop sensibility. That mix can produce a mildly uneasy marriage, but it doesn't sound contrived and your final verdict on the record as a whole will depend on your personal taste within those categories. Me, I can really get off on Amanda's fiery fiddling, and the three rocked-up-trad sets work just fine (if unadventurous in the arrangement department), but I do find one or two of the pop-soul tracks (eg Woulda Coulda Shoulda) a mite routine, even tiresome on repeated listening.

Amanda's own original songs tend to fare better, especially the slow-burner Wishing Me Away and the throwback-80s feel of the title track, and she makes a passable stab at jittery TH-style funk on the horn-drenched Brick Wall, while (but for the twisted fiddle solo) the heavy riff-laden Easy On Your Way Out could've been pinched from a '71-vintage Purple album. Perhaps the thrusting backbeat is a tad omnipresent at times, but generally speaking Amanda's singing overrides the show with abundant character and presence. Scott Billington's the man responsible for production, and he's done a good punchy, upfront job, also assembling a reliable backing crew (mostly consisting of Cranston Clements, Scott Thomas, Ronnie Falgout and Mike Barras), although the most noteworthy name amongst the sidemen will be Dirk Powell, who contributes fiddle and acoustic guitar, and Sarah Borges sings harmony vocal on a couple of tracks.

www.amandashaw.com

David Kidman February 2008

This CD presents nearly 40 minutes of music from the soundtrack of the acclaimed BBC Scotland drama serial based on Finlay J. Macdonald's novels set on Harris, whose title translates as Crowdie And Cream. It combines traditional music, played by traditional musicians, with the lusher classical sounds of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. That sounds like a recipe for a diverse and unsatisfying cobbling-together of big names just to cash in on a TV success, but this issue is an honourable exception to that rule. Capercaillie members Donald and Charlie have here composed a score which is cinematically intimate yet panoramic and finely evocative, in which the disparate elements are extremely well-integrated, although there are inevitably moments where a specific style predominates. The whole score hangs together really well and makes for a satisfying listen on its own terms; the cream on the crowdie, as it were, being provided by the top-class playing of all the musicians involved, and with guests of the calibre of Michael McGoldrick, Kris Drever, Rory Campbell, Manus Lunny, Brendan Power, Jim Sutherland, Tony McManus and James Mackintosh, you just know you're in for something special. The idiom is accessible and attractive, with sufficient contrasts to maintain interest, for instance there's florid orchestral soundscape in the open-toned manner of Copland or Vaughan Williams perhaps (Machair At Dawn or Atlantic Funeral) set alongside the earthy, jaunty country-shuffle of All Slicked Up and the sweeping majesty of The World Below. If you don't know any Gaelic, you could in fact be forgiven for mis-reading the serial's title as Truth Is Beauty, which would (ironically) be rather appropriate, for its soundtrack CD is spellbinding, beautifully recorded and very high quality incidental music, and as such is well worth your investment.

www.verticalrecords.co.uk

David Kidman

Virgil Shaw - Still Falling (Future Farmer)

www.virgilshaw.com

Mike Davies

Shearwater - Winged Life (Fargo)

When you get a press release describing a band as Talk Talk covering early Elton John or Bert Jansch anticipating the Smiths, you do kind of pay attention. Amazingly they actually live up to the hype, albeit translating the quintessential Englishness of the comparisons into quintessential heartlands America. What crosses the bridge intact is the melancholic alienation of souls lost, lonely and adrift, breathed into life with brushed arrangements of guitars, keyboards, vibraphone and skeletal bluegrass banjo.

Fronted by contrasting songwriters and vocalists Jonathan Meiburg (an ornithologist, which no doubt explains why the band's named after a water-skimming bird) and Will Sheff, they craft an atmospheric web of wistful disillusionment with songs that whisper stories of missed opportunity, moments (and loves) let go and unfulfilled hopes. Indeed, the spooked tick tock opening A Hush is actually narrated from beyond the grave.

The mournful Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine finds the singer lamenting the passing of youth's freedom and the ache of being left outside of the widening domestic circles while A Makeover tells how the new leaf turned over by the protagonist has quickly lost its lustre and even the paradoxically jaunty pop sounding (I've Got A) Right To Cry is veined with paranoia.

They certainly know how to write an evocative lyric, for example on the sparse sounding back porch bluegrass gothic Whipping Boy where they sing "just to see him laugh I would have washed in the blood of an innocent man" or in the scenes sketched in the Eltonish piano ballad The World In 1984 where, talking to his grandfather and mother, Meiburg laments everything lost in the past two decades. As seven minutes of The Set Table shows, they can go on a bit, but for the most part this is a Shear delight.

www.jound.com/shearwater

Mike Davies

www.sheandhim.com
www.myspace.com/sheandhim

Mike Davies April 2010

In a business of sycophants where few people are prepared to give you an honest opinion, talent self-delusion tends to be the rule when it comes to actors and actresses turning their hand to music. There have, of course, been honourable exceptions. And to that list you can now add Zooey Deschanel. While she was acclaimed for her work in All The Real Girls, she's not, perhaps, among the highest profile Hollywood names, her films including minor roles in the likes of Almost Famous, Die Hard 4, The Assassination of Jesse James, and, oh dear, The Happening. She's probably best known for her perky turn as Juvie, in Elf, where she got to duet on the soundtrack with Leon Redbone on Baby It's Cold Outside. She also contributed three numbers, including a fine version of Ooh Child, to the Bridge To Terabithia soundtrack.

It was for the as yet (at time of writing) to be released The Go-Getter, that director Martin Hynes paired her with singer-songwriter M Ward to record a cover of Richard and Linda Thompson's When I Get To The Border. Apparently she mentioned she wrote a few things herself, played him some samples and he suggested they make a record together. This is it.

She's clearly in thrall to the girl groups and solo stars of the 60s, so that I Was Made For You (which surely pinches from You Got What It Takes) sounds like Lesley Gore fronting the Ronettes, the keening pedal steel country Change Is Hard has a touch of the Clines, the summery This Is Not A Test is somewhere between early Cher and Sandy Posey and the Tin Pan Alley feel of the excellent I Thought I Saw Your Face Today will, along with several others, bring to mind Carole King and her Brill Building cohorts.

With a warm blowing in the breeze silky voice that sounds like freshly laundered linen smells, she's a decent writer too, her songs tending to the torchiness of falling in and out of love, all wrapped in easy on the ear infectious melodies. With Ward providing occasional vocals along with guitar and keyboards, self-penned stand-outs would also include a Carpenters-ish Sentimental Heart, moody piano and strings lounge ballad Take It Back, country rolling Got Me and, co-written with fellow actor-musician Jason Schwartzman, the Spector pop meets Pet Sounds Sweet Darlin'.

She and Ward give good cover too with a simple voice/guitar gospel sway through Smokey's You Really Got A Hold On Me and a duetted remodelling of Lennon & McCartney's I Should Have Known Better in a Hawaiian lounge style where, revealing the fun involved in the project, you can hear her giggling in the background. Rounding off with an unaccompanied woozy reading of Swing Low Sweet Chariot, you have to hope the album lives up to its title and there's more to follow. I'd give anything to hear her covering I Don't Want To Play in Your Yard.

www.myspace.com/sheandhim

Mike Davies August 2008

This scintillating new all-female outfit, originally the brainchild of Borders fiddler Shona Mooney (CrossCurrent, Unusual Suspects), brings together six graduates from Newcastle University's Folk & Traditional Music degree course. Shona's own fiddle can be heard alongside that of Olivia Ross, and The Shee's lineup is completed by flautist Lillias Kinsman-Blake and harpist Rachel Newton (whose duo CD Dear Someone so brightened last month), together with Amy Thatcher (piano accordion) and Laura-Beth Salter (mandolin). Their debut album lives up to its name like the blowing-in of a fresh breeze, nay a whirlwind of invention, with its adventurous and well-proportioned blend of Scottish folk, Gaelic song and bluegrass. The Shee depart from any superficial comparison with the Poozies by virtue of their use of bluegrass-inflected mandolin in place of guitar, a feature which proves key to both their overall and incidental musical stylings. The Shee present a dynamic total sound picture, within which each individual line or colour, though tightly controlled in its execution, also displays an easy facility for interchange of melody and textured harmony roles, while their arrangements display a strong sense of co-operative approach. Naturally, individual band members also get the chance to shine, and their handling of those quite specific instrumental colours is innovative and often quite startling, for instance in the array of effects Rachel conjures from her electric harp (you might almost mistake its dark twang for a bass guitar at times).

The disc contains eight contrasted songs, over which the lead vocal duty is shared virtually equally between The Shee's three fine singers: Olivia contributes a composition of her own, the delightful lilting Summer's Promise, as well as a feisty, funky take on Graham Moore's Tom Paine's Bones. Rachel revels in her spirited interpretation of Lady Margaret, and she shares the spotlight with Olivia on an enterprisingly different treatment of MacCrimmon's Lament, while Laura-Beth brings to the mix some old-timey trad (Chilly Winds) and a pleasing cover of Here I Am (co-written by Ronnie Bowman and Shawn Long). The Shee's general air of bold friskiness and abundant energy is even more apparent in the three instrumental tracks: Ahma pairs a deliciously syncopated reel with a tricky piece by Carina Normansson, while the Happy Halloween jig is all Amy's work and the Drunken Duck set incorporates sparky tunes from the pens of Rachel and Lillias. The album's production, by Duncan Lyall, reflects and brings out the imaginative character of the ladies' playing without letting the sound-picture get too cluttered even in the richer-textured passages, although I do have a slight reservation about the distinctly boxy acoustic he's given to some of the vocal parts (presumably for clear separation purposes). A Different Season is a very impressive debut indeed: I might say, one of shee-er brilliance!

www.theshee.com

David Kidman October 2008

This Bristol-based five-piece outfit made their debut in style close on five years ago with the acclaimed CD Uncle Lung, which proudly set out their proverbial stall on the big wide world-folk marketplace. On the followup, the band take another leap forward in their presentation, this time recording at Peter Gabriel's RealWorld studios.

Once again, but with an even greater confidence, they tirelessly purvey their own diverting brew of influences - Celtic, klezmer, reggae, gypsy, jazz – stirring them up and tossing them straight back out into the dance-floor with unbridled abandon and an obvious surplus of energy. The album title and the associated clever artwork gives a good flavour of both the reckless delight and sense of fun, and at the same time the careful attention to detail, that the enclosed music contains. Aside from a couple of trad-arrs, the bulk of Sheelanagig's material is self-composed: mostly by flute/whistle player Adrian Sykes, guitarist Dave Archer and/or violin/mandolin man Aaron Catlow. Each selection is expertly managed, and clearly tailored to the musical skills of the band members. The all-acoustic sound is full and detailed, with a light-textured precision of phrasing and effect that ensures your attention isn't inclined to wander. And - surprisingly, considering the often frantic energy-quotient and the magpie nature of the constant parade of musical styles and nuances - it's hard to feel impatient with the tunes when they refuse to settle anywhere in particular.

The strongest feel during this new set is that of East European jazz, and that's an idiom in which the guys really seem at home – having said that, they convince on every front they tackle, from nutty-boy skank (Scruffy Dog and the title number) to Latino hip-hop with a Cossack flavour (All Over The Floor), a jaunty hot-club take on bhangra-mystic (Soup With A Fork – a brilliant title for describing bassist Dorian Sutton's slippery solo passages on that track!) to a pensive Northumbro-Celt tone-painting (Wilson's) that forms a satisfying prelude to the tricky rhythms of The Canny Man. The latter is one of two tracks to feature the stunning banjo work of the band's guest Leon Hunt, by the way. Perhaps the most iconoclastic track on display here is Gargantor (here deceptively named after its gentler introductory section, Al Fresco's Love Temple Waltz), a veritable folk-freak extravaganza which has rapidly become a live favourite. But that track's no flash-in-the-pan, for there's great – I might say bewitching! – musicianship on display throughout Baba Yaga's Ball. So go check these guys out at a village hall near you – or better still at a festival… for they've already stormed Glastonbury, Trowbridge, Shepley, Larmer Tree and The Big Chill, and more are planned for this year.

www.sheelanagig.co.uk

David Kidman January 2010

Yet again the Glasgow based label comes up trumps by introducing a hitherto unknown US country act into the UK. This time it's the Philadelphia based duo (though the band currently features five members) of Tennessee's Amy Pickard (guitar) and Texan Beth Case (percussion played on beaded purse, screwdriver and wood blocks), the tracks here a compilation of their two albums to date, the eponymous debut and Not About Love.

More akin to the McCarters and Be Good Tanyas than the Indigo Girls, their update on old fashioned Appalachian Gothic has been described as "tart, smart, neo-hillbilly," a love of traditional front porch mountain music that's filtered through influences not as diverse as Elvis, Led Zep, Tom Waits and, especially for her female perspective, Loretta Lynn. Listen to 900 Nights and, while inspired by 70s Nashville twangy female country, you'll hear Connie Francis in there too.

They lay out their mission statement from the off, opening up with a worksong styled cover of the trad Oh Death, harmony a cappela save for the spare percussion and occasional sound of clanging pipe, before moving on to the self-penned bluegrass of the title track. From hereon there's no looking back. A slow waltz Never Enough is the first of three deep voiced Case songs about her broken marriage ( the more uptempo Not About Love, bears Townes Van Zandt's stamp while Box on a Fence draws on the semi-spoken melancholy and stripped back bluesiness of Lou Reed) before the washboard shuffle goodtime boozing-themed Henri. Par for the roots course, they give good tragedy. The Carter Family lay their traces over Awful, a beers and tears style melody song about dealing with death and the grieving while Rosie kicks up its heels in a 'hard folk' stylee to play out a murder ballad from the perspective of the woman. I'm not wholly convinced by old school unrequited love song Hey Baby, but the naked Relic, an early Case song about longing and emotional distance, deftly illustrates their ability to pin a nail through the heart.

And, as you might guess from their name, they're not exactly devoid of wit either, appropriately coming in at just under two minutes, Semi is an in a hurry number about being impatient while in just 27 seconds Truck manages to encapsulate the whole love affair Texans have with their motorised nearest and dearest. Looks like the start of another aural love affair for roots country devotees.

Just a trivia note : Case and then husband Chris Zimmerman wrote and performed It's Only Memory on the soundtrack of Thom Fitzgerald's magnificent film The Hanging Garden but it sadly isn't on the soundtrack CD.

www.she-haw.com

Mike Davies

www.shekeepsbees.com

David Blue September 2009

Michael J Sheehy - Ill Gotten Gains/No Longer My Concern (Beggars Banquet)

Two reviews for the price of one. Gains was the second solo album from the former Dream City Film Club frontman following up Sweet Blue Gene (the title track making a belated debut as the opening number here) with another helping of romantic, cinematic soul baring melancholy dripping from his tenderly bruised aching voice. Blues roots are in evidence in a slurry displaced version of Elvis hit Mystery Train, the Tom Waits lurching of Michael Jnr, a fuzz n distortion Wa'cha Gonna Do? and the mournful worksong influenced Black Hole Is Waiting, but otherwise the mood is quiet and reflective in the manner of Cowboy Junkies (Tired Old Love Song) and Tindersticks (No One Recognised Him's tale of a boxer who throws a fight), the closing Let It Be Love This Time an angelic kindred spirit to Jackie Leven. Gorgeous.

Now comes his much anticipated (at least by the lucky few who've found and succumbed to his forlorn charms) third and highly personal final piece of a loose trilogy based around themes of drink, sex and screwing up. Or as he succinctly puts it on Pigboy, "It was summer I was ten, a family trip along union canal I was a miserable f***er then and I'm still one now."

With the notable exceptions of the dark metronome rhythms of Ballad Of The Pissed Apostle and Pigboy, and the Waitsian twin set of finger clicking bass twanging scratchy blues Donkey Ride Straight To Hell, which enfolds Willie Dixon into the writing credits, and Swing Low which is based on Swing Low Sweet Chariot, this is a musically melancholic set, those Tindersticks reference points expanded on Dark Country Moment to also take in Leonard Cohen while Modest Beauty could easily be the best thing Nick Cave never recorded. Misery doesn't mean humourless however, and there's plenty of wry touches lurking in the lyrics too, Sheehy seeing the absurdity in his reflection while still tracing the track marks of pain. He's declared this is the last of his confessional outpourings, but it's hard to imagine him finding his inner S Club 7 somehow.

www.michaeljsheehy.com

Mike Davies

US singer-songwriter Duncan became a household name in 1996 (in the States) with his debut single Barely Breathing, which stayed in the charts for almost a year and helped land him a grammy nomination for his first album release later that year. Four albums later, we reach White Limousine, which is an apt followup to 2002's Daylight in that it's a further collection of twelve modern artful pop songs in the "epic balladeer" mode, hazily couched in wistful melody and rich atmospheric shimmering arrangements (mostly involving a string orchestra as well as guitars, keys, bass and drums).

The settings are impeccably managed and the songs comparably thoughtful and soul-searching, but I'm not sure that there's been much in the way of artistic progression over the past three years and Duncan seems to settle into one particular expressive vein for much of the time and with little in the way of memorable hooks his songs tend to drift in and out of your consciousness - although some of them do grow on me in a Nick Drake/late-Pink-Floyd kind of way.

Arguably the most interesting selling-point of this latest release, then, perhaps lies in Duncan's decision to include a second disc, a DVD-ROM which, if I understand it correctly, contains separate files of all the album's songs created in a (separately installable) software package which allows listeners to remix the songs however they wish (the idea being that when one opens any given song, all the individual parts will be separated out so that they can be muted, soloed or altered). As Duncan states: "in this way, maybe someone will actually make the minimalist electronica version of the album that (he) was afraid to realise". A fascinating premise and an intriguing adjunct, although since reviewing time is limited I've been unable to get down to making it work yet; I suspect it's beyond the capabilities of my humble PC!

www.duncansheik.com

David Kidman, July 2006

The portmanteau collective name SS&W conceals two-thirds of the celebrated Aberdeen combo The Gaugers (Tom Spiers and Arthur Watson), the third member (Peter Hall) having unfortunately died suddenly a few years back. Peter may have been irreplaceable, yet another Peter (Peter Shepheard) proves an equal match in every sense, for his melodeon playing and excellent singing fit with the duo's singing, Tom's fiddle and Arthur's whistle like the proverbial glove.

The whole is in fact an inordinately fine sum of inordinately fine constituent parts, with everything so absolutely right and in its place yet sounding stirringly fresh each time you play the record. It contains both vocal and musical prowess of such natural skill that it's nothing less than an object lesson on how to perform this repertoire. It's also nothing less than mandatory listening for anyone who believes that all Scottish folk music begins and ends with tawdry reels, tartan trews and braw piping! Here we have three performers - all song-collectors par excellence - who are totally at one with their material, having thoroughly absorbed and assimilated their traditional sources (both songs and singers); they know the virtue of simple accompaniment (as opposed to unduly exotic tunings and distracting instrumental trickery), and they know how to tell their stories in song; their deep enjoyment in communicating those stories is tangible and strong.

There's a healthy variety in the songs themselves, with even the more well-known of the song titles (like Glenlogie, Banks Of Newfoundland, Dowie Dens O' Yarrow and Bonnie Ship The Diamond) hiding some deliciously unusual versions. Although the texts are rightly always uppermost in their renditions, the performers' control of the rhythmic element and the instrumental balance is also unerringly infectious. The tone they coax out of their instruments is as glorious as their individual and combined voices; I particularly love the timbre and swing of Tom's fiddle, but all three play winningly. And the booklet notes are exemplary in their clarity and informativeness.

This CD is an unrivalled pleasure that ought to convert even the most hardened anti-Scot; I just couldn't bid it farewell, and had to replay Ye Boys O' Callieburn instantly!... oh, why aren't there more records like this?!

www.springthyme.co.uk

David Kidman

After essaying various lineup permutations and augmentations - notably the iconic ensemble Last Night's Fun - over the past few years, those two nigh-inseparable touring companions Chris and Denny have now reverted to their initial dynamic duo format and released a fabulous new CD. The incredible bond that Irishman Denny and "Goolishman" Chris formed when they met on the 90s Hull session scene has never waned, and together they make an entirely unmistakable sound, a blend and delivery that simply could not be achieved by any other musicians on the folk circuit.

Here, then, Denny's magisterially assured guitar work (complete with trademark rhythmic drive) ushers in the distinctive, plaintive, sensitive tone of Chris's anglo concertina, with its inbred dancing fingers seamlessly dovetailing magical jig sigs into and out of the melody of the song Denny proceeds to sing with unbridled and yet fully considered passion. The duo's critics might allege that their approach steers perilously close to becoming a formula - albeit a tried and tested one, for even those critics would have to admit that Chris and Denny almost certainly pioneered this approach originally. And it's a mega-involving approach too, which paradoxically - and quite in spite of the restrictions imposed by the singularly limited instrumental complement - pays maximum dividends for the listener, who's taken on an emotional rollercoaster: one moment virtually in tears at a passage of aching lonesome beauty and another barely able to contain feet (and senses!) from dancing with abandon around the galaxy.

Chris and Denny are definitely at the top of their game nowadays - and I thought that only a few years ago! But the intervening years have seen a continuing development in their individual and combined artistry that's miraculous, especially noticeable in Denny's singing, which, while retaining its essential rawness, has moved beyond the stentorian and sometimes over-declamatory character of his earlier efforts into the realms of intensely felt immediacy, with an even more involved passion being expressed within the lilting, decorative contours. At the same time, Chris's playing has evened out the jagged edges while retaining that keen sense of spontaneity both in its own phrasing and its creative interaction with Denny.

As Sherburn & Bartley albums go, Lucy Wan moves on a stage from its predecessors in that only one track (Donnybrook Fair) is a fully-fledged tune-set - the remainder being primarily song-based - and in that it finally (and not before time!) also introduces Denny as a fantastic unaccompanied singer on the title song (placed right at the end of the disc), which receives an extraordinarily powerful and convincing performance, one of the finest I've ever heard of this ballad, and all super-concentrated into just a three-minute timespan.

The range of songs to receive the trademark Chris'n'Denny treatment is wider here than hitherto, with Shane MacGowan's Rainy Night In Soho opening the new collection in style before moving on into more familiar traditional territory (Bantry Girl's Lament, which is ideally combined with a slow reel by Charlie McKerron, and a glorious Sean Tyrrell-influenced rendition of Connie's Song). Seeing Brendan Behan's warhorse The Auld Triangle further down the tracklist brings misgivings, but these are immediately dispelled in Denny's thoroughly refreshing revisit. Even more refreshingly different is Denny's vital and involved take on the "loaded boxcar" chestnut New Railroad. The duo then turn in a leisurely yet epic (eight-minute, tho' it doesn't seem in any way overstretched) version of Sheep Stealers ingeniously built around the Humours Of Tullycrine reel.

So go eat your heart out Harry Potter - this is high-grade wizardry, the real deal. Lucy Wan is a disc shot through with blistering passion and totally brilliant musicianship, all its base elements melded together with serious alchemy.

www.chrisanddenny.co.uk

David Kidman November 2009

Cosy's engaging presence as both songwriter and performer sure shines through in this fifty-minute set recorded live in front of a small (45-strong) audience on one April evening at the converted barn that is CedarHouse Sound & Mastering Studio in New Hampshire. Ostensibly part of the Cosy Sheridan Mid-Life Crisis Tour (!), this date saw Cosy fully at home here with the instrumental support of bassist T.R. Ritchie (with whom she's toured for the past ten years) and Kent Allyn (piano, electric guitar, bass). Her songs seem to alternate between deadly serious, insightful pieces of soul-searching and wry, pointed, sly fun ones, with the interpolation of an occasional story. Not all of them connect on first acquaintance, and there's an element of "you had to be there" sometimes, but by and large Cosy's work is compelling and thoughtful and communicates strongly. Curiously however, the glee-club vaudeville of Hannibal Crossed The Alps provides one of the gig's most memorable moments. The principal potential drawback with this release is that Cosy's fans will already have the majority of the songs here on her previous (six) album releases, and in most instances these new versions don't really add much; but as a record of Cosy's continuing ability to communicate with, and invariably delight and please, an audience, this disc has its value.

www.cosysheridan.com

David Kidman October 2006

Cosy is one of the coterie of singer-songwriters who originally arrived in my consciousness through the efforts of Andrew Calhoun's enterprising Waterbug label (her albums Quietly Led and One Sure Thing were more than just intermittently impressive). Since that label's demise, however, it's been difficult to keep track of artists' progress on an individual basis, so this vintage-year-2000 album is rather late in being reviewed. As I've already hinted, in the past I've actually been quite readily seduced by Cosy's highly individual brand of often wicked, and almost always entertaining, songwriting. Even after living with this (her latest?) album for a while, though, I'm still not entirely sold on the totality of the worldview, the picture she presents; this is most likely to Cosy's insistent vacillation between musical styles, although I'm acutely aware that she still has her finger on the pulse with regard to outlook on life and personal philosophy. The carefree Broadway-cabaret-jazz idiom of the overtly satirical tracks dealing with "Issues" tends to grate after a couple of plays, whereas the deeper import of story-parables such as Dorothy And Eve (termed a well-imagined conversation between some role models) and ostensibly simpler tribute-songs like the touching Love Is Thicker Than Water proves somewhat more lasting. The melodic lusciousness of the more lyrical pieces, such as the title track, recalls Dar Williams at her most memorable. So this album is therefore rather a curate's egg, and a short one at that (just 33 minutes). But Cosy's intrinsic amiability ensures you can't ignore her work.

www.cosysheridan.com

David Kidman

Here's another great recording that but for the kind auspices of Copperplate Distribution would have fallen through the cracks and remained largely unheard in the UK. It was made over 2 years ago, but has all the timeless appeal of the best of Irish traditional music. Co. Leitrim-born Dave is a fine flute player who gathered together an assortment of his musician friends to partake of a session in that metaphorical guest-house-cum-caravan somewhere in the Irish countryside. The 15 tracks, mostly jigs and reels, may be carefully planned as far as arrangements are concerned, but they're played with all the spirit of the convivial session and the varieties of texture Dave and his accomplices conjure up is quite miraculous. Dervish's Brian McDonagh, who's recorded the album, has given the sound a unified bloom that's full and attractive, yet lets the individual contributions breathe within the total sound-picture. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a flute-centred record quite as much, in fact, for the spirit of the music-making is so infectious; even though the whole affair's obviously a studio production rather than a live recording, there's a great feel of different musicians dropping in for each set and being accommodated and allowed free rein. This accentuates, but in a thoroughly nice way, the degree of contrast between individual tracks, and makes for some imaginative touches - as on the Johnny Allen's set (track 5), an isolated instance of Dave forsaking the flute for the button accordion and bringing in Seamie O'Dowd on dobro alongside Padraig McGovern's uilleann pipes and some excellent rhythmic underpinning from Neil Lyons and Keith Kelly. This set forms a real contrast with that preceding, a more strict-tempo approach to a pair of jigs (Maid On The Green and Humours Of Drinagh) where Brian Rooney's spirited fiddle steps it out with Dave to Kevin Brehoney's lively piano vamping. That sort of points up the glory of this album - that it's emphatically not just another series of "more jigs and reels" in "OK, so what?" performances, but a pleasing and often intriguing sequence of inventively varied renditions. And when you glance down the list of musicians (apart from those mentioned, there's Oliver Loughlin, Damien O'Brien, Michael McCague and Padraig O'Neill to name but four), you just know you're in for some scintillating musicianship. After all this positive commentary, however, I feel obliged to voice my one reservation regarding the disc: the inclusion of a song, a composition of Dave's own (Our Beautiful Tradition), the admirable sentiment of which rather fails to light my candle on account of the smooth yet overwrought manner in which it's sung by Dave's cousin Conor. No such problem besets Dave's self-penned polka and reel on the final track - the only other exception to the exclusively traditional source material used throughout this classy record.

www.sheridansguesthouse.ie
www.copperplatedistribution.com

David Kidman August 2008

  Oldham-based Jan and Pete have a long history of singing in and around Manchester, initially as individuals and latterly both as a duo and in various groups. As has been the case (and necessity) with many folk-performers, there was then a post-marital hiatus (career and family commitments), following which around three years ago they returned to the scene as a duo performing a wide range of folk songs, Jan taking the singing role with Pete elegantly and sensitively accompanying on guitar and supplying occasional vocal harmonies. BetterLate is incredibly, their first CD together, and it's a refreshingly bare-bones record which deliberately comes as close as possible to representing how they sound live. The choice of songs is both attractive and apt, representing the better class of folk-club fare and - crucially - songs which suit their performing style and general, thoughtful approach. Traditional pieces include time-honoured material such as Broom Of The Cowdenknowes, I Wish I Wish, Call The Yowes, Verdant Braes Of Skreen, and (for me the most successful of all) Time Wears Awa' (sung unaccompanied by Jan), while the cream of contemporary folk writing is represented by Karine Polwart (two contrasting songs: the beautiful Waterlily and the witty John C. Clarke), Paul Brady (Follow On) and Huw Williams (Rosemary's Sister). Jan and Pete have obviously taken time out to seek and cover the work of some less-heralded but worthy writers too: here, Eamon Friel (whose lyrical Arrow And Heart turns out to be one of the album's highlights) and Mary Asquith (whose Closing Time is popular and well-received in the Stockport and Manchester areas). Wade Hemsworth's Foolish You (which most of us will remember from the wonderful first McGarrigles album) gets a warm and generous reading here too. BetterLate's interpretations are consistent in quality: cleanly expressed and classily turned, each individual interpretation satisfies both as a stand-alone experience and as part of the whole listening sequence (although there are a couple of instances, especially during the first half of the disc, where I would have welcomed a greater contrast of tempo for successive tracks). The CD booklet has just the right amount of necessary information, and the overall presentation (by which I mean all elements of package and design as well as the welcomingly clean recording) is admirably uncluttered.

www.betterlate.co.uk

David Kidman February 2009

Here is James Taylor meets Carol King and you don't often hear music like this these days. It's elegant, melodic and timeless, yet redolent of the 70's. The excellent Mark Feltham's harmonica, sounding very like Stevie Wonder's, just adds to the feeling of better times past.

Sky Turn Blue is South London singer-songwriter/guitarist Chris Shields debut album, on his own Taciturn label. Shield's voice is very JT; light, lyrical and relaxed. Nice musical arrangements with saxophone, trumpet, flute, keyboards and mandolin (as well as the above mentioned harmonica) and a little funk, all add up to a quality blend of (radio) friendly songs.

A Sweet Baby James lullaby? I played the album to a stressed-out friend who fell asleep and woke feeling refreshed and restored! Shields may not take it this way, but it's a great compliment! It's genuine feel-good music. Peace and harmony, brother!

http://www.chrisshields.com

Sue Cavendish

www.richardshindell.com

David Kidman June 2009

Richard Shindell - South Of Delia (Signature Sounds)

This is one of the best albums of covers I've ever come across. I say that at the outset because Richard's previous albums have excelled as much in the songwriting stakes as in the performance aspect.

South Of Delia sees Richard delving into the rich roots heritage of that sprawling American borderland between country and folk, while also offering genuinely fresh perspectives on a few more overly well-travelled songs along the way. It's hard to define exactly what makes Richard's cover versions so very special, but I'll try...

The first thing you notice is that there's a tremendous degree of sensitivity to the lyrics on Richard's part, for he sings each phrase with a true understanding - almost as if he'd penned the songs himself it seems - but also with a degree of knowing understatement that enables him to bring out the best in the musicians he's taken along for the ride. The other key aspect of Richard's interpretative gift is that he sings with an obvious deep affection for the landscapes (both emotional and physical) that the songs inhabit (perhaps this is surprising when you consider that, although New Jersey-born, Richard's lived in Argentina for the past seven years).

For instance, and excitingly, Richard gets to the essence of Springsteen's Born In The USA in a genuinely fresh way, making me feel that I truly understand the lyric for the first time now; Richard emphasises the pain in the lyric so much better through his gently bitter delivery and reassessment of the song's pace, as compared to The Boss's air-thumping all-out anthemic sensory assault. Another masterstroke comes with Richard bringing out the latent melancholy in the blues classic Sitting On Top Of The World, his mournfully spare delivery and setting really penetrating to the heart of what in lesser hands so easily becomes a throwaway number.

Two further standouts come with Jeffrey Foucault's desperately introspective Northbound 35 and Josh Ritter's tenderly evocative yet defiant Lawrence, KS; and then again, Richard's take on The Humpback Whale (from the pen of Harry Robertson) glistens with both insight and the majesty of the ocean (and a superlative guest contribution from Richard Thompson no less), and Richard so potently makes Dylan's Señor his own.

The remainder of the set ranges from a beautifully phrased take on The Storms Are On The Ocean and a stirring Texas Rangers to an earthy down-home Acadian Driftwood by way of a perhaps more surprising choice, Peter Gabriel's plaintive Mercy Street. Whatever the landscape, though, Richard places you right there - and convinces. As does his excellent backing crew (which includes Larry Campbell, Sara Milonovich, Dennis McDermott, Viktor Krauss and Radoslav Lorkovic, with Lucy Kaplansky and Eliza Gilkyson on harmony vocals - heaven!).

Richard's distinctive and richly incisive way of presenting his own songs is carried through here into his interpretation of the work of other narrators (Richard draws the distinction with the term songwriters), and he's produced some outstanding, highly thoughtful and intensely refreshing recordings for this disc. No exaggeration, this supremely artful set of "twelve songs that belong together" is interpretive magic of the very highest order. (I've just one little complaint: I'd have liked a translation for Leon Gieco's Solo Le Pido A Dios, the only song here that was completely new to me... )

http://www.richardshindell.com

David Kidman

It's been a long, long time since I've been as engrossed in an entire album as I have been listening to Amanda Shires's West Coast Timbers.

It is entirely fitting and undoubtedly not coincidental that she begins the album with Upon Hearing Violins because not only is this West Texas musician a beautifully precise singer she is a skilled and passionate fiddle player as well. But she is also a 'canny' enough performer avoid lessening the instrument's impact, it visits tracks like Mineral Wells and Angels and Acrobats like a treasured guest rather than one that has outstayed its welcome, wherever and whenever it appears you're glad its back.

West Coast Timbers is built on the bedrock of traditional American folk music, there are delicate shades of country, bluegrass and slightly ironically in the case of Upon hearing Violins a subtle version of country rock to add texture. But it is the heart and soul that Amada Shires brings that is the album's vital, life-giving ingredient.

She possesses that rare ability to bring lyrics to vibrant life. You can almost touch and see the heartbreak within Put Me To Bed, for a song so full of sadness and despair it fairly crackles and fizzes with raw emotion.

There is also an engaging, natural unaffected quality to both Amada Shires and her music that allows the listener to believe in her. While others would have searched a song like Unwanted Things for a theatrical effect, Amanda Shires finds the simple truth that is at its core.

It would have been so easy for Amanda Shires to use tradition as a crutch, there is no doubt that she could have recorded - and may yet record - a superb, rough-edged 'old-time' country album but West Coast Timbers is not it. The songs have a depth that only the personal can bring, this is Amanda Shires laying herself bare.

Throughout West Coast Timbers Amanda Shires shows the confidence and maturity to allow a song like Days In Blankets to speak for itself, it and the whole album has the lightness of touch that comes from a true musician, set against the barest of musical canvasses Amanda Shires and West Coast Timbers flourish.

www.myspace.com/amandashiresrunning

Michael Mee February 2009

With its cocktail of Julee Cruise, Victoria Williams, Mazzy Star, Bjork and Rickie Lee Jones, their 2002 sophomore album, Rough Dreams, should have been the one to elevate Ambrosia Parsley, Duke McVinnie and Danny McGough to international status. As it turned out label wrangles meant it didn't even get a US release and almost caused the band to throw in the towel. They stuck with it though, lifted up by the patronage of Quentin Tarantino who used Goodnight Moon on the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack, and now with a new label they return with album number three, it's title - and the track New Casablanca - inspired from the line in the Bogart classic, its songs asking the same romantic questions of love, lust and betrayals.

As befits the inspiration, the mood is very chill out lounge, Parsley's sultry, seductive tones smoothing their way across the various jazzed backings and more experimental colours. Someday sounds like a textbook slice of torch pop hijacked by scuffed rhythm shuffle and New Orleans brass section, The Fat Lady of Limbourg takes a European cabaret sway and peppers it with a machine press rhythm and bleeps and bubbles of steam while Little Black Mess deliberately sets the vocals and backing to different tempos.

On paper that may make it sound a little disconcerting, but it all flows with a smooth, lazy ease, taking to the dance floor for a Latin sway mixed with a reggae lurch with 2 Far (Parsley at her most little girl kittenish), I Close My Eyes coming over all 40s New York noir with its twangy guitar and sashaying vocals and both Mexican Boyfriend and the dreamy pop that is It All Got Black providing perfect soundtracks for those impossibly perfect sunny afternoons by the river. Spine shivareeingly good.

www.shivaree.com

Mike Davies

Shine is a trio of Scottish women that's perfectly named, for that's precisely what their music does, and very brightly. The roll-call comprises Alyth McCormack, Corrina Hewat and Mary MacMaster - each one's a stupendous singer, and the last two mentioned just happen also to be established practitioners of the electro-harp. Yes, that soft-toned yet wonderfully resonant beast whose distinctive timbre formed such a memorable constituent in the sound of the Poozies and Sileas (both of which included Mary among their ranks, of course). Unlike the Sileas albums, though, Sugarcane presents a sequence of songs (as opposed to instrumentals), a selection that can only be described as genuinely and inspirationally eclectic. A handful of Gaelic songs (shame no texts or translations!) ably complement Sting's Fields Of Gold (which turns up here in one of the finest versions I know) and Michael Marra's curious Happed In Mist, while the delicious wispiness of the title track is breathtaking, and the set is completed by some inspired treatments of Burns (notably the unaccompanied Tocher and, especially, Gloomy December, which provides an interesting counterpart to Robert Tannahill's Gloomy Winter).

Vocals are mellow-toned, yet with precision and bite convey a daring approach to harmonies, unafraid of exploring dissonances and where the natural, bold and fearless expression of them might lead. You might imagine that just harps and voices would make for a somewhat rarefied and restricted sound-palette, but full compensation comes in the sweeping deftness and delicacy combined with a robustness of attack, the sheer variety of material and the innovative treatments that fully utilise all three lasses' strikingly different vocal timbres. The trio's differing backgrounds and training (traditional folk, jazz, classical) allow them to reap each other's benefits, and together they weave an altogether gorgeous tapestry of sound. Like yer actual sugarcane, the sound is sweet yet at the same time quite basic and just a little raw, happily unrefined by such things as saccharine keyboards. Unless you're incurably allergic to the sound of the harp or to women's voices, you'll love this album, which makes a virtue of uniting disparate sources into a truly coherent, enchanting and richly rewarding listening experience. This album was a long time coming, but the lasses have every right to be extremely proud of their achievement - it's brilliant!

www.shine3.com

Not having been to New Mexico, let alone Albuquerque, home of three-piece Shine Cherries, I can only give an educated guess as to what it looks like. My image is of a hot, arid, rugged and awesome place, the kind of country that mother nature has taken thousands of years to carve.

And it's that natural grandness that Shine Cherries don't they have definite articles in America?) evoke in this 6-track EP.

The three, Michelle Collins, Johnny Cassidy and Jeffrey Richards have made every moment of this album a vital one. And rather like the effect of the wind and rain, slowly but inevitably a little more of the true depth and shadows are revealed as the EP moves on.

This is dark, intense, angular rock and roll, there is no gentle easy flow as each track moves in a series of inky black waves. Over it all like a harbinger of doom hangs the superb voice of Michelle Collins. On Fight or Flight she brings a natural, unknowing sensuousness to the song. So stately and grand is the progress of tracks like Mosquito that guitar drums and voice appear, at first glance to be completely unrelated but, as they join together, they create an atmosphere that sends a chill up your spine.

Surely no album has ever deserved or required a track like Atmosphere, because that's what is at the core of everything good about Shine Cherries, it's also perhaps fitting that they begin with a track called Palm Of Your Hand because that's precisely where you'll be.

This introduction to the innovation and imagination ofhtree superb musicians is a musical trek through a shadowy landscape, it may hold terrors but once its begun it's impossible not to see it through.

Shine Cherries is available from www.milesofmusic.com

Shine Cherries

Michael Mee

There is an almost magnetic awkwardness about the songs on Sam Shinazzi's third album Then I Held My Breath. Its as if Shinazzi is revealing a series of uncomfortable moments in his life. Instead of polishing and crafting the tracks, he has left them at their most natural best. There is a simple clarity and honesty about songs like Please Don't Let Me Forget that makes them breathtakingly beautiful. Instead of searching for that elegant, well turned phrase Shinazzi tells it as he feels it and that only serves to strengthen the bond between artist and audience.

The simple but unshakable songwriting foundations on which Shinazzi has built Then I Held My Breath allow him to be touchingly frank, Girls, for one, only works because it is so open. Any hint of over production would make it self indulgent. And that's the key to Then I Held My Breath, each song 'works' in its own unique way. The fact that Lil' Wanderin' Star is 'painted' on a rock canvass, doesn't make it a rock song. It's the story that Shinazzi is compelled to share that is at the heart of it all.

With Then I Held My Breath, Sam Shinazzi displays a born talent for creating a mood. Walking is sparse to the point of being bleak but it's that quality that drives the song home. As it unfolds it's as if Shinazzi is completing it along the way. To then follow it with the naive love song My Very Own Mary-Ellen gives a perfect example of the light and shade contained in the album.

You'd be hard pushed to find a convenient label for Then I Held My Breath, while it has threads of many genres, it belongs to none. In truth it's a shining example of a songwriter at his best, the triumph of substance over style.

www.myspace.com/samshinazzi

Michael Mee June 2009

A double CD from Swiss slide player Hank Shizzoe and his band Loose Gravel, with the second of the two albums featuring the Louisiana man himself, Sonny Landreth. I must admit that this is the first time I've come across hank and it's not often we come across singer/slide guitarists from Switzerland who have such roots/rock leanings. The musical style of the first of the two CDs is more rock than roots and we can probably attribute this to the songwriting of one Thomas Erb, not a member of the band. A couple of covers might have eased us in and given us a reference point or two. However it is Shizzoe's own fine slide playing that dominates this CD, especially on the slower numbers, 'Low Budget', 'Waltz No. 1' and 'Handmade Love'. When the brakes are off, as on 'Indian Girl', the band come across as somewhere between Mountain and JJ Cale. Why not?

The second CD offers more variety with songs from Dylan ('She Belongs To Me'), Knopfler, Landreth's sometime employer, ('Six Blade Knife') and Petty ('Cabin Down Below') being thrown into the mix with Landreth's class certainly showing. It's his understanding of melody and ability to listen to what's going on around him that makes his playing special. Where side 2 trips itself up is that the vocals often sound a semitone too low for Shizzoe's voice. That's a real shame as it means we sometimes don't get the full dynamics of the numbers. Even so there's no denying that Shizzoe and Landreth work well together with liquid slide work on 'Joe Went To The water' and 'Six Blade Knife'. Drummer Cristoph Beck gets his chance to write with 'Isborn' but rather predictably come up with a six minute drum solo - ouch!

There's over two hours of live music here and the fact that Sonny Landreth plays on one of the albums, he's also featured on the live video track 'Stagger Lee' that is also on the album, will be irresistable to some. Personally I find it difficult to overcome the fact that we have a Swiss singing in an American accent, it's bad enough having British singers do the same even though we share a common language. Then again it's better that I put aside my own prejudices as there is plenty here to enjoy and the opprtunity for Hank Shizzoe to expand his musical territory.

www.crosscut.de

cj holley

Typical, you wait ages for a new Michelle Shocked album and then three come along at once. Available both individually and as a triple set, it marks the latest stage in her self-styled American Trilogy, the discs lining up as Mexican Standoff, Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Got No Strings.

The middle one of the pack, which she refers as Short Sharp Shocked grown up, stems primarily from her recent divorce, ranging stylistically between blues (Used Car Lot), rock (Fools Like Us), punk (Hi Skool), Tex Mex country (the superb Evacuation Route) and jangling folk pop (a Dylanish talk-sing How You Play The Game) and pretty much steering clear of any self-pity as she snaps out the Waitsian greasy blues Hardly Gonna Miss Him and lounges through the newly alone bittersweetness of Early Morning Saturday.

While you may find yourself wondering what on earth she's on about with the talking noir parable Don't Ask ("did I ever tell you about the time I was change into a rabbit?"), which musically fuses together a Grapevine walking riff with psychedelic fuzz and jazzed brass, you'll not disagree that, closing with Goodbye (complete with flugelhorn Taps), Shocked bidding punters farewell and introducing the band as they file out of her barroom, it's one of the strongest sets she's put together in some years.

Billing herself as la Senora, Mexican Standoff subdivides the concept further as she straddled her own heritage with a set that moves from the Mexican flavours of the first five numbers produced by Steve Berlin from Los Lobos) and partly sun in Spanish to the slide guitar American blues of the second five. I'm not sure if she's making any point or simply approaching nostalgia from both sides of the border, but either way the Mariachi cabaret La Cantina el Gato Negro, a jazzy Lonely Planet and the lurching tango beats of Match Burns Twice sit solidly alongside the delta swampy Mouth of the Mississippi, a lazy wail 180 Proof and the guitar blues groove of Blackjack Heart.

Interestingly, Wanted Man offers a new set of spoken lyrics and Tex Mex colours while using the melody line of the old Johnny Cash nugget.

Which leaves Got No Strings (on which she's now Bab Won't) , an unlikely but hard to resist collection of Disney songs reworked as Western Swing, embracing a kittenish Leon Redbone take on the title track, a hot club workout Give A Little Whistle and A Dream Is A Wish with Gave Witcher on fiddle, channelling Eartha Kitt on A Spoonful of Sugar and turning Bare Necessities into a fabulous cocktail of back porch, catfish and Huck Finn down the creek.

Only stretching herself thin a couple of times over 31 tracks, it's an excellent package that keeps turning up new rewards with each listen. And, start saving the pocket money because this apparently's only the tip of the accumulated material iceberg and there's another triple set due later in the year.

www.michelleshocked.com

Mike Davies

Michelle Shocked - Arkansas Traveler (Mighty Sound

The cast list on the re-released Arkansas Traveler is impressive enough. The Band, Pops Staples, Alison Krauss and Doc Watson just to name a few. But even such luminaries are cast in the shadows of Michelle Shocked and her music.

Arkansas Traveler is the third in a trilogy released between 1988 and 1992 and was Grammy nominated first time round and deserves to be again. Here it is remastered and augmented by seven bonus tracks and incidentally it's one of the most powerful examples of what a singer-songwriter can achieve when they stretch themselves.

Curiously the opening track, 33 RPM Soul is perhaps the thinnest on the album a fact made even more curious because Shocked is joined on it by the great Pop Staples. Maybe it's the strength of what follows but it becomes a quirky aside that leaves little lasting impression.

The same cannot be said of Come A Long Way which is graphically autobiographical and, with a story told so plainly and honestly, it's impossible not to be sucked in. And that's what Michelle Shocked does best, she makes the listener care deeply about the subject of each song. From this point on the album is a sheer delight. It doesn't appear to have a common thread running through it but it's one that is best listened to from start to finish (even 33 RPM Soul) and then started again.

Secret To A Long Life is pretty much what you'd expect from a collaboration with The Band. After all you wouldn't call them up and ask them to be anything else, now would you? But I have definitely a new-found respect for the Hothouse Flowers. Their contribution to the rumbustious, Guinness-flavoured Over The Waterfall is stunning but, as always, at the heart of it all is Michelle Shocked.

Everything about Arkansas Traveler screams spirit. Hold Me Back is a perfect example of the kind of 'kick down the door' blues that just won't be ignored. And yet she's equally at home with the fly-blown, homely, back porch country of Strawberry Jam.

The blues is obviously very important to Michelle Shocked, it's influence is almost everywhere on the album. But it's not a blind allegiance, her duet with Alison Krauss is one of the exceptions that proves the rule. It's gentleness wraps itself around you like a comfort blanket.

Arkansas Traveler may be a hodge-podge of styles . In truth it's more of recorded jam session than anything else. The title track is surely just Jimmy Driftwood fooling around in the studio, with Michelle Shocked joining in but from that spontaneity springs magic.

The seven bonus tracks too, add more to the album than just seven more songs. Her live version of Worth The Weight with Dan Crary is just that and the stripped back solo demo of Come A Long Way is in many ways a better version than the 'finished article'.

Michelle Shocked has a studio scheduled for release in 2005, until then Arkansas Traveler will do very nicely.

www.michelleshocked.com

Michael Mee

Michelle Shocked - Deep Natural (Mighty Sound)

Funky isn't a word I'd ever thought I'd use in the same sentence as Michelle Shocked, but that's exactly what her new album is. And not just Southern funk. There's soul, there's gospel, there's blues, reggae, and, just occasionally, the acoustic roots with which she made her name. It could, of course, have been an eclectic mess, the haphazard sound of an artist dabbling with genres on her own label and no one to tell her no. In fact it's probably the best thing she's ever recorded and an album that warrants a place in the year's best of lists. Good News, (((Joy))), What Can I Say and Peachfuzz swing out big and fat (the latter evoking much the same mood as Dusty In Memphis), Can't Take My Joy hits a Jamaican dub rhythm, Little Billie is a dirty guitar electric barroom blues with Shocked grabbing the microphone in one hand and a jug of bourbon in the other to take on early Tina Turner at her own game while, continuing the album's emphasis on confessional, spiritual and faith based lyrics, Psalm is a full on testifying slab of gospel rock n country that is precisely the sound Dylan was looking for when he ventured into Christian rock.

On the quieter front and touching the album's other concerns of love and understanding, the reflective acoustic country Why Do I Get The Feeling? with its yearning steel and tumbling drums, the aching folky Forgive To Forget and the country jazz That's So Amazing with its late night up on the roof Stax sax intro (think Jesse Winchester crossed with Van Morrison) are no less soul-warming, Shocked more confident and relaxed than she's even been. It's a sign of her musical maturity that the album also comes in a bonus edition with a second cd of dub instrumental versions that's far more listenable a project than you'd assume.

Worth noting she now owns all her own back catologue which have been reissued in special editions, the Campfire Tapes in particular expanded and remastered to the proper speed.

www.michelleshocked.com

Mike Davies

Shooglenifty are (rightly) regarded as virtual co-founders (with Peatbog Faeries) of the "acid-croft" genre in contemporary Scottish music, whereby traditional tunes are transmogrified into full-blown Celtic fusion through the incorporation of dance grooves, electric and electronic elements alongside the traditional instrumentation. The resultant "hypno-folkadelic ambient trad" is hypnotic and yet vital, with interest sustained through a penchant for stretching out the texture, the groove and the envelope within the span of a piece (rather than necessarily going all-out for in-yer-face rave effect).

The band's latest release, Murmichan, doesn't ring any musical or personnel changes, but is a further prime illustration of exactly what the six-piece does best, no more and no less. The format is slightly unwieldy, with music spread over two discs (where it could almost have fitted onto one): a mixture of live-in-the-studio recordings, real-live recordings and remixes (four radical remixes of tunes from the first disc, including two by Dolphin Boy, appear on disc two). Disc One has a particularly satisfying unity, with its seven tracks building well through the various moods from a trance-chill opening (The Road To Bled) to dextrous filigree workouts (Dancing Goose, The Vague Rant) to whirling Eastern-inflected improv (The Dotterel set) and the final Transatlantic-Session-style resting-place of Glenfinnan Dawn. Perhaps more than usual, the band dynamic is defined by the wondrously funky inner tension of the rhythms and the rootsy mando-guitar-fiddle-banjo combination rather than the electronics and samples, and it's a supremely invigorating listen.

Disc Two, though rather more "spacey" in nature, is hardly any less unified artistically, despite the provenance of the various recordings, for performances are consistent and typically energetic and in the end the remixes are far from disposable. It all comes full circle with a vengeance on a stunning, extended nine-minute revisit of the aforementioned Road To Bled that was recorded truly live at this year's Celtic Connections fest with Ensemble Kaboul in tow. In all, no complaints - pretty much the essential Shoogle, and nifty as they come.

www.shoogle.com

David Kidman December 2009

This album was launched almost exactly a year ago this week, yet for some reason it hasn't been reviewed on the site yet so now it's high time to redress the omission, for it's far, far too good an album to be ignored or otherwise consigned to the recycle-bin of the also-rans. Should you not by now be aware of the fact, Shooglenifty are possibly the premier Scottish fusion band, who for some years have been right at the forefront of pioneering the mix of traditional Scottish folk music with more modern dance grooves. Not only that, but they've been renowned for their specially exciting live shows, and it's taken until now for that aspect of their art to be captured on silver disc.

The Radical Mestizo title, inspired by the band's tour of Mexico in March 2004, was taken from a brave Mexican journalist's attempt to describe their music in Spanish. But Mexico is not after all where the majority of these recordings were made... even so, does it matter? Not one jot as it happens. Radical Shooglenifty's music certainly is, and tremendously exciting are the band's performances, here represented by just ten tracks from a whole year's worth of which have been whittled down onto this CD. Much as I've rated the Shoogle studio offerings, this live set is definitely the one to have, to convince even the staunchest of disbelievers that there is life after trad after all. And what life! What energy! This just has to be one of the finest live albums.

The quality of recording is profoundly excellent too, and just enough of the audience vibe is caught for atmosphere purposes without intruding on the music-making. And as you'll hear, Shooglenifty don't confine themselves to Scottish trad sources by any means; all world music is grist to their mill, and they integrate the various flavours wholly credibly, picking up on riffs and melodies as a creative springboard for some fantastic flights of instrumental virtuosity yet not by just spitting clusters of notes out at the listener. Why exactly the Shoogle sound makes so much impact I just can't pinpoint - but it does. Loads of presence, superb musicianship, extreme togetherness and unity of purpose, a relaxed grasp of idiom, a total-conviction approach that has no truck with the faint of heart or soul, where no-holds-barred yet tightly controlled fearlessness holds sway. The response - and loyalty - they engender from audiences across the globe are persuasive evidence for the (perhaps unexpected) universality of their brand of music-making (dance music in its broadest sense is appreciated the world over, whether reggae, reel or salsa, after all).

My personal favourites out of this hour-long selection, perhaps, are the fresh live takes on The Arms Dealer's Daughter and Delighted, but I also love the feisty, thrusting Scraping The Barrel and the cosmic A Fistful Of Euro. In truth you could easily say that on everything Shooglenifty touch the fiddle, banjo, mandolin and electric guitar have never sounded so good, especially with all those inventive percussive and keyboard sounds that are organically - and properly - integrated into the texture. It's all magic of the highest order, with global musics transforming and mutating before your very ears; hard to believe, but for virtually every track you feel the need to go back to the start to convince yourself of the journey just undertaken, so far do you seem to have travelled. Brilliant!

www.shoogle.com

David Kidman

www.shoogle.com

David Kidman

Shotgun Party hail from Austin, Texas - and yes, there's something cheekily "austintatious" about their music"! The good ol' western swing is pushed high up over the bar on this, their second CD (it's a couple of years since their first), much of the time threatening to topple over into the tumbleweed or shoot off into space.

The two-gal, one-man trio consists of vocalist and guitarist (and writer) Jenny Parrott, fiddler and vocalist Katy Rose Cox, and upright bass-man Chris Crepps (who's since been replaced by Andrew Austin-Petersen). They're a larger-than-life experience for sure; they can be exceedingly endearing (almost to a fault) or at times seem embarrassingly gawky, some of the singing is a touch abrasive, yet for most of the time they ride on the high wire of taste and manage to keep their balance somehow. This is probably down to their winning combination of brazen "hey, let's go for it and what the hell" DIY stance, attitude and some genuine high-class musicianship.

First impressions tho', I'll admit, weren't quite as positive, with the opening cut, Operatar, appearing nothing but a rather self-consciously jokey piece of froth. But by the time a couple more tracks had passed, the combo's quality playing and overall musicality, topped off with some cute and clever vocal harmonising started to win me over and the beguiling quality of the songwriting just reinforced my desire to continue on through till the end of the show. The playing, as I said, is distinctively classy (I'd specially single out Katy's uniquely vocalised soaring fiddle lines and Chris's ripely inventive bass work), and the singing never less than piquant and arresting. And there's no real chance of getting bored cos the individual songs are gorgeously pithy little creations that just dive on in there, make their point and skedaddle off into the sagebrush so you can move onto the next dish pronto.

It's a wild and exciting trip, with the trio taking no prisoners as they whisk us from jailhouse lament (Paints A Yates) to barroom regret (Mean Old Way), the border-gipsy vibe of Y Yo to the carefree klezmer of The Builder and the sleazy slide-blues-swing (come-down-in-my) Kitchen Mechanic. Then there's the sultry fiddle-tango of Tanya, one of a brace of frenetic instrumentals (anythin' but Draggin' The Bow!). Warped it is, but the right side of wacky – and darned addictive. Y' could say it's like the Hot Club Of Cowtown meeting up with Ember, the Roches and the Bad Livers for a night out on the tiles.

There are a couple of moments that some of you out there may find uncomfortable, like on one or two songs where the lead vocal appears a touch piercing and strained when reaching its strange melody out towards its highmost notes and intervals, but I soon got used to it cuttin' thru the ether. And the disc's gentler moments, like the tenderly seductive, richly-harmonised Lullaby, the charming and whimsical Star Song and the whining backporch reminiscence of Crynecticut, are priceless in their own kooky way.

In the end I've come to love this gem of a disc and I feel a real cool connection with the quirky band that made it. More please!

www.shotgunfiesta.com

David Kidman January 2010

www.showofhands.co.uk

David Kidman October 2009

Last March, in part as a warmup for their prestigious Royal Albert Hall gig, Steve and Phil performed a series of five concerts in small venues within the Devon village of Topsham, aimed at a purely local audience (even so, they were sold out despite almost no advance publicity!). The intimate and convivial spirit of the gigs was captured "fly-on-the-wall" style by hand-held cameras, and this 90-minute DVD presents a sequence of highlights. What comes across big-time, complementary to their consummate professionalism and musicianship, is the tremendous rapport the lads have with their audiences and the unequivocal support they command from all quarters (fans to technicians, management and venues). Even though I've seen Show Of Hands countless times, they always come up with a fresh slant on their material, and the sparkling accomplishment of their instrumental work is on particularly fine form on the fifteen selections here (I'd single out Phil's wondrous fiddle embellishments on their cover of Willin', the inspired plaintiveness of No Woman No Cry, the feisty Cousin Jack and some stunning guitar interplay on Cocaine, but it's all both typically brilliant and stimulating). They're joined by "third man" Miranda Sykes for three of the gigs, and her excellent contributions provide further cause for celebration. Finally, the disc contains some bonus material in the shape of footage of rehearsal and preparation for the RAH show, and including a split-screen montage (some limited use of that technique during one or two of the earlier gig sequences, although not exactly fly-on-the-wall, proves commendably undistracting too). Show Of Hands don't need to prove themselves, yet their canny ability to present a constantly refreshing angle on their music will continue to win them new admirers, of which this DVD provides further persuasive evidence. As if I needed to say this - but Show Of Hands are still very much a class act, with no signs whatsoever of getting stale; long may they reign.

www.showofhands.co.uk

David Kidman June 2008

The phenomenal cumulative success of this premier English acoustic duo over 15 years is something worth celebrating, sure, and this lavishly-presented double-disc edition is the best possible artefact to fulfil that function. It serves all at once as a commemoration, a best-of, a sampler, a taster, a calling-card, and forms a persuasive and satisfying musical sequence that stands up in its own right - and it retails at a super-bargain price too.

The occasion has provided Steve and Phil with the opportunity to stand back from their recorded output and reassess - in conjunction with the fans' Internet-based forum Longdogs - that impressive corpus of work. The 30 tracks on this set (with a total playing time of some 2½ hours) are drawn from the widest variety of sources: favourite tracks from each of the duo's six studio albums are juxtaposed with live recordings (all but one, Cousin Jack, having previously been released on live albums, but all surpassing the original studio renditions), as well as timely, newly re-recorded versions of the concert standards Crow On The Cradle, Exile, Are We Alright? and Santiago. The first and last of these - especially Crow - sound particularly well in their new clothing, I reckon.

The two CDs are complementary in character, with the first (subtitled Short Stories) presenting 16 solid favourites that showcase the best of the duo's songwriting and spotlight their unstintingly brilliant instrumental skills, not to mention their ability to infuse a cover version with some really special insight all their own. And of course the striking talents of Steve and Phil as individuals, musicians and songwriters (hey, these guys really have got it all!...) and communicators (just catch the tremendous atmosphere of the live Cousin Jack, recorded only this past April, for the perfect illustration of that!). Disc 2 (subtitled Longdogs) presents 14 tracks chosen by the aforementioned Internet fan-group - one from each duo CD release.

All in all, the songs chosen for the two discs run the gamut of the duo's musical and lyrical inventiveness and stylistic versatility, from the intimate and haunting (Cold Frontier) and the folk-ballad (Widecombe Fair) to the right-on observational commentaries (Country Life), the highly evocative songs of place and time and history (of which there are many) to the intrinsically theatrical (Columbus) and the crowd-pleaser (Galway Farmer). It's inevitable - but entirely proper, all things considered - that the first disc should open with the single/video mix of Roots, the duo's highly-politically-charged anthem and (aside from possibly the Falmouth Packet/Haul Away medley) the fullest of the aural "productions" on the set, and appropriate too that the second disc should close with the full 22-minute version of the epic Tall Ships which originally appeared on the duo's 1990 cassette release.

How far they've travelled on their voyage, yet all the while remaining absolutely true to their ideals and respecting and trusting their loyal fan-base. That unbeatable Show Of Hands combination of exceptional musicianship, personal integrity and good business sense has been central to their success, and the exceptionally high standard of presentation - not just in the excellent quality of the remastering of the individual tracks on this set but also in the actual packaging of the set (hardcover digipack and integral 27-page booklet containing full performer credits plus essential intro, album-by-album overview and lyrics for all the songs on disc one) - is entirely typical of the duo's refusal to compromise on quality. And that's notwithstanding one's own personal choice of "best" tracks, which is bound to differ (albeit only slightly, I suspect) from that offered up on this set. If I must find something to complain about, maybe a very few of the pauses between tracks" are just a little less than ideal, and I did find one or two typos or glitches within the booklet credits (like the omission of Phil's violin on Crow?), but in essence these minor points don't spoil what in every respect that really matters is a most persuasive compilation and a wholly fitting celebration of the longevity of the justly acclaimed and highly respected musical institution that is Show Of Hands.

www.showofhands.co.uk
www.philbeer.co.uk
www.myspace.com/showofhandsuk
www.myspace.com/steveknightleymusic

David Kidman November 2007

This latest album from the nation's premier acoustic roots duo is both recognisably classic (and classy) Show Of Hands and at the same time something very fresh and boldly different. It presents no fewer than nine brand new Steve Knightley compositions, all well up to scratch (!) and full of his trademark seemingly effortless facility in really neat song construction; as you play through the album, you wonder how he does it (still!), for each successive song is outstanding, making you catch your breath anew. Which you would anyway, with the awesome, ear-catching production (courtesy of Simon Emmerson and Simon "Mass" Massey) which sets its own standards and provides an inventive and creative new setting for the Show Of Hands experience we know and love.

The album, described as "a series of scenes from a cinematic-style journey of the West Country", opens with two punchy, driving songs which are archetypal Steve, raging against the intentional desecration of English life of one kind or another (life in a commune on Witness, the country's musical heritage on Roots), venting his anger in lyrics of venom and guts while as ever preaching more tolerance of perfectly reasonable ways of living which just happen to be unorthodox. The West Country coastline then comes into focus for a powerful and contrasted sequence that follows the atmospheric dank claustrophobia of The Dive with an Afro-Celt-style uptempo global workout that ingeniously segues a storming Phil Beer instrumental The Falmouth Packet into a beat-bedecked shanty (Haul Away Joe, with ancillary voices courtesy of Port Isaac shantymen The Fisherman's Friends) although it ends rather abruptly and we're left to pick up on the Undertow with a bleak tale of hopes and aspirations in small-town life whose disturbingly well-observed minutiae are echoed and refracted by the eerie tones of Phil's Ebow.

The mood is broken by the now-familiar, spicy Rubberfolk cover of If I Needed Someone, before Phil leads the way in a fantastic dark new arrangement of Johnny Coppin's setting of Charles Causley's chilling Innocents' Song. Then it's back to Steve's original songs with the striking, sparsely-textured Union Street, telling poignantly of the last letters between a Marine and his wife (played, or should I say sung, beautifully by Miranda Sykes). The Bet is another of those slyly enigmatic supernatural-chance fables with a ghostly aftertaste a little redolent of Widecombe Fair perhaps, following which the mood lightens with the gutsy Ink Devil (which postulates creative writing running amok) and the quirkier Scratch (a cynical look at curious addictions).

The CD ends on a highly personal yet truly universal note with All I'd Ever Lost, a reflection set in the ambient hauntings of an attic-room. Steve's songs always strike a responsive chord, either by making us punch the air madly in strong and healthy agreement or by reaching deep within us for their emotional resonance; Witness contains some splendid examples of both, and the whole album just has to be a major milestone in the Show Of Hands œuvre. Words of praise too for the excellent playing (not just Steve and Phil but also Miranda, Matt Clifford and Mass himself, with cameos from Jackie Oates, Lizzie Westcott, Johnny Kalsi, Seth Lakeman, Paul Downes and Paul Wilson). And the well-designed digipackage, with attractive booklet including all the lyrics. All told, Witness proves a particularly impressive entry in the Show Of Hands canon.

www.showofhands.co.uk

David Kidman, May 2006

Show Of Hands - As You Were (Hands On Music)

Quite honestly, I've never heard them on such splendid form as on the most recent tours. The repertoire/set list embraces plenty of the duo's celebrated originals as well as their ever-canny choice of covers (including here a particularly strong rendition of Crow On The Cradle), and there's a fair amount of the bantering intros that (surprisingly) don't pall with repetition as you're always caught up in the context and the moment. Even the sometimes-jaded and latterly more-than-slightly-predictable theatricality of Galway Farmer captivates on this occasion. I also need to mention that in addition to Steve and Phil themselves, there's Miranda Sykes on vocals and double-bass too for a large part of the set, and "Western Approaches" collaborator Jenna features on vocals and keyboard on Smile She Said and Crooked Man. So, firstly to any SoH devotee this set is self-recommending, whereas secondly to those (are there any?) who haven't yet succumbed it ought to be, so to this latter category of punters I'll just say get yourself along to a SoH gig pronto and snap up a copy of this great set, for after the gig you will definitely want a lasting memento of "as you were" feeling at the time.

www.showofhands.co.uk

David Kidman

Show Of Hands - Country Life (Hands-On Music)

Of course, the snipers will only hear what they want to hear – a revisit of familiar SOH themes and tried-and-tested instrumental textures. But anyone with more than half an ear won't need convincing that the SOH integrity effortlessly cuts through such prejudice. Indeed, Country Life gives us the best of all of SOH's various worlds – a whole load of great new Steve Knightley originals, along with one superb cover (Kelly Joe Phelps' Tommy) and two fresh takes on traditional songs (an unusual pulsating treatment of Reynardine and a beautifully managed Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy). The usual SOH performance trademarks – Steve's plaintive, expressive vocals riding above the duo's uniformly high degree of instrumental accomplishment and musicality – are there in abundance as you'd expect. As are Steve's characteristic lyrical traits – sharply perceptive, often acerbic observation allied to a strongly evident compassion and an acute sense of history and tradition.

The title track is another of Steve's commentaries on the undesirable aspects of modern-day "country life", the uncaring attitudes of present-day country dwellers, the "offcomers" who've taken the heart and soul away from their adopted country. A recurring theme, sure, but there's always plenty more to say and a satisfying musical setting in which to place these thoughts. Seven Days and Drake revisit the theme of the sea and its effect on our lives (the parting of true loves, the pride of heritage, the overwhelming sense of destiny). The simplicity of I Promise You is infused with gentle poetry. Hard Shoulder and the closing Don't Be A Stranger are soaked through with the poignancy of hindsight and memory. And these are just the obvious highlights… Steve and Phil provide the majority of the accompaniment themselves, with occasional, telling contributions from Jenna Witts (co-writer of Seven Days), Matt Clifford and a select few other individuals on around half of the tracks.

The main CD is packaged with a second ("promo") disc, which contains a promo video for the title track, a slide-show, full album lyrics, and (though I'm not quite sure why!) yet another appearance of The Train, this time in the guise of an extract from the Big Gig video, as well as duplication of three of the audio tracks from the main CD. But the main course, the album Country Life, is another excellent product all round, I say. Probably Show Of Hands' best – and to my shame and regret I haven't even got round to seeing the live show this time round!

www.showofhands.co.uk

David Kidman

These days, Show Of Hands albums come out with little fanfare outside of those in the know and/or on the band's now extensive mailing lists, with the result that they get reviewed all too rarely in the press. This is a shame, for although there will always be an element of preaching to the converted in any such review, there are always still opportunities for expanding their fanbase (believe it or not, there are still music fans out there who've not yet latched onto the brilliance of this duo). With their most recent studio album, Cold Frontier, Phil and Steve returned to a more basic instrumental setup, while delivering the goods in style as ever on a new batch of songs which were well up to the high standards they've set over the years. The album-related tour was a triumph too, and in addition to the songs from the album itself opportunity was taken to revisit older material and showcase some new arrangements of songs from other writers both familiar and unfamiliar. Cold Cuts presents a sequence of live recordings from that tour, and gives a very good indication of the duo's compelling live presence and uniformly high level of instrumental and vocal accomplishment. About half of the material comprises covers, some of which have been in the duo's repertoire for a while but not all of which have previously appeared on CD. Some are quite radical rethinks, but none prove any less than pretty fine as covers go – songs such as Free's My Brother Jake, Leonard Cohen's First They Take Manhattan and John Lennon's Rose In The Thorn might initially seem surprising choices, but Show Of Hands really make them their own, as they do for a superbly energetic submarine-driven reading of Cyril Tawney's Sally Free And Easy with Paul Downes guesting. Even so, it's probably the revisits of their own compositions which turn out the most revealing here – the pared-down settings (and revised pace) for Steve's Faith In You and Track Of Words, for instance, put a different complexion on the songs from their fulsome production on the earlier studio recordings, and there's an inspired medley where Battle Of The Somme and Time After Time frames The Keeper. All in all, Cold Cuts does its job really well, and in the end represents rather more than just a satisfying add-on tour memento for existing fans, being a worthwhile acquisition for its own sake.

www.showofhands.co.uk

David Kidman

I don't know whether the duo Show of Hands (Phil Beer and Steve Knightley) just get better and better or that, whenever I see them, I fall in love again with their music and the way they perform it. Does one ever grow tired of excellence? Show of Hands are a benchmark for excellence in contemporary English acoustic music.

The first indelible image you'll get at a Show of Hands concert is their musical instruments. Handmade by David Oddy, silky-smooth, polychromatic wood gleaming, the mandocello, guitars, mandolin and cuatro will hold you entranced. Almost alive and at attention, they wait on stage in a circle, spotlit from above. When they are finally picked up by Phil and Steve, effortless fingerstyle-played notes roll from the strings. No rough edges anywhere, with spot-on sound and production, Show of Hands make beautiful music.

Cold Frontier is the new album and the tour which will keep them on the road until the end of November. Steve Knightley's songs are known for their storytelling and the sense of place which infuses them. New songs, 'Cold Frontier', 'Come By', Yeovil Town', 'Cold Heart of England' and 'The Flood' are folk songs which will doubtless be the 'traditional' songs of tomorrow. Oldies, 'Northwest Passage', 'Widdecombe Fair' [sic], 'The Streets of Forbes' and 'Sally, Free and Easy' are given fresh arrangements. 'Are We Alright', 'You're Mine' are strong, memory-sticking, stand-alone love songs.

Steve's voice is not a 'folk' voice. It warmly engages the listener and Phil's, lighter and higher, harmonises, responds or sometimes takes the lead. Phil Beer, multi-instrumentalist, adds colour, space, light or shade with whichever instrument he picks up; four, six or eight strings; fingers, slide, bow or pick.

Whether it's the Royal Albert Hall, country Village Hall or on CD, experience the magic of Show of Hands for yourself.

Sue Cavendish

Show of Hands CD - Cropredy Village Hall '99

OK, I'll come clean; for me there's nothing that comes close to a 'live' gig unless it's the 'live' album that follows it. When a performance is 'kicking' and audience adrenalin pushes the energy level to the edge, there is a magic which can seldom be found in a studio production.

Such magic was captured on CD: Show of Hands 'Cropredy Village Hall '99'. Fans of Phil Beer and Steve Knightley packed Cropredy Village Hall pre-Christmas 1999 for mulled wine, mince pies and an evening of live music which has produced an official bootleg of truly excellent quality taken from the sound desk.

Eighteen tracks from the full SoH repertoire were recorded that night with different line-up and instrument mixes: Show of Hands; Phil solo; Steve solo (with three tracks from his new CD 'Track of Words'); several aided by Gareth Turner on melodeon and some enthusiastic audience participation. Live albums often include musical jokes, amusing asides and links and this album is liberally sprinkled with them, including a Chinese Jingle Bells, Once In Royal David's City and intro to Longdogs (following their appearance at the Hong Kong festival), that valuable piece of advice for driving in Delhi "good horn, good brakes, and good luck!", and a Chas & Dave-style Blue Cockade.

This is a must for collectors of limited edition rarities and lovers of Show of Hands' superb acoustic musicianship - listen out for that mandocello and Phil's acoustic 'slide', I will test you later! Copies are available from richard@longdogs.co.uk

http://www.showofhands.co.uk
http://www.longdogs.co.uk

Sue Cavendish

This album came out around 18 months ago but I've found myself increasingly returning to it over the past months for its touching simplicity and genuine if understated emotional integrity. Sally's an Arkansas-born, Colorado-based anthropologist, a singer-songwriter who merges the Ozark bluegrass sensibility of Iris Dement (though without that estimable lady's distinctively gawky vocal timbre) with wider country and folk influences, and to good effect. On this, her second CD release, she's blessed with musical support from a selection of Colorado worthies including ex-Hot Rize banjoist Pete Wernick and dobro virtuoso Sally Van Meter, also Ed Caner on fiddle/viola, and there's some excellent deft melodic mandolin from Greg Schochet, but their contributions are sympathetically managed and never intrude on the delicacy and uncomplicated sentiments of Sally's songs. All thirteen tracks are Sally's own compositions, this statistic alone demonstrating her confidence in her own material, which in this instance is not misplaced; it might not be cuttingly innovative, but Sally certainly treats respectfully, and skilfully develops, her acknowledged heritage with these unaffected and reflective vignettes of ordinary life. There's real quality in these songs (I wouldn't be surprised to hear Gillian Welch or even Alison Krauss covering South Carolina for instance), but also a surprisingly broad stylistic ambit. The softly drifting ambience of Still Stands Time is deceptive, and contrasts greatly with the equally believable, almost rockabilly stance of All Roads Lead To You. There's more than a touch of early Nanci Griffith at times perhaps, especially on the attractive Kinda Easy, Kinda Slow. I also really liked the vocal harmonies, which come courtesy of either Celeste Krenz or Sally's sister Alice. This charmingly unpretentious and eminently likeable CD may not set the musical world on fire, but it's gently and subtly satisfying and therefore well worth seeking out.

www.sallysuffield.com

David Kidman

Guitarist Alex Shultz has brought together a plethora of top performers for this album which was, in his own words, "a labor of love". Guest vocalist Finis Tasby is first up on the opener, Done Got Over It, which is a smooth blues that drifts off into jazz with Shultz's guitar, Alberto Marsico's Hammond and Mando Dorame's sax to the fore. Lynwood Slim takes over vocal duties for Be Good, Be Gone, a jive song that harks back to 50s America and it's already becoming obvious that Alex sets himself on the jazz side of the blues. Let's Start Again features yet another singer. This time it's Tad Robinson and he, like those who have gone before, gives a rounded performance. This has a big band feel (without the big band!) as Alex continues to work on the fringes of the blues. Shultz comes up with some slow, sweet moves on Big Time which is an instrumental to close your eyes and drift away to. Acoustic guitar makes an appearance for the first time on I Don't Want Your Money Honey. This is jazz club fare and even Lynwood Slim fails to ignite it. Think is 12 bar blues of the highest standard and Shultz shows that he can do it on this, the best song so far. It's no coincidence that Finis Tasby returns on vocal.

Act Right is another example of Alex's jazzy blues but I sense a lack of edge to his music. That edge does surface a little on the fast paced, guitar led instrumental Lexington Express. I Love The Woman is a slow Chicago blues and is the real deal. There's a strong vocal from Finis Tasby and an excellent guitar performance from Alex - a highlight. No Use Knocking is good time music that will have your feet tapping whereas Who Will The Next Fool Be is deathly slow with Tad Robinson's voice wracked with emotion. This should push your buttons. The instrumental, Rhumba & Orange, as the name suggests is a rhumba but it leaps off into a big bad blues with excellent exchanges between guitar and horns. Alex closes with Walkin' And Talkin' which re-introduces Finis Tasby's fine voice but it may be a strange one to end with although it does build throughout the song.

www.severnrecords.com

David Blue, June 2006

SIA - Colour The Small One (Island)

Lushly arranged, the dreamy tropical flavours of Sweet Potato, Beck collaboration Bully and The Church of What's Happening Now prime examples, there's a vague hint of Dido here and there but with the closing Where I Belong and the chanson inclined Sunday the name that floats unexpectedly to the surface is Edith Piaf.

www.siamusic.net

Mike Davies

"Just feel the music and listen to the magic", quoth the press release. Hmm, for the hardened cynic in me (and many a NetRhythms reader too, I suspect) would approach such weasel words and verbal clichés with a certain (healthy) level of distrust. Well, I'm pleased to allay those misgivings immediately by reporting that for virtually all of this disc's 53 minutes the result is charming and intriguing and yes, quite magical. Both earthy and unearthly. Weird even, sure. But then, what else might you expect from Kate Bush's cousin?? - charisma aplenty, an amazing singing voice, and a quirkily original writing talent are but three of the common factors, but Beck sounds like no-one else even though there are theatrical touches in her delivery which definitely remind me of Kate (listen to her dramatic leaps and expressive delicacy on the ominous Under Thunderous Skies and her tone and phrasing on Tangled In Green and the album's title track for starters). As well as possessing an amazing voice, Beck's a multi-talented musician, on this CD playing guitar, tenor recorder and Celtic harp. As a general observation, Beck's music - and her writing - is marked by a quite special quality of tactile sensuality in the way she uses her chosen images and sounds; she also has a natural ear for creative instrumentation in her settings, for the most part eschewing the obvious effects and going instead for innovative colours that genuinely enhance the words. My favourite pieces here are those where all these expressive virtues come together in a unified attempt at conveying a special experience or mood or quality of atmosphere: the extraordinarily powerful Under Thunderous Skies, also Moss, Tangled In Green, Mountain Ash and the two brief acappella tracks. On Sherbrooke Forest, though, I do find a hint of new-age pretentiousness in Beck's over-use of ambient sounds, a device that strays over the edge and beyond the initially attractive evocation or creation of the soundscape. Of the 16 tracks on this CD, ten are entirely Beck's own creations; the remainder include two intelligent, perceptive settings of Tennyson (Shadow Of A Dream is certainly one of the album's highlights, a strange but abundantly beautiful moment). Beck also tackles three traditional pieces: there's an appealing enough multilayered-choral (wordless) adaptation of The Foggy Dew, though her warbly rendition of Greensleeves doesn't do much for this oft-hackneyed ditty as it's at the same time too wayward and yet too close to the original melody, whereas she could have got away with doing something much more radical with the melody of The Blacksmith, although her skittery reading is quite persuasive in its detached portrayal of a sense of recrimination. At its best, Beck's music is seriously enchanting; she clearly has a very special talent, which should be encouraged and nurtured rather than criticised for what it is not. Generally speaking, it's not really like anything else you'll have heard, although connoisseurs of the weird and wonderful will find - in addition to the aforementioned cousin! - elements at least of the fantastic strangenesses of Pooka, Ember, Abbie Lathe and the Incredible String Band all in there at times. And the fine production (a joint effort between Beck and Paul Strahan) perfectly suits Beck's musical personality. She's well worth a listen - especially if you keep an open mind.

www.becksian.com

David Kidman November 2006

Philadelphian Gina Sicilia is a new voice on the blues scene and she is making waves already. That's A Pretty Good Love is a swinging opening with Sicilia unleashing her big voice on the song many will associate with Big Maybelle. I Ain't Crazy is a big band blues with a great horn section. The guitarist, Dave Gross, plies his trade well and Gina is powerful again. Try Me is a slinky blues, originally sung by Esther Phillips with Karel Ruzicka Jr and Rob Chaseman on sax are on form. One Of Many sees the introduction of Dennis Gruenling on harmonica for this upbeat song. It's blues but it does flirt with the jazz side. Pushover has a 60s feel and Gina does a great job of covering this Etta James song.

The self-penned Rest Of My Days is soulful and you can sense influences such as Otis Redding. The second half of the album is written solely by Sicilia and the eponymous title track is a grinding soulful blues with jagged guitar from Gross. You Set My Heart On Fire is a sultry nightclub blues with Matt Stewart's muted trumpet under a raunchy vocal. Bass (Scott Hornick), drums (Mike Bram) and guitar (Dave Gross) are all understated – gorgeous. There Lies A Better Day is a harmonica blues and Gina vamps it up again as Dennis Gruenling beefs it up on harp. This swings along very well indeed and her voice belies her years. That Much Further is Country and the poorest track on offer. The Gospel inspired When My Ship Comes In finishes things off and is played acoustically to let the listener hear the lyric. The last two tracks are obviously in there to show her versatility but it almost backfires. However, I have to say that this is an above average debut.

www.ginasicilia.com

David Blue Sept 2007

This disc is informatively subtitled "Tradition and Invention from Wales and Estonia", indicating that the listener is in for something quite stimulating and unusual (especially remembering that the enterprising Welsh label on which the disc appears has in the past brought us some intriguing musical experiments). The young duo Sild (named after the Estonian word for bridge) comprises Sillve Ilves, Estonian singer, fiddler and exponent of the hiiu-kannel (a bowed harp, sometimes referred to as a thigh-violin), and Martin Leamon, innovative Welsh guitarist and bouzouki player (formerly with Boys From The Hill). Tro turns out to be the duo's second album release, and continues the exploration begun on their first (Priodi), reuniting them with its producer Ceri Rhys Matthews and engineer Jens Schroeder. Such is the confident air of the music-making that it's hard to believe that Martin and Sillve have only been performing their unique and traditional-yet-modern-sounding fusion of Welsh and Estonian musics for six years. For those who are curious to know what it all sounds like, the best I can offer is that if you already appreciate Scandinavian music and the sparse delights of Fernhill, then you'll find the music of Sild pleasing, fascinating and most rewarding. Their collaboration coaxes an extraordinary amount of richness from an ostensibly quite stark instrumental palette, and this is in no small measure due to the exotic, full tones of the bowed instruments but partly also as a result of the presence of Sillve's arresting singing voice. Having said that, Sild's music is predominantly inhabited by a mysterious, fragile and gentle charm that can at first be quite enigmatic but (rather in the same manner as the music of compatriots Fernhill) once you're won over, the effect is seriously magical. Tro (a Welsh word for journey) is a creative and compelling sequence of stories in music and song, during the course of which the Traveller encounters various characters, some of whom have their own tales to relate, and an old fiddler (the forest-devil Vanapagan) who entertains him by playing some tunes. The various vignettes are darkly intimate and mesmerising, and the whole sequence gains its strong sense of unity through the duo's elegantly skilled musicianship and their nimble and sensitive adaptation of their sources, which range from anonymous 16th century Welsh poetry to archaic Estonian invocations, sacred music to original words based on a Shakespearean sonnet, and from extant to defunct dance forms. The perhaps unexpectedly varied sound-world conjured by the duo's playing and singing is further augmented by occasional Hammond organ chordings and other imaginative (ambient) touches, all of which elements impart an occasional small-scale art-cinematic atmosphere to the proceedings and generally enhance rather than distract. This is a highly distinctive and exquisitely beautiful release.

www.sildmusic.com

David Kidman April 2008

I guess this qualifies as Mike's first album of all-new material since Ku Séma, which seems an age distant! It was, I think, around five years ago when Mike's music got some extensive (and long-overdue) exposure on BBC Radio 2, which brought his work many new admirers. How Many Rivers sees Mike deliberately consolidating his position with this new audience by presenting what he terms an ultra-radio-friendly album. It certainly is that, par excellence, and yet Mike's trademark integrity and emotional and musical honesty refuse to be compromised in any way… which means that his long-term fans are also unlikely to be disappointed with this latest offering. Especially as the songs work just as well in the intimate setting of a live folk club gig.

The luxurious warmth and rich tone of Mike's voice is a given, of course, as is his precise, highly accomplished and magisterially mellifluous guitar playing. Mike's songs flow so readily, and yet his easy, and tellingly economic, manner with words and phrases can equally easily belie the deeper meaning and acute emotional import of his lyrics. The heartfelt title track is a case in point, where its bittersweet plaintive melody and country-waltz setting cocoons the rueful rejected lover. And the album continues on its way through a procession of similarly top-drawer songs: Breaking News, which expresses the pride of a father for his now all-too-grown-up daughter (whom he still feels the need to protect), makes a virtue of its understatement, while Listen is a pointed rumination on those annoying folks who peddle and hear only the spin and don't care enough to seek out the true value of speech of any substance. Another of the disc's standouts is Mike's own version of Jackaroo, the affectionate, lilting slice of bush-balladry which he wrote for Martyn Wyndham-Read in 2005: if ever a song was tailor-made for its dedicatee!… (and Martyn himself repays Mike's compliment anew by contributing backing vocals on the track).

Two further atmospheric standout songs come towards the end of the disc: the eerie When The Spirit Shakes The Tree, inspired by the prescient response of a so-called primitive tribe to the signs of nature (in this case the oncoming Tsunami of 2004), and the beautifully anthemic The Dove And The Dolphin, where the song's rhythm closely mirrors the motion of a voyage of mercy on the waves of the ocean. Mike's always excelled at reflective road-songs too, and No Good Times Gone is a further keen example: simply expressed but gently poignant, and positive in outlook. Even those songs which embody a more casual musical styling and might be taken for slight on first acquaintance (such as the lounge-bar reminiscence Easy If You Look At It Right – great jazz solo here by the way! – and the tongue-in-cheek old-fashioned good-humour of JCB and Oh Doctor), genially compel a revisit next time round. The one non-original song on the album, the powerful and sensitive Black And White – 1945 by the totally unknown Ross Brown, turns out to be a showstopper that ideally complements Mike's own writing; and it says much for Mike's humility and integrity that he's included it in that illustrious company.

And talking of illustrious company, Mike's support crew is first-class too: special mentions must go to Jo Partridge, Nils Tuxen (superb dobro player), Johnny Coppin, Phil Beer and the wonderfully clear-sighted production by Mick Dolan. How Many Rivers is a superlative and classy set, which will very likely be judged as one of Mike's finest to date.

www.mikesilver.co.uk

David Kidman February 2009

Mike's one of those solid, hard-working, uncommonly gifted songsmiths who has until fairly recently never gained the recognition he deserves in his home country. But this has never fazed him, for his philosophy's been that when the music works its special magic the size of the audience can be irrelevant. Now, after over thirty years in the business, in place of producing a whole album of completely new material, Mike has opted for re-recording some of his most acclaimed songs together with a couple by other writers (in this case Ewen Carruthers and Mike's former partner Christien Eterman). This collection was recorded in Germany with fellow musician Chris Jones (whom many of you will know through his work with Kieran Halpin). Now don't get suspicious, just because Mike's currently doyen of BBC Radio 2 and has a hit single currently on the station's playlist (Not A Matter Of Pride, which starts off this collection in fine style). Mike's picked a winning selection of his back catalogue for inclusion here, pretty much representative of the breadth and consistently high quality of his writing; and as I recall, no fewer than five of the twelve tracks don't appear on any of Mike's currently available CDs. But even if you already own all those other CDs, there's still plenty of reasons to purchase this new disc. For this project, Mike has gathered a number of talented German musicians to augment the silver-toned acoustic guitars of himself and Chris Jones, and they provide a backing that's wholly apt, sympathetic, accomplished and intelligently-managed, realistic in scale in the context of the songs. The seven re-recorded songs adopt a variety of approaches, from the stylish enhanced radio-friendliness of Not A Matter Of Pride to the adventurous and beautiful instrumental textures of Let It Be So and Reaching Out For Love. Whatever, the result is always at once commercially accessible and musically most satisfying - not an easy balance to achieve, but Mike and Chris have an unerring ear and an enviably empathic degree of total musicality. If you've not yet sampled Mike's work, this is a good place to start; but do try to catch him live too, for the gentle power of his voice and guitar in an intimate club setting can provide one of the most magical experiences you're ever likely to enjoy.

www.faymus.co.uk

David Kidman

Silverhawk - Westward (Blue Eyed Crow)

Silverhawk are brothers Sam (guitars and vocals) and John C. (guitars and vocals) Densmore. This, their debut album, opens with the pacy, The Hold Up, which is an alternative folk/Americana classic for the future. The instrumental title track could easily be the theme for a modern western with its twangy guitars a la Bert Weedon, Duane Eddy and The Shadows. The quick western style music continues with Waking Up Drunk, the jaunty melodies hiding deep and, sometimes sinister, lyrics.

Kalispell is good Indie type rock and shows the brothers close harmonies at their best and, to show their versatility, Fancy Bird, is a slice of modern country rock with psychedelic phasers in the background. Fools Love Gold is one of the slower tracks but the vocal harmonies shown in later tracks such as Kalispell are there and there's evidence of some grungy guitars. The brothers manage to produce a sparse sound on the acoustic Rocket To Space, which has all the elements of classic Americana.

The second instrumental, Desert Theme, sees the return of the twangy guitars and western style but the following track, Villians, with its tale of revenge is possibly the weakest track on offer but it is also one of the shortest. By way of redemption the best is saved for last. I'm Going Off To The Mountains To Die has more grungy guitars and is a great way to end an album both in its concept and its performance. It does what a last track should - it leaves you wanting more. Absolutely brilliant! The brothers write all the tracks and there are some telling drum contributions from Bobby Lindstrom (see review of A Lick And A Promise). There's a new land of discovery out there so it's Westward Ho for the Densmore brothers and Silverhawk.

www.blueeyedcrow.com

David Blue

This month sees the overdue release in this country of Stephen's singularly impressive and widely acclaimed debut full-length CD, which originally came out in the US two years ago (shortly after his self-released live EP). Coming to it fresh from the perspective of last year's almost brutally sparse Drink Ring Jesus, it's an altogether different animal in at least the one respect: over the course of its 71 minutes, it covers a wide variety of musical canvases from full band arrangement to stripped-down acoustic. Although thematically it deals with much the same concerns (loss, love, life), Last Call is shot through with originality of thought and perception, while its emotional landscape, though familiar, ain't exactly predictable. Its potent stories are concerned with the various ways the album title can be interpreted: the "last call" from the bar, the "last call" for your soul, and the "last call" of small town living when experiencing city life. Each track is an epic of situational observation, subdued and melancholy but upliftingly so, from within which we experience the soul's reflections on the human condition, often as if viewed from the bottom of a glass. Love and life, religion and redemption (Forgive Me Father for what I done here today), tales from the dark night of the soul yet curiously soothing, for life ain't easy for anyone in Loserville - whether it's the unfortunate Shut-Up Samantha, the uncomfortably familiar protagonist in the sinister Dirty Side Of Me, or the guy's painful regret that twists the knife for that eternal dilemma of Betty I'm Married. Then, Lay On The Tracks plumbs the depths of despair and desolation but the sweetness of the melody and the arrangement signify a peculiarly calm resignation; and another standout, the beautiful Just Like Love, is at one and the same time direct and enigmatic. Stephen's brilliant, sometimes deceptively dark little vignettes are couched in comfortingly familiar musical colours with prominent elements such as lonesome harmonica, fiddles, gentle twang, occasional pedal steel and dobro, soft brushed drums (tho' there's still a few surprises, such as the almost grungy energy of the title track). These features aside, it's real hard to categorise Stephen's music - tho' I wouldn't be exaggerating to say there's the feel of a Tennessee version of Steve Earle on County Lines, and quite a few tracks kinda recall a backwoods version of Springsteen. Stephen's also real fortunate to be supported on this disc by a whole gang of Nashville notables: Kenny Vaughn (guitar), Dave Jacques (bass), Paul Griffith (drums), David Henry (cello), Wendy Newcomer (backing vocals), Casey Driessen & Ward Stout (fiddles), with Paul Niehaus and producer Eric Fritsch. Now I've spent entire days playing this CD over and over again, and I still don't feel I've got its full measure, there's so much on offer, so many depths and subtleties. It may be an overwhelming sprawl of an album, with so many ideas running through its 16 tracks in a heady (if at times understated) parade of imagery and sounds that provide a challenge to the senses and emotions. Last Call is a magnificent record genuinely without a weak moment, that fully justifies the acclaim heaped on Stephen as one of the outstanding new talents within what's loosely classed contemporary roots Americana.

www.stephensimmonsmusic.com

David Kidman July 2007

Imagine a world weary blend of Steve Earle, John Prine and Harry Chapin, and you have a rough idea of how the Nashville singer-songwriter sounds. Dusty, acoustic Americana built around themes of faith and redemption, although Simmons makes no apologies for his beliefs given that his own upbringing in the conservative Church of Christ saw musical instruments banned from church this isn't quite the God bothering album you might expect from songs like Devil's Work is Never Done, Next Stop Redemption and the title track.

At times calling to mind the similarly themed concerns with losers and religion found in Johnny Cash's catalogue, Simmons sings of lost souls in need of a 'fixer-upper' carpenter, of a drunk finding Christ's face revealed on his beer glass, of the seven deadly sins engendered by drink and of the salvation train stopping off at long abandoned depots on its way back to the eternal terminus.

He even adopts the Devil's voice to complain that all he ever gets are the 'poster child souls who think they're above the fold' while God takes the poor and the needy with their true hearts.

But you don't have to have a family Bible by the bedside to get lost in Simmons's melancholic baritone or share his stained reflections on the tears and travails of life, of losing your tracks, being unable to find the way home, and ultimately doing the best you can in the hope of a brighter tomorrow.

www.stephensimmonsmusic.com

Mike Davies October 2006

www.harpersimon.com

Mike Davies April 2010

Paul Simon - Surprise (Warner)

His first album since You're The One six years ago and his best since 1990's Rhythm of the Saints, with Brian Eno sharing production credits and featuring guest appearances from Steve Gadd, Herbie Hancock, and Bill Frisell, Simon sounds a lot younger and more sprightly than his 64 years might lead you to expect. And yet this is clearly an album of a man seasoned by life and experience as he sings about his family, the malaise of alienation that's occupied his thoughts since he first started writing songs, regret, God and the post 9/11 world.

Never the most direct of political commentators, preferring to mask things with metaphor and allusion, he's nevertheless fairly upfront here on the opening How Can You Live In The Northeast which encompasses Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans floods and how religion more often leaves us in the dark than leads us into the light. Likewise Wartime Prayers is a gospel hued post 9/11 hymn for the nation and the battered American Dream while Outrageous romps along on chicken scratching guitar licks as the narrator bemoans corporate greed in the verses and spends the chorus wondering 'who's gonna love you when your looks are gone' as he does 900 sit ups a day. Eno may bring his own electronic sheens to the material and perhaps have prompted the complex arrangements and elliptical musical structures, but this is unmistakably Simon. Indeed, despite some buzzing techno colours, Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean melodically harks right back to You Can Call Me Al while Everything About It Is A Love Song, That's Me and the poignant Another Galaxy shimmer with his distinctive folk pop warmth. There's even a wry self-deprecating nod towards his own supposed arrogance on the choppy Bo Diddley rhythmed Sure Don't Feel Like Love where he sings "once in August 1993 I was wrong and I could be wrong again."

Rounding off with his parental love song Father And Daughter, hitherto only available on the, er, Wild Thornberry's soundtrack, this is no album from some ageing musician content to recycle well worn past formula as he grows older but the work of a man who takes the foundations of his past and consistently seeks to redevelop and redesign the structures erected upon it. A pleasant surprise, indeed.

www.paulsimon.com

Mike Davies, June 2006

Paul Simon - The Paul Simon Songbook (Columbia)

Given the compilations, reissues, remasterings and box sets to which the Simon & Garfunkel catalogue has been subjected in recent years, it's surprising that Simon's 1965 solo album has never been previously available on CD.

Partly written and wholly recorded during his stint schlepping round the UK folk clubs following disillusion at the cold response to the duo's Wednesday Morning 3.AM debut, it provided the blueprint for the subsequent Sound of Silence and Parsley Sage etc albums with formative one man and a guitar versions of such future evergreens as The Sound of Silence, I Am A Rock, the poignantly tender Kathy's Song and April Come She Will.

If Simon's deep seated themes and images of communication and existentialism had yet to find full expression (though Patterns and Rock pointed the direction), his protest voice was in good form on such emotive numbers as A Church Is Burning's angry civil rights story of the torching of a black church, the somewhat naive anti-war The Side of a Hill and He Was My Brother. Dylan parody A Simple Desultory Philippic never sounded quite convincing in the first place and is less so now, even as a cultural curio but it's testament to Simon's songwriting skills and his sensitivity to the human condition that the likes of A Most Peculiar Man (a suicide song companion piece to The Kinks' A Well Respected Man), Leaves That Are Green's quiet acceptance of mortality and the cynical world view of Flowers Never Bend In The Rainfall still resonate almost 40 years after their first appearance.

Appropriately issued in the original mono with recording date and take annotations and the addition of previously unreleased alternate takes of I Am A Rock (more chorus emphasis and tapping) and A Church is Burning (on six rather than 12 string guitar), it may be a belated addition to the Simon CD library but it's a no less welcome and essential one.

http://www.simonandgarfunkel.com

Mike Davies

Simon & Garfunkel - Old Friends Live On Stage (Columbia)

It must be said that purists may find the rearrangements of some of the classics a little hard to get their head around; I Am A Rock and The Sound of Silence for example get wholly different pacing and phrasing that tends to rob them of the inherent sense of isolation while the full band behind the likes of A Hazy Shade of Winter, Baby Driver, Cecelia (over cluttered with African drums and probably the kitchen sink too) and Mrs Robinson, with a mid song break into a Latino instrumental funky work-out, don't do memories of the originals many favours. And really, did Homeward Bound need to be stretched to six minutes with a guitar solo?

Dogged nostalgia reservations aside, there's much here to savour, not least reclaiming Bride Over Troubled Waters from Simon's gospel revision (even if Art's voice isn't quite what it used to be on those angelic high notes) and their first performance of Leaves That Are Green since 1967 .

It's the quieter, more reflective numbers that really stand out; a delicate The Only Living Boy In New York, the wistful yearning of America, a simple Scarborough Fair and, still moving after all these years, the tenderness of Kathy's Song.

Another couple famous for their squabbles, Don and Phil Everly put in a guest appearance to mark their own influence on S&G with a duet (or is that quartet?) On Bye Bye Love while the album also features a bonus track with their first studio recording in 30 years, a version of anti-nukes number Citizen Planet that Simon originally recorded for Citizen for 1983 solo album Hearts and Bones. Here's to their next difference of opinion and reconciliation, then.

www.simonandgarfunkel.com

Mike Davies

Previously released under the title Live& Kickin': In Europe & The Caribbean, Vol 1, Empress Live was recorded in the South of France and on un-named Caribbean islands at the height of Simone's popularity. She is given a rapturous welcome for I Loves You Porgy, a slow sophisticated jazz, written by the Gershwins. She follows up with two of her own songs; Four Women is powerful lyrically and is the type of song that made her what she was and builds to a fitting climax whilst The Other Woman is a soulful night club song. The Burt Weill written Pirate Jenny is a strange one. It is very descriptive but will not everyone's taste and, unfortunately, I am one of them. Bob Guidio's For Awhile is slow again and she's still not really out of first gear with this torch song. Three more self-penned songs follow and the first of these, You Took My Teeth, is up-tempo at last but it is very, very short.

Sugar In My Bowl is a Jazz/Blues and swings along very nicely. Her voice is beginning to get in gear and the level of applause tells the tale. Backlash Blues is a rhythmic Blues and she is really on song now. Jim Webb's Do What You Gotta Do is standard fare and her own Mississippi Goddam is a fast paced political tune. Two more Simone originals follow in the shape of See Line Woman, complete with audience participation and I Sing Just To Know That I'm Alive. There is percussion backing only on the former and this makes for a powerful experience. I Sing Just To Know That I'm Alive is repetitive but has a carnival feeling. She closes with My Baby Just Cares For Me and this has her chiding the audience for their lack of energy but not for long. If you asked any number of people to name a Nina Simone song then this will be it, even if she did not actually write it. This is a good version and a fitting end to an introduction to Nina Simone as a live artist.

www.lightyear.com

David Blue July 2007

This pair of albums was originally released by Topic back in 1983 and 1985 respectively, then both gained a long-awaited CD reissue on Fledg'ling at the tail-end of the following decade. Handsome and necessary though these reissues were, it's good that Fledg'ling has now decided to give them a new lease of life in slimline digipack format. I can't detect any difference in the sound quality - they sound as fine as before – but it's great to listen to these albums again after a spell of on-the-shelf languishing while keeping up to date with Mr Simpson's continued illustrious career.

They may be but early entries in the Simpson canon, but they hold up extraordinarily well against his latter-day output, quintessential Simpson down to the last shimmering chord. Even then Martin was immensely assured, not only in his guitar technique but also in his vision, his way with a song, for he knew exactly where he was taking it. Refreshingly original in both approach and execution to classic material drawn from the transatlantic folk traditions, the annals of blues, country and rock'n'roll, all brought together in one neat package as naturally as breathing. Grinning… roams from traditional ballads (Handsome Molly, Little Birdie) to more contemporary classics (It Doesn't Matter Anymore through Your Cheating Heart and First Cut Is The Deepest to Biko), with a couple of Martin's own tunes thrown in for good measure, while Sad Or High Kicking! ranges even wider afield, with the brace of celebrated Anne Lister covers (Moth and Icarus) at its heart and surrounded by more traditional Americana (No Depression In Heaven and Lakes Of Ponchartrain, the latter given an admittedly somewhat idiosyncratic zydeco treatment), Dillon Bustin's Shawnee Town, covers of Living Without You and Let It Be Me, a Jessica original (Stillness In Company) and an affectionate instrumental dedicated to Jessica.

It's interesting to hear how Martin's interpretations have evolved over the past 20 years – compare and contrast Masters Of War for example – and a healthy majority of the pieces remain in his repertoire to this day. And although Martin's vocal style has matured much, and moderated where needed from the slightly affected delivery on parts of these albums (Ponchartrain and Reuben's Train especially), there's still nothing to be ashamed of whatsoever in these renditions. On Grinning…, Martin sings and plays exclusively solo (albeit with some overdubs), except for limited appearances by Bob Smith and Annette Costello; on Sad Or High Kicking!, he extends the palette more on occasion (albeit always with commendable sensitivity) with the help of sundry "Gentlemen Of The Orchestra" who include Jonathan Davie, Laurie Harper, Andrew Cronshaw, Rob Mason and Micky Barker.

Good on Fledg'ling for making these albums available again, and – aside from a couple of uncharacteristic typos on Grinning… (viz. Cat Stephens and Flyde dobro) - these are immaculate editions that deserve a place on anyone's shelves.

www.martinsimpson.com

David Kidman March 2010

The cynics might deem it a trifle late in the day to be releasing a DVD recording of a live performance (at the Union Chapel, Islington in November 2007) of material from Martin's 2008-award-winning Prodigal Son CD (bearing in mind that Martin's released a further brand new album, True Stories, during the past few months). But this is no mere replication of the CD's contents note-for-note, or even track-by-track: for a start the running order is completely different, and the concert's opening number skilfully segues three of the album's tracks. And during the course of the evening Martin brings other material into the set, notably an electrifying rendition of I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes (on which he makes full use of the Ebow), a passionate cover of Richard Thompson's Strange Affair and his quite individual treatment of Cyril Tawney's Ballad Of Sammy's Bar. The concert performance is spellbinding from start to finish: it comes across that it was evidently a really special occasion, with Martin on very fine form indeed and clearly fired by the unique ambience of the venue. The first set showcases Martin's matchless solo presence - his unrivalled musicianship, superlative instrumental (guitar and banjo) and vocal skills and thoroughly absorbing and companionable anecdotes and background information: as on the album itself, his musical sympathies range tirelessly and persuasively over deeply traditional and more contemporary sources. During the concert interval (as it were), we're treated to a short (25-minute) film, You Can Go Home, in which yes you guessed it, the Prodigal Son returns: in this case, Martin takes us on a tour of his early haunts, retracing his steps around his native Scunthorpe and then engaging in candid kitchen-table reflection about his life-journey (and in particular his father and the background to his own composition Never Any Good); the whole film is by turns fascinating and revealing. For the second set, Martin brings onto the stage three other musicians, two of whom (Andy Cutting and Kellie While) are common to the original CD recording with Andy Stewart here taking the place of Danny Thompson on bass. The emotional impact of the music and the unbridled sympathy of the performances is so very strong, and Martin's unassuming personality, both generous and genuine, knits the whole experience together compellingly. And the very high standard of the 5.1 sound and the professional (and admirably straightforward and unintrusive) concert photography is everything you could hope for in this DVD package.

www.martinsimpson.com

David Kidman December 2009

www.martinsimpson.com

David Kidman July 2009

Originally released on vinyl in 1987, this album was rereleased on CD last year, with a couple of extra tracks recorded around the same time as the as the initial release. These are the beautiful 'Bluebird (Judy G)' and a very stark and sombre 'Black is the Colour'. Excellent additions both. The Simpsons are joined on some tracks by Rob Mason on harmonica, Mary McLaughlin on synthesizer, and Laurie Harper on fiddle, mandolin, jews harp and percussion. John B. Spencer plays guitar on 'The Keel Row', a very classy rendition of the well known North Eastern tune. Another stand out track on a generally typically virtuoso collection is the setting of the Henry Lawson poem 'Past Caring' to a tune by Steve Ashley.

Steve told me: ' Years ago I was asked by Dobe Newton of the Bushwackers to set some Australian poems to music. The author of these was Henry Lawson, a kind of Australian Kipling who died in 1920. So I made up the tune for Past Caring' which appeared on the Bushwackers Bushfire album and then two others: Freedom On The Wallaby and Faces In The Street both of which appeared on the subsequent Bushwackers album Faces In The Street (produced by Trevor Lucas). As far as I know, there have been four other performances of 'Past Caring' apart from The Bushwackers and they are on albums by Mara!, Banjacks, Shanley Dell and the Martin and Jessica Simpson.' Thanks Steve:)

This album also contains fine versions of the thoughtful Chris Coe song 'The Rising of the Women', a catchy and thoroughly singalongable 'Essequibo River', and the chilling 'Young Man', a song written by Jessica, as was 'In My Keeping', which has some breathtaking Dobro playing from Martin, and spinetingling vocals from Jessica. 'Man Smart, Woman Smarter' provides lighter moment in what is generally a collection of folk red in tooth and claw - the way I like it!

http://www.thebeesknees.com

Jon Hall

Given Martin's respected and unchallenged status as expert guitarist, captivating singer and unfailingly intelligent interpreter of song, any new CD he brings out is unlikely to disappoint. The latest, the characteristically eclectic Prodigal Son, could be viewed as cementing Martin's decision (around five years ago) to return to live in the UK, being a further inspirational collection of music that demonstrates Martin's unique take on the musical heritage of Britain and America.

Though recorded entirely within the studio, Prodigal Son is a well-planned and credibly sequenced set that fully communicates the intimacy and spellbinding nature of Martin's live performances, wherein he moves effortlessly from deep oldtime roots (eg. Pretty Crowing Chicken) to big ballads Scottish (Andrew Lammie) and American (Duncan And Brady) via some deceptively virtuoso instrumental pieces.

Scattered exceedingly modestly amongst these delights we find a handful of Martin's own compositions, songs and instrumentals; these (which form highlights among a disc full of high points) are for the most part both highly poignant and personal in nature. A Love Letter might almost be considered the disc's emotional centrepiece, while two of the guitar pieces (She Slips Away and Mother Love) are unbelievably tender and moving. At the other end of the emotional spectrum there's the fiendishly tricky but beautifully managed little quasi-Bourée La Rivolta which, though it lasts barely two minutes, is far classier than to be regarded as a mere light relief interlude.

Although the disc's every bar is infused with Martin's own musical identity, he nevertheless enjoys some superbly supportive guest contributions, principally from Andy Cutting's accordion, Barry Phillips' cello and Danny Thompson's bass (which together give many tracks a distinctive signature, thoughtful and mellow), and Alistair Anderson's concertina (and Northumbrian pipes at a significant point during Andrew Lammie). There are incidental delights, too, in backing vocals from Kellie While (on Batchelor's Hall, a kind of Pretty Saro paraphrase), Kate Rusby (on Martin's own touchingly honest Never Any Good, written after a conversation with his brother Simon) and Jackson Browne (on a heavy-with-contemporary-resonance revisit of Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927, which Martin had first recorded on his debut LP The Golden Vanity back in 1976!).

Having said that, Martin continues to impress on solo outings like a superb version of The Granemore Hare (where the decorated vocal and guitar lines stunningly mirror each other in almost sean nós fashion) and a freshly immediate, tumblingly eager rendition of Little Musgrave. This excellent, admirably artisan CD will be manna to the converted, naturally, but for other purchasers it's also likely to provide a impetus for further exploration both of the actual material performed and of Martin's illustrious and extensive back-catalogue - not to mention garnering a crop of awards along the way I'm sure.

www.martinsimpson.com
www.myspace.com/martinsimpson1

David Kidman July 2007

Martin Simpson - Kind Letters (Topic)

World-class guitarist and singer Martin has chosen to follow up his award-winning Righteousness And Humidity album of 2003 by once again revisiting the vast repertoire of traditional English folksong. Keep in mind Martin's previous highly regarded offering in this vein (The Bramble Briar, four years ago), and you'll have an idea of what to expect, but there are still plenty of surprises in store, even for those of us who are already familiar with Martin's particular approach and special performing skills. And this despite the track list consisting almost entirely of some very familiar song-titles. Now the principal clue to this selection lies in the very opening statement in Martin's booklet note – ie., that in many cases he learnt the songs from a number of different sources, and so the versions he utilises are likely to be refreshingly unfamiliar, or at the very least will cast a new perspective. Above all else, Kind Letters – possibly more so than The Bramble Briar – reflects the cross-fertilisation of influences and sources, especially those of Martin Carthy and Roy Bailey. The opening track, a version of The Cruel Brother, set to the tune used by Dick Gaughan in his singing of the ballad, well illustrates Martin's enterprise in creating imaginative settings for his retelling of these tales; after just a few verses of Martin accompanying himself on guitar (and even if the whole track had just left it at that, it would have been more than acceptable!), in swoops Nancy Kerr with some delectably lyrical violin counterpoint, then a few verses later Martin changes the pattern (quite disconcertingly, you'll feel at first) for a call-and-response section where viola, bouzouki and his own electric guitar augment the texture. Nancy and James crop up again on the sprightly, driving Love Henry, then Nancy adds a tremendously moving (and understated) violin and viola accompaniment to Martin's plangent slide guitar rendition of A Blacksmith Courted Me. The latter is actually one of only two instrumental tracks on Kind Letters, which prompts me to remark (now rather than later) that given Martin's exceptional prowess as a guitarist it's all too easy to underestimate his abilities as a singer, and he emerges very creditably in this respect on this new release (though I couldn't fail to notice the North Lincolnshire/Yorkshire vowel sounds creeping back, no doubt as a consequence of because Martin's lately moved back to this country after ten years in the States). Martin's dramatic solo renditions of The Flying Cloud and Clerk Sanders (coincidentally the two longest tracks on the album) are genuinely organic and contain some superbly integrated playing and singing. They're almost certainly the album's highlights, and Clerk Sanders is especially noteworthy, as much for its striking, atmospheric instrumental prelude as for its involving telling of the ballad itself. Finally I must mention Martin's other guests, young Irish band Danú, whose fine backing-ensemble work (albeit on just a couple of songs) being supplemented by some further delectable touches, such as their female singer's vocal towards the end of When First I Came To Caledonia, and excellently-judged individual contributions from the accordion of Brendan McCarthy (on Creeping Jane) and the uilleann pipes of Donnchadh Gough (a veritable coup-de-théâtre on Adieu, Adieu). Kind Letters is a remarkably fine album, even by Martin Simpson's own high standards, which shows in just a fraction under an hour just how much mileage there is still to be gained from intelligent reinterpretation of this country's rich heritage of traditional song.

www.martinsimpson.com
www.myspace.com/martinsimpson1

David Kidman

After a tremendous album (The Bramble Briar) on which Martin paid homage to traditional English music, he now reverts to his other principal love - the blues - for the bulk of this new release. The CD's title is strangely apposite - it stems from a chance throwaway remark made by a man with whom Martin fell into conversation in Nashville, but it could equally be seen to represent the deeply religious moral code of the Southern States and the steamy climate of the Mississippi delta, from which much of the album's music either originates or takes its cue. It can be taken as read that Martin's exceptional instrumental skills are to the forefront throughout the album, and here Martin plays not only "standard" acoustic guitar but also slide, electric and lap-steel, as well as ukulele and 5-string banjo. He plays solo on four tracks, accompanied by only a bass player (either Rick Kemp or James Singleton) on a further six, and by a New Orleans session crew (including Dave Malone and Carl Budo) on most of the remainder. Artistic consistency is uniformly high on the album, as you'd expect, and there's a healthy variety of pace and mood within the basic "blues-related musics" remit, from straight blues (Rollin' And Tumblin'), ragtime (Easy Money), traditional ballads (John Hardy, Georgie), and tunes from the old-time banjo and fiddle repertoires, together with a handful of Martin's original compositions in the relevant musical idiom. The latter category provide some of the album's highlights - the affecting Love Never Dies (directly inspired by Martin's experiences at a truckstop in Memphis), the potent genius loci of the brief banjo sketch Ghost In The Pines, and the gloriously vibrant, hyperactive syncopations of Horn Island. Another standout is Martin's atmospheric new version of Blind Willie Johnson's I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes, where Martin's own playing and singing is enriched by sparse, spooky organ chords and spine-tingling, eerie vocal contributions from Jessica. OK, so maybe I could have done without another version of The Coo Coo Bird (Martin's electric romp isn't really that distinguished), but overall this album represents another creditable addition to Martin's extensive discography.

www.martinsimpson.com

David Kidman

Moderately successful in hometown Nottingham, like many a young DIY punk before him, Simpson's now a home spun acoustic strummer bashing out a mix of love songs and social comment in a very British manner.

He's been likened to Damien Jurado and Willy Mason, which is probably a lot closer than the press blurb references to Mike Skinner, Kate Nash and Jose Gonzalez. Or indeed, his own proclaimed influences of Costello and Waits. Guthrie and Bragg I could understand. Rather less a left wing diatribe than the title suggests, the album reveals a warm, locally accented, heartfelt vocal with a relaxed off the cuff delivery and some nifty finger picking around catchy melodies. There's an infectious playfulness to things like the self-critical, Keynotes (where he declares he can't get it up thank to too much booze), Your Marvellous Life's regret tinged put down of an ex ("when we kissed on the steps of your house ...I'd have sworn there was glass in your mouth") where he sounds like a busking Jarvis Cocker, and The Watercooler's brief snapshot of office 'romances'.

But, as the wonderful ruminative dissection of hollow hard man braggadocio of The Centurian ("I have killed men with these hands, I tear them apart... I don't want to fight no more") and The Beast That Lived Behind The Bank's jaunty, guitar fuzzed and jazzed sloped credit crunch snapshot, he has a keen observational eye and poet's tongue too.

With the skiffle, rock n roll, one man band strum stomping Hooray's swipe at the consumer rat race ("they're trying to sell me that Blu-Ray an old picture in a new frame") suggesting he's a vibrant live proposition too, Simpson's debut gets better the more you listen. Frank Turner, Jamie T and the like had better start looking over their shoulder. Could have done without the naked man cover, though.

www.timothyjsimpson.com

Mike Davies November 2009

www.stoneandfarrelly.com

Pete Fyfe

Steve Singh - I Will Not Break Your Heart (Own Label)

A Toronto singer-songwriter of the 60s folk pop school possessed of a warm voice and a lyrical dexterity, there's times when you'll be put in mind of Loudon Wainwright, Don McLean, and James Taylor while I'd lay odds McCartney, Costello and Smokey Robinson figured among his influences too. Although he describes it as lightly embellished in places, it's decidedly beefier than his six song debut. A Little Squirrel Like You (a tale of the return of the songwriter to the popular stage) trots along at a country lick with pedal steel, unfortunate band member's true story drugs bust NYC vs Jeffrey Brown is a handclappy slice of pop and Sweet Summer Song (about writing a song that has to include a list of references) lopes along behind a thinly veiled Motown styled melody.

Although This Teacher Has Retired talks about a love that's run its course and Gimme Three! swims around the pool of frustration and anger, he's not as biting this time round. Indeed, the bulk of his material's about trying to save relationships (This Party Is Over), basking in love's sunshine (Skip The Flowers), kicking back and letting the world slide by (What A Lazy Week) and, on Twice Her Size, Half Her Age the sagacity and maturity of youth; especially when they're girls. All put to softly smoothing lullaby melodies that waft in on balmy morning breezes and fade away into still city nights, leaving the scent of romance behind in the air.

www.stevesingh.com

Mike Davies

The Singing Adams - Problems (Track & Field)

Singer, songwriter and guitarist with The Broken Family Band, Steven Adams now takes time out for a lo fi solo project that, largely recorded in bedrooms and living rooms with an assortment of musician chums, veers away from their American stylings into more bedsit folksy territory for a collection of personal London-centric songs about loving, losing and generally not having a great time of it. 'I need something to whine about', he sings on Ship, offering a pretty good idea of the self-pitying mood he's enjoying here. Other breezy nuggets include the miserable downer of Hello Baby, a crooner that sports lines like 'poison the well, dance on the grave, shit where you eat', the self-loathing romantic denial of the strummed Starsign ("I don't mind if you have other men that you lie to...I don't want your love") while a distorted guitar hidden track notes People Are Gonna Hate You If You Break My Heart.

It's not all gloom. Skipalong strummed pop song Minus Nines has him fancying some girl he knows will be a heartbreaker but too smitten to be careful while on the pretty You And Me he declares 'I don't believe in love anymore...except for you and me.'

Musically, it's a touch ramshackle, often sounding like he grabbed the guitar and the recorded after a few late night drinks and just let it roll out, while The Mayor is a brief psychedelic banjo freakout, New Southgate Love Song a plinkety bluegrass number, I Can Do Nothing all early snarling Roxyism guitar noise and drone and St Thomas (about the Scandinavian singer visiting in a dream inviting him to Oslo) a hushed, barely there pulse of guitar and keyboard. Not , it has to be said, the year's most essential acquisition but even so a worthy adjunct to the day job collection.

www.trackandfield.org.uk

Mike Davies

Although you have to visit his MySpace website to get the details, this debut album from the soft-voiced Dublin singer-songwriter is a bit of a conceptually themed affair set around a journey on the London underground with each of the 10 songs relating to a Tube station and the experience related to it.

Thus train rhythmed opening track Worry Number One begins at Cannon Street after a few drinks with musings on the sexual attraction of money while the last, People, winds up at Clapham Junction, an end of the line symbol of endings and new beginnings.

Essentially, by way of Bank, London Bridge, Kings Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Heathrow and Waterloo, it's an album about relationships and expectations, of yourself and by others, of trying to make it in the music business, falling down and picking yourself back up. On paper, it all sounds a bit contrived and pretentious, but in the DIY reality of the music (which he produced and pretty much played all by himself) it's anything but.

Not unlike Richard Hawley to whom he bears comparison, Singleton's foundations are built on a bedrock of classic pop music from the 60s and 70s. But where Hawley's are rooted in America, his are firmly British, most potently the Beatles (Harrison and McCartney rather than Lennon) and The Kinks (and their own acolytes such as Crowded House, Squeeze and CS&N) but, on the scratchy rock blues of Gimme Something also a touch of Marc Bolan. He does upbeat glam pop (Get Up), he does druggy rock blues (Twisted City), he does power pop reverb (The Only One) and he does dreamy ballad melancholia (Tonight, Pieces) and acoustic strum (You Carry On), and he does them all to sublime perfection. Do yourself a favour and get a season ticket.

www.hrissingleton.co.uk
www.myspace.com/chrissingleton

Mike Davies February 2007

OK, some facts first. Sir Silence is the pseudonym of one Bill Taylor-Beales, a Hampshire born but Cardiff based visual artist and guitar picker who also happens to be married to singer-songwriter and album collaborator Rachael Taylor-Beales.

Produced by and featuring Martyn Joseph (to whose label Rachel is signed), the 10 tracks are all based on paintings, prints and photographs from last year's Scratch The Sky exhibition at Cardiff's Gate Arts Centre and sales of the album will benefit the People Round Here Charitable Trust which seeks to create opportunities for artists to work alongside disenfranchised members of the community.

OK, that's the biographical bit out of the way, so what about the music? Well, we're largely in 60s folk-rock territory here and if Joseph is Cardiff's Springsteen, then Taylor-Beales may well be its Cat Stevens.

The man himself cites Cohen and Dylan as influences (on By And By he actually quotes from Blowing In The Wind) while those Eastern folk drones owe as much to the Velvets as the ISB. But listen to his talk-sing breathy vocals and you'll more readily find yourself thinking of Donovan (and not just because he has a song called Jennifer), the young Al Stewart and, I suppose inevitably, Nick Drake. Ironically, perhaps, he also often sounds a lot like, well, Martyn Joseph.

I don't know the background to the individual arts works that inspired the songs, but the tenor of the music is very much melancholic, stories like Standing On This Ledge and Fine And Friendly steeped in sadness and populated by troubled souls and mental disorders.

However, as on the penny whistle haunted Fire On The Water, the hoar-frosted These Are The Days and the book-ending title track, there's also a lining of hope and optimism while the rousing banjo plucked trad flavoured sea shanty Sink All The Boats is a rousing swayalong arms linked community hymn of defiance. As the man says, pick up an axe and swing.

www.billtaylor-beales.com
www.hushland.com
www.peoplearoundhere.com

Mike Davies January 2008

Originally from North Carolina but now based in Nashville, Sarah's being heralded as one of America's most promising young songwriters, even though she's already been active as a s/s and recording artist since age 14 (that's over 15 years ago!). Her profile was more recently given a massive boost when she toured with indie-rockers Bon Iver back in 2008 (they also performed her song Lovin's For Fools as their regular encore on that tour), and she's likely to receive a further injection of well-deserved cred when she supports Paul Brady on the upcoming tour to promote his new CD release Hooba Dooba, to which Sarah has contributed some backing vocals. The good Mr Brady has been quoted describing Sarah as his "new favourite female singer of the moment", and we're also given to understand that a famous Bonnie also "raitts" Sarah's talents very highly indeed!

Sarah's songwriting CV includes penning Simple Love and Goodbye Is All We Have for Alison Krauss (both released as singles), while other songs of Sarah's have been covered by the Infamous Stringdusters and April Verch. Say It Louder, which turns out to be Sarah's sixth album, has been available on download for just over a year now, but it's now been taken up by Proper Distribution, which is good news (it certainly doesn't deserve to languish in cyberspace).

Having never come across Sarah's own music before, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but Say It Louder doesn't sound particularly Nashville (or rootsy or s/s or bluegrass, come to that), it's significantly closer to alt-indie-rock I guess. Sarah's backed by her formidable (and tightly knit) three-piece live band (Joe MacMahan, Lex Price and Ian Fitchuk), who conjure a distinctive and full-bodied instrumental sound that's dripping with burnished electric guitar textures (Sarah herself contributes the rhythm part on a trusty Gibson ES-175 most of the time).

Her songs brim over with confident and well-focused expression of the emotions gone through on a particularly difficult life-journey, all the pain and trials which have had to be gone through in order to arrive at a rebirth and a kind of re-embracing of life. The album's title heralds this renewed confidence, while it can also be heard to reflect the very nature of her vocal delivery - forthright in its attack, boldly insistent in its line and tension (indeed, first-time listeners may find the pushier, more strident nuances of Sarah's voice a touch wearing, especially on the title number itself and the otherwise gentler Falling Stars, where constant reaching for repeated notes in a higher register occasionally betrays a sense of strain).

What's particularly notable, and encouraging, is that Sarah and her band seem together to have built themselves a distinctive, signature sound which once experienced is unlikely to be mistaken for anyone else. And moreover, while the out-and-out thrust of Keep Me Alive is undoubtedly an album standout (it also features Sarah's long-time hero Jerry Douglas with some searing lap steel work that swoops and grinds across the soundscape), and the looser buildup of Worth Fighting For really makes an impact, Sarah's still also unafraid to keep the full band sound in check when necessary at the service of her lyrics, occasionally reining it in (as on the glorious shimmering One Step Closer) or even jettisoning the rhythm section (on Getaway Girl), or bravely taking centrestage spotlight alone (on Kite, Long Nights, the piano-backed gospel-tinged Reasons To Love or the brief but telling acappella number Go – another rather special landmark).

Say It Louder, notwithstanding the sometimes opaque (and thus a trifle elusive) character of the musical settings, is an impressive set that illuminates the corners of Sarah's life with commendable integrity and emotional honesty.

www.sarahsiskind.com

David Kidman March 2010

16 Horsepower - Folklore (Glitterhouse)

Given the draining intensity of their music, it's amazing that it only takes a couple of years between albums for both singer-writer David Eugene and the band's fans to recuperate and tunnel their way back up to the light.

As the opening Hutterite Mile announces, this is as Bible black as anything they've done (even the sleeve is black), albeit less of a sonic hellstorm, the power focused into more stripped back arrangements yet still making Nick Cave sound like S Club.As you may surmise, he's not turned into Mr Cheery and songs of death, damnation, religion and love blasted to bleeding fragments remain his singalongs of choice. Gloom and doom ooze from every note, every skeletal banjo line, every image of dry, hard and husked emotions, parading avowed influences Dylan, Cohen, Joy Division and, obviously, Cave with striking hypnotic potency.

They may kick up a pair of barn dancing heels on the Carter Family's Single Girl but there's a note of sadness even here and while they waltz on Hank Williams's Alone And Forsaken it's more like a funeral dance than a wedding. There's a clutch of other covers here too. The sound of open desert spaces as shadows roll ominously over and somewhere feral coyotes howl, Outlaw Song is a traditional Hungarian arrangement, the brittle, spare lament Horse Head Fiddle a Tuvan traditional, Sinnerman's the old American hellfire and salvation folk number but given at a far more oppressive and apocalyptic pace and tone than its usual skipalong arrangement. After all this soul scouring and grim brimstone, the last of the trad tunes, La Robe a Parasol, at least winds up the album on an upbeat note, an old time Mazurka that takes you out dancing with a big grin on your face. Even if you are just two stepping it down to everlasting perdition.

www16horsepower.net

Mike Davies

Good news here for solid-state bluegrass fans: Charlie's been around for years on the specialist bluegrass scene, sufficiently acclaimed by the aficionados, but here he makes his Rounder debut, on a collection of 14 songs that would appear to have come from his own pen. Decent, crafted and able, if not always lingering in the mind after playthrough, the best of the cuts being the slower ones, or those where slightly bluesier inflections are called into play (as on Blame It On Vern and The Silver Bugle), as well as Alison's Band (a regretful nod to Union Station) and the tongue-in-cheek The Less That I Drink. The rest of the material, while efficient, is likeable enough but more disposable, maybe even interchangeable. There's predictedly reliable support from his band (fiddle, banjo, guitars): competent, straight-down-the-line, no-nonsense playing that just gets on with it and says what it needs to perfectly economically with no excess baggage and no soloing. But to my mind, a little anonymous in the process (I get the feeling I'm not the only one to grin heavily with unintended irony at the killer quote on the back cover: "Don't try to operate dangerous machinery or start your taxes while Charlie is singing. You'll just get hurt." Oh yeah?!).

www.charliesizemoreband.com
www.myspace.com/charliesizemoreband

David Kidman October 2007

www.rickyskaggs.com
www.myspace.com/rickyskaggs

Mike Davies October 2009

Ricky's impressive pre-solo career took him from Ralph Stanley sideman to Country Gentleman, also encompassing recordings with Keith Whitley and a stint in Emmylou's Hot Band, but he brought a broad-based musical virtuosity to bluegrass, gospel and country and his role as torch-bearer for this rootsier music was key to the early success of the Sugar Hill label. This sensible retrospective charts Ricky's Sugar Hill years, taking four cuts from the landmark album with pioneering band Boone Creek that formed the label's debut release, two from Ricky's first solo album Sweet Temptation, three from his duet album with Tony Rice, and a couple of less obvious but no less welcome choices drawn from more obscure releases, including Ricky's duet with Sharon White on Townes van Zandt's If I Needed You (from the Seldom Scene 15th anniversary album). This great little collection sure encourages timely reassessment of Ricky's original Sugar Hill releases.

www.rickyskaggs.com

David Kidman August 2008

Marking his return to the UK after a stint living in Mexico where he recorded Mexile and Empires And Us, the former Latin Quarter singer arrives with a new collection of tunes that again bring together rock, reggae, Latin, African, Celtic, gypsy and TexMex rhythmic influences, the sound deepened by Luiz Gutterez's rich violin.

Again too, many of the songs are part penned by long time collaborator Mike Jones, albeit this time trawled and reworked by Skaith from a stockpile of unused lyrics.

What strikes is that, unlike past solo and Latin Quarter releases, it's less overtly political and more personal, covering the pathetic Peter Stringfellow style attempts at clinging to ladies man self-delusions of Do Without Aladdin, question whether life is random or purposeful on Hidden Hand, an ageing rock musician of Gave Somebody A Night and the sense of mortality and growing older that informs Stranger At Your Door and Life.

Not that there isn't political teeth, one of the album's strongest numbers being Imaginary Friend, an atheist's lament for the resurgence of religious fanaticism, in all creeds and faith.

It's hard to avoid thinking there's a couple of missteps here though, Whisky, Hatha-Yoga's portrait of a couple of burned out barstool losers clinging to feeling alive rather spoiled by some clumsy couplets or the slightly facile 'fame's a jailor, idol's all that matters' of The Emperor's critique of celebrity culture. That aside though, while I'm not persuaded it's better than its predecessors and it's unlikely to earn many new converts, long time fans won't be disappointed.

www.mexile.com

Mike Davies July 2007

The follow up to 2003's solo debut Mexile, the former Latin Quarter frontman maintains his Mexican flavours (that's where he lives these days and from where he's drawn his current band) while the global musical net also trawls in those African colours. The songs again mostly written by former LQ lyricist Mike Jones keep the socio-political threads going while Skaith ensures that these are wrapped up in irresistible infectious melodies.

Take album opener The Big Pit as a prime example, a song about America's industrial meltdown and unemployment that boast a ridiculously catchy upbeat chorus and a melody straight out of Paul Simon's Graceland songbook (indeed the guitar break could be lifted from You Can Call Me Al) while the reference to turning Ford and Fiat into museums has a timely application in the light of the Rover collapse.

Elsewhere, as you might expect in the current and recent climate, George W and his foreign policy comes in for a deal of big stick with the choppy reggae rhythmic The Special Relationship (ah, that'll be Tony then), Home (the tanks are rolling in again, and it could be Iraq as easily as Palestine) and 5 Point Star ("we reserve the right to do what we please").

It's not all global politics though. The heated rhythmic Keywords tells of a woman who slashes her wrists in frustration at under and over analysis instead of understanding while your basic ups and down of the heart provide the fundamentals for (Don't Give Me) Sweet Love (another tumbling African lilt), Near Me (a simple arrangement of voice, jarana and dumbeck), and The Aftermath (looking for break up rationalisations in books).

You will, of course, recall that Latin Quarter's big hit was Radio Africa, a wearied lament for all the bad news from South Africa. Times have changed, so it's nice to find things brought up to date with the closing Come Alive, a celebration of the good news and a tribute to those who gave their lives and liberty to achieve it.

www.mexile.com

Mike Davies

Masterly. Nigh faultless. Bliss. Thereafter, I am fair lost for words to describe this beautiful CD, without having to resort to critical clichés. So I need to distance myself and give you the straight biog... Sketch is a trio comprising Maggie Boyle (yes!), Gary Boyle (no relation!) and Dave Bowie (and before you jump, no!), in a totally natural musical confluence of one of the folk scene's finest singers, an excellent guitarist and an excellent double bass player, both of the latter having serious cred in jazz and acoustic circles. And yes, the combination does work! And how! So maybe I'll just provide some word-sketches then. The music of Sketch is relaxed, easy and intimate in demeanour, belying the intense artistry and accomplishment within and exuding a consummate classiness. Soothing but stimulating, and gently compelling. Truly cool, yet also red-hot spine-tingling.

It's not folk, it's not jazz - well, not really, but it's got the best of both worlds. Should you think Pentangle? Ship Of Fools? John Martyn? OK; all and yet none exactly. Take a look at the source-material Sketch perform: of the album's nine tracks, five are arrangements of traditional songs, one a set of traditional reels. Hearing these song arrangements for the first time, one's struck by the freshness of execution that stands outwith the practical need to provide a conscious framework - in one respect you know what you're going to get, and yet you're constantly surprised and delighted by Gary and Dave's fluid, supple playing, responding to and answering (and yes, these can mean different things) Maggie's own fluid and supple responses to the texts. Her own exemplary phrasing, her use of restraint in decoration and nuance, her skilful use of dynamic shading, all these elements are mirrored in the brilliant counterpoint of her fellow-musicians (to use the word accompanists is to undervalue their contribution). Moreover, the three players have a miraculously acute sense of internal balance, clearly born of a deep respect for each other's talents, which is conveyed unerringly by the clear-toned, jewel-like recording.

Sketch have produced what is very much a less is more record, a miracle that so ostensibly restricted a palette (which could all too easily be sterile) can conjure such a varied emotional landscape. One packed with enchanting incidental details, yet never feeling cramped or constrained by the need to engage the listener. Gary's inventiveness as a soloist knows no bounds, yet he knows instinctively when to rein in and support or step out into the spotlight; Dave's organic approach to the role of the bassist perfectly complements Gary's intricate playing while both creating and allowing space within the texture supporting Maggie's own melodic lines and ornamentations. But if the Sketch renditions of the traditional songs are fabulous, then what they do with the three more recent compositions is nothing short of revelatory, with an extra dimension of contemporary empathy imparted to God Bless The Child in particular, while Maggie turns in an intensely sympathetic version of Steve Tilston's Anthony Believes and Bert Jansch's Bird Song also comes off unexpectedly well. And the cover and booklet design, in its simple pastel minimalism, ideally reflects the deft brushstrokes of the artistic musical gestures within. Perfection. Bliss. Aaah...sublime...

www.skinnymalinksmusic.co.uk

David Kidman August 2008

Skilda - 13 Dreams (Survival)

Skilda is a fairly new Celtic band recording for the renowned Survival Records label (who up to recently boasted Capercaillie on their roster). It draws together personnel from Ireland (vocalist Naia - so why isn't she allowed to reveal her surname, I ask - is this a misguided attempt at Celtic mystique?!, Scotland (guitarist Aly Balder, bass player Mike S. and drummer Bran) and Brittany (piper/synth programmer Konan Erwan) - all of these musicians sharing an adventurous and innovative approach to the Celtic music traditions. This should be a recipe for a healthily dose of contemporary fusion, and for at least some of their debut CD's 51 minutes that proves to be the case. There are some rather glorious moments, especially when Naia sings (her voice will inevitably be compared - and justifiably so - with Karen Matheson). There's some decidedly prog-rock-like galumphing (The Wicker Man) complete with crashing, soaring electric guitar, set alongside some strongly pulsing electronics, keyboard experimentation, organic sampling and the like. Occasionally, as on the opening sound-collage (Welcome To The New Century), this all sounds like just a bit of a cacophony, whereas the ensuing Hi Ri Him Bo builds well from a dreamy floaty opening section to a robust and powerful grind. Freedom, Future then takes the Shooglenifty funk-fusion groove method to attractive new heights and Airfailarin creatively utilises the rhythms of chanting and peat-beating much in the manner of Martyn Bennett. But why part 2 of The Flower Of Finae is placed at track 5 and part 1 at track 12, well that's perverse! Moonstone glistens and beams like a Capercaillie outtake, but doesn't quite come together, and none of the tracks in the middle of the CD really gel to any great extent, despite making some nice noises. Things are redeemed then by And It's Gone, which has a melodic line that's rather reminiscent of Renaissance, while it's back to the Peatbog/Shoogle funk'n'reel for the spacey Lewis (Cosmic Reel). All in all, there's certainly enough sufficiently interesting ideas on this CD for me to be wanting to keep a watching brief on Skilda, but at the moment perhaps these ideas aren't quite integrated enough to enable the band to step into the shoes of Capercaillie just yetawhile, in my opinion.

www.skilda.com

David Kidman

Ray Skjelbred - Plays Blues and Boogie Woogie (Arcola)

Another top class release from blues specialists Arcola. This one goes away from their normal guitar-based offerings and takes us into the world of blues, jazz and boogie-woogie piano. Ray Skjelbred is the man to take us there and this album of instrumentals covers a number of styles and influences. There are 21 tracks on the album and Skjelbred has written about a third of those.

We open with the first of Ray's tunes, Comiskey Blues. This is relaxing and softly played song on which every note can be heard. To follow, he conjures up a top version of Big Maceo Merriweather's County Jail Blues. A feature here is his strong bass (left hand) playing. Back to his own songs for Hull House and Bluebird Blues. The former is a moody tribute to Art Hodes who Skjelbred says was a 'significant blues figure' in his life and the latter is a rocking piano blues homage to the aforementioned Big Maceo.

Things are slowed down for the gentle Riverside Blues, a song previously played by the King Oliver Jazz Band. Leroy Carr is one of Ray's heroes and Midnight Hour Blues is his favourite Carr track. This is played so well that Carr himself would have been proud to have produced it. Neighborhood Stomp is barrelhouse blues at its best and one of the better self-written songs. Another homage follows, this time it's the dynamic laden George Zack Blues.

My Daddy Rocks Me, the old Art Hodes song is played, as most others on the album, with feeling. There's a familiar feeling to Ma Rainey's Barrelhouse Blues - just imagine the pianist in the corner of a bar-room pounding this one out. On The Wall is a traditional song but it is mainly associated with Clarence Cripple Lofton but I am reminded so much of Professor Longhair when I hear Ray play it - stunning. Skjelbred doesn't only play piano on this album; he turns his hand to the celeste as well. This instrument is used to good effect on Blues For Celeste Holm, where its music box sound gives a beautiful overtone.

Jimmy Rodgers' Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues is another example of how beautiful a piano can sound, especially in the hands of a master. One of the few faster songs on the album is the upbeat version of Frankie Jaxon's Fan It. This shows Ray's versatility in a very good light. You can't have an album of boogie-woogie and blues without a Jelly Roll Morton tune and Ray has chosen Shoeshiners Drag, a variation of London Blues played in a barrelhouse style. The big name artists are all represented here and The Alligator Pond Went Dry is the Victoria Spivey contribution. Skjelbred worked with Spivey in 1971 and loved this song. He says that he can still hear her voice when he plays this - if you listen hard enough, you might hear her too.

I have only one word for Take Your Burden To The Lord and that is, uplifting. Cathedral Blues has a very effective switch from piano to celeste in the middle, which gives it a warm feeling. You've Got To Give Me Some was recorded by Bessie Smith and often played by Art Hodes. In fact, on the one occasion that Skjelbred got to play with Hodes, this is the song that they started with. The penultimate song is Duke Ellington's The Mooche and although it's only played on piano, a strong, deep and powerful blues is delivered. To close, Ray has chosen his final self-written tune, Gray Blues. There's nothing gray about this as he delivers a mix of styles and gives us an upbeat end to the set.

I didn't know if I was going to enjoy an album full of piano instrumentals but when delivered by an artist of this quality then it certainly isn't a chore to listen.

www.arcolarecords.com

David Blue

Yes, these are the original recordings, those from the collection of 78 rpm discs belonging to John Junner of Banchory, which were first (re-) issued by Topic just over 25 years ago if I remember rightly. I don't own a copy of that Topic release, but the sound quality on this new reissue simply must be superior, it's so good. Initial impressions of scrawniness of tone are soon dispelled as you get used to the dynamic range. The recordings have been newly remastered using the latest CEDAR processing technology to get rid of surface noise and intrusive clicks; opinions tend to be divided on the quality of the end result, some enthusiasts believing that the process robs recordings of essential atmosphere, but I think that in this case the results are pleasing to the ear and strike a sensible compromise rather than appearing unnecessarily recessed or clinical (helpfully, a comparison is provided at the end of this CD by the unprocessed repeat of the final track).

Fiddler James Scott Skinner (1843-1927), a real "character" by all accounts, made these recordings during the last half of his life (though no dates are provided here) on both cylinder and vinyl, in between touring both here and in the USA, accompanied in all instances by an unidentified pianist. Purists have claimed that Skinner's use of classical techniques such as glissandi in his playing and own compositions "detracted from the essence in the "early" traditions of Scottish music", but no-one can deny Skinner's skill and dexterity and his artistry in bringing this music to prominence. The then-contemporary vogue for "Scottishisms" in classical music no doubt had something to do with the popularity which Skinner enjoyed, but equally there is a clearly discernible, purely indigenous drive and vigour, lending a special edge to the brilliancy of his playing which is delightful in its own way, even though not all of the actual music is of the highest calibre. His own development of the standard strathspey bowing technique is probably the most immediately definable element in this. Whether you already own the Topic release or not, this Temple CD is bound to become the definitive edition of these historic recordings – handsomely presented and sounding superior in every way.

www.templerecords.co.uk

David Kidman