FolkWorld #80 03/2023

CD Reviews

Various Artists "Ears of the People: Ekonting Songs from Senegal and Gambia"
Smithsonian Folkways, 2023

Article: Ekonting Songs

The ekonting or akonting is a banjo-like instrument from West Africa with a sound somewhere between a banjo, a kora and a thumb piano. It may be the origin of the early gourd banjos in North America. This album presents recordings made by Gambian ethnomusicologist Daniel Laemou-Ahuma Jatta of musicians across Senegal and Gambia, often in very informal or public places, singing their local songs into a hastily set-up microphone. The sound quality is astonishingly good - there are background noises, but generally just a bit of chatter or animal calls which add to the authenticity and atmosphere. Jatta has almost single-handedly raised awareness of this musical tradition, which is thriving in Gambia and Senegal: there are many ekonting players, young and not so young, and makers and audiences too!
Ears of the People includes performances by nine musicians in a range of styles. All the ekonting players here are singers who use the instrument to accompany their songs. From the plaintive Watu Eriring Bee Kaolo to the rousing Asum Bunuk, two dozen songs span the life of the Jola people whose traditional instrument has evolved to travel the world. In its native form, three strings stretched over a gourd, the ekonting is quite quiet and easily drowned by other instruments, but it carries the tune for performances by solo singers and bigger bands. Each performer on this recording is an expert, talented and tuneful, with subtly individual technique. Without an understanding of the lyrics, these songs might begin to blend into each other - but there is a little bit of commentary in French, and there are also excellent notes and translations for each song, as well as photographs of the performers and instruments in the accompanying booklet.
© Alex Monaghan


Archie Churchill-Moss "Ph(r)ase"
Slow Worm Records, 2023

Artist Audio

www.archiemossmusic.com

A handsome booklet encases and enhances this new music from melodeon maestro Archie Churchill-Moss, providing transcriptions of all the basic melodies and a bit of background on the composing and recording process. Ranging from five sharps to four flats, and literally everything in between, Ph(r)ase is played entirely solo on a humble three-row box, just a D/G melodeon with a full row of accidentals added, plus some extra options in the left hand. Despite the sometimes outlandish key signatures, this music doesn't stray too far from the contemporary canon of English folk: pieces in two four, four four, three four and six eight, plus seven eight of course, and three two naturally. The only real oddities are a couple of compositions in five four, and perhaps another pair in three eight, which do stretch the envelope of old Albion.
Don't misunderstand me: this certainly isn't your average Morris music, or even the sort of thing you might have heard at Cambridge or Cropredy. Ph(r)ase springs from the deep and troubled soul of the melodeon community, the side which uses every button in every tune, endlessly varying the chordal accompaniment, stretching every sinew to maximise polyphony in both hands. It's innovative, introspective, inexplicable to most and intuitive only to a few - but it works! The melodies flow, the rhythms resolve themselves, the phrasing fits. Even with the notes written down, and the technical specifications laid out, we can only sit back and wonder at the mastery as Kingweston Spire gives way to Inside The Wires, or The Pace of Everyone emerges from Enhanced by Height as if through some Glastonbury magic.
© Alex Monaghan


Diarmuid Ó Meachair "Siúl na Slí"
Raelach Records, 2022

Artist Audio

www.diarmuidomeachairaccordionmusic.com

First class button box, two-row and one-row, this album focuses on well-known tunes mostly but played with flair and imagination. Diarmuid Ó Meachair draws on the greats of early Irish recordings - John Kimmel, Joe Derrane, Michael Coleman, Peter Conlon and James Morrison among others - as well as the Dwyer family from the Beara Peninsula whose virtuoso playing coloured Irish music in the second half of the 20th century. There's a showpiece waltz by Quebec icon Philippe Bruneau, and another waltz medley of French musette music learnt from Finbarr Dwyer if more variety were needed, but the rest of Siúl na Slí is grand old Irish tunes played with energy and feeling and bags of ornamentation. Skilful accompaniment is provided by Paddy McEvoy's piano, Ruairi McGorman's bouzouki, and Fergus McGorman on bones.
For the technically minded, Diarmuid plays both C#/D and D/D# boxes, as well as single-row melodeons. The different techniques involved lend their character to each track - the one-row arpeggios are very clear on a medley of Kimmel tunes, while other tracks show the versatility of the two-row systems. Ó Meachair doesn't make much use of chromatics, sticking mostly to the keys and modes of each tune, although he is not averse to flights of fancy in his melodic variations. Reels and jigs are supplemented by the occasional hornpipe or barndance: no polkas or slides though, despite the Cork and Kerry links. Siúl na Slí ends with another Quebec piece, a reel version of the Scots strathspey Moneymusk taken from the playing of fiddler Jean Carignan, one of many masters whose music has been absorbed by Diarmuid Ó Meachair and shared on this fine debut CD.
© Alex Monaghan


Firelight Trio "Firelight Trio"
Own Label, 2023

German CD Review

Artist Audio

Artist Video

www.firelighttrio.co.uk

With a striking firebird-themed album cover, this debut from a recently formed Edinburgh trio adds klezmer accordionist Phil Alexander to the virtuoso Scottish/Scandinavian pairing of Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick whose Bellevue Rendezvous album Salamander sparked a strong interest in combining these traditions. Phil may be familiar from his band Moishe's Bagel, or from his work with Salsa Celtica: he has ranged far and wide in world music, and he brings classic Romanian and Ukrainian pieces plus a charming Swedish polska to the party, throwing in a touch of Pachelbel for good measure, as well as five of his own compositions. Gavin adds seven originals, mostly with a distinct Scottish flavour which is reinforced by a big set of strathspeys and reels already old when they were added to the 1884 Athole collection. His fiddle and Ruth's nyckelharpa add authenticity in music from Stockholm to Sevastopol.
The high sweetness of the keyed fiddle is underpinned by low string lines and a variety of tones from the accordion. Firelight Trio mimic a baroque ensemble, a Scottish folk group or a Jewish wedding band depending on their mood and material. There are references to European dance music with chapelloises and tarantellas - jigs to you and me. Alexander's Radical Road is the second tune written for this Edinburgh byway, quite different from Jim Sutherland's previous dedication, and it's joined by a piece about the devastation of war in Europe which was not intended to be so topical when Marwick penned it in 2016. The lyrical Berlin Jig nestles among some finger-twisting tunes which remind me why I don't try to play much Scandinavian or Balkan music, although they are great to listen to. I might attempt Schicki Micki, it has such a fun feel. The final Rooftop Chorale, another Phil original, betrays its Brooklyn origins with an American Smooth vibe behind a bewitching melody on bass nyckelharpa and piano with fiddle harmonies, a showbiz ending to a very polished album.
© Alex Monaghan


The Kane Sisters "In Memory of Paddy Fahey"
Dawros Music, 2022

Article: In Memory of Paddy Fahey

Artist Audio

www.thekanesisters.com

With the death of East Galway fiddler and composer Paddy Fahey in 2019 at the remarkable age of 102, Liz and Yvonne Kane were left as the best known and arguably the finest interpreters of his music - close to 150 compositions, all with the same name but with a range of different chacters within the complex East Galway tradition. Liz and Yvonne have continued their excellent work to spread Paddy Fahey's tunes around the world, and this fourth album from The Kane Sisters includes fifteen of Fahey's tunes as well as several of Liz and Yvonne's own in a similar style, and a handful by Leitrim icon Joe Liddy who was not so far from East Galway in some ways. Sadly there will be no new Paddy Fahey tunes, but compositions by Liddy and the Kanes seem set to fill that gap to an extent.
Take Falling Snow for instance, a slow air collaboration between Yvonne and Liz - it's quite beautiful, unhurried and deceptively simple but with those unexpected cadences and catches so typical of Fahey or Farr or even Joe Cooley's music. The slow pieces here are exceptional in general - Grandad's Waltz, the song air Eochaill, and even the hornpipe Queen of the West (a favourite of the late Joe Burke) stood out for me, and these ladies think nothing of building a medley of waltzes and hornpipes, or hornpipes and reels, or even reels and jigs in either order. It all works as if by magic, or more likely telepathy - if you see these two on stage there's a constant private joke running between them as they put their joy into the music.
Twin fiddles, and an occasional solo, are expertly accompanied by John Blake on guitar and keyboards, Neil Martin on cello particularly for that gorgeous slow air, and a couple of energetic explosions from step-dancer Nathan Pilatzke. Two more highlights worth mentioning are the medley starting with Paddy Fahey's Jig and slipping into two Liddy reels, and the selection which starts with Liz's reel Emily's Buzz and goes the other way to end on the jig One for Leo by Yvonne. The stage version of this number can easily take ten minutes by the time all the twists and turns of the story have been ironed out! Marvellous music, uncanny togetherness, and some great new compositions for the tradition - In Memory of Paddy Fahey will not be quickly forgotten.
© Alex Monaghan


John McCusker "The Best Of"
Under One Sky Records, 2023

German CD Review

www.johnmccusker.co.uk

Two CDs, 30 tracks - one for each of John McCusker's years as a full-time musician. In that time he has covered a lot of ground, literally and metaphorically, so you may not be familiar with all the aspects sampled here. Starting in Scottish folk with Battlefield Band, John was encouraged to develop a solo career as composer and multi-instrumentalist. From there he was picked up by Transatlantic Sessions, which led to him fiddling with several well-known singers, spreading his name far and wide and culminating in collaborations with Phil Cunningham, Jerry Douglas, Julie Fowlis, John Tams or Billy Connolly depending on your taste. All of the above are represented in this collection. Whether you met Mr McCusker on his 1991 New Spring debut with Battlefield, or in his more recent work with John Doyle and Mike McGoldrick, you'll find something familiar here - and some new treasures too. There are several tracks which I had not heard before, songs mostly, and there are four new numbers released here for the first time.
As a fiddler, John McCusker has always been top of the heap. On twenty instrumental sets he sparkles - reels and jigs, airs and waltzes, the Bothwell bow handles every one beautifully. Nowadays McCusker is almost as well known as a composer, and there are some great examples here: the opening Big Man joined to Waiting for Janet with the surprise appearance of Andy Cutting is just a taste of what's to come. Wee Michael's March is here, as are Goodnight Ginger, Leaving Friday Harbour, Foofoo, Floating Candles and Frank's Reel. The controversial Bishop's Son is not included, probably a wise decision. There are also a couple of pieces written for stage and screen which have a more mainstream feel. John puts his own stamp on the tunes, whether as composer or as interpreter - don't miss Tribute to Larry Reynolds or Lad O'Beirne's - but he rightly leaves space for the singers on ten songs here. Whether it's the earthy Burns of Eddie Reader, the raunchy Shepherd Lad from Karine Polwart, the English folk of Rusby and Woomble, or the more transatlantic touch of Tams or Talbot, that character comes through stringly and the fiddler is man enough to step back. Whatever you most enjoy about McCusker's playing, - his boundless creativity, his rare craft with fiddle in hand, or just his cute wee face under that beanie - it's well represented in this mammoth collection.
© Alex Monaghan


John Carty & Michael McGoldrick "At Our Leisure"
Racket Records, 2022

Artist Audio

www.johncartymusic.net

Irish pipes and banjo - what's not to like?! Mike McGoldrick and John Carty are two icons of the modern Irish tradition, both with wide-ranging influences, yet they have rarely recorded together so this collaboration is a new sound to most of us and a distillation of the best in Irish music from the earliest records to the present day.
As the title suggests, At Our Leisure is a relatively relaxed album: reels and jigs for the most part to be sure, but a little slower than session speed, and interspersed with slower pieces. McGoldrick has a taste for Appalachian music, much of which came from Ireland and Scotland originally, and he brings the crooked slow reel Waverly to open proceedings. If there's ever a remake of Deliverance, this would be perfect. It glides smoothly into a reel composed by Máirtín Shéamuis Ó Fátharta, followed by a pair of McGoldrick compositions, and then a couple of classic hornpipes topped off with The Humours of Westport. A couple of jigs, fully described in the online notes, bring us to Matt Molloy's intriguing 5th Legion March, written for the US Green Berets, more a céilí band piece but a fine melody. There's subtle accompaniment from bouzoukis and guitars on pretty much every track, great work by Matt Griffin, Michael McCague and rising star Jonas Fromseier, leaving the banjo and pipes to define the sound and set the tempo. The balance between Carty and McGoldrick is excellent, every note as clear as a duck.
No real surprises so far, superb playing from two acknowledged masters, pipes and banjo full of life and fun. The air Éamonn an Chnoic is played as a duet, the only banjo/pipes air duet I can think of, and the waltz Mist Covered Mountains is also unusual with this combination of instruments but works well at a tempo somewhere between the Connemara jig and the Scottish song. More jigs, and then a delicately introduced hornpipey version of Over the Moor to Maggie moves McGoldrick from pipes to flute. The banjo leads on the oldtimey Gypsy Princess, with both pipes and flute supporting. Some big old tunes next: The Gold Ring in seven parts, The Scary Monster, Lucy Campbell, The Jolly Tinker and The Groves Hornpipe see Carty switch between banjo, fiddle, and finally flute for a timber duet on his slow reel Meabbh's Journey, perhaps in honour of the queen who went outside the tent. A set of marches, or possibly polkas, and another ancient slow air, fill up the second half of the hour on this most memorable album, leaving us with a final set of famous Irish reels given a thorough work-out by the indefatigable McGoldrick and Carty.
© Alex Monaghan


Various Artists "Racket Records 25 Years"
Racket Records, 2022

Started to launch the band At the Racket on an unsuspecting world, Racket Records has gone from strength to strength, largely based on the efforts of John Carty (mainly known as a banjo player when the label started) and his talented family. This compilation comes at a watershed moment for record labels - will it mark the start of a new era for Racket Records, or document the days before streaming services take over? Only time will tell, but in any case it's a welcome record!
Lots of banjo from Carty and friends, some great flute from Matt Molloy and James Carty Senior, fiddle from the likes of Brian Rooney and James Carty Junior as well as John's more recent recordings, and three songs: there's more to it than that, but without going through all sixteen tracks you'll have to settle for the short version. Yeats' ballad The Sally Gardens showcases Maggie Carty's young voice from her debut recording, while the more mature tones of Curly Sullivan extol My Lovely Irish Rose and At the Racket deliver the almost comical Irish American ballad Maloney Puts His Name Above the Door in their 1920s style which founded an entire new movement in Irish music.
If you haven't heard the latest Racket release from John Carty and Mike McGoldrick, there's a delicious taster here, fiddle and Irish pipes on an Irish-Appalachian medley. There may also be a sample from an album yet to be released featuring young James Carty. One other thing to note here is that behind all the stars on Racket Records are some cracking accompanists - Alec Finn, Arty McGlynn, Brian McGrath, Garry Ó Briain, John Blake and others. This is a fine testament to the achievements of Racket Records since 1997, and a feast of music for anyone who missed the intervening 25 years.
© Alex Monaghan


Micho Russell "In Norway 1978 volume 2"
Taragot, 1978/2022

Artist Audio

Micho Russell (1915-1994) [67] was an influential figure in Irish music. From Doolin in County Clare, a member of the famous Russell musical family, Micho was humble both in character and in his choice of instrument: the simple tin whistle, occasionally supplemented by the wooden flute. These whistle recordings were made in a typical informal setting, a fireside or quiet pub where people would gather to chat and play tunes. Micho liked nothing better than to share his music, and he had many distinctive versions of tunes including the twenty-five here. Played mostly as single tunes, with some sets of two reels together, this material has been transferred from cassette tape to digital so that it can be enjoyed and preserved. The quality is good if not perfect, the performances are fluent but unpolished, and the atmosphere is warm and relaxed with just a little background noise.
Fisher's Hornpipe and The Wheels of the World are well known but Micho puts his own stamp on them. Kitty Jones appears to be a reel version of the schottische Orange and Blue or Brochan Lom, and the unnamed reel after it seems to be The Honeymoon. There are a couple more unnamed reels here: The Connemara Stockings comes before Boil the Breakfast Early, and Come West Along the Road follows The Fermoy Lasses. Reels and jigs, polkas and hornpipes bring us to the final set dance, The Blackbird. Each track is short, most are well under two minutes, and the whistle is unencumbered by accompaniment save for a couple of tracks with a bodhrán beat. This is Micho Russell at his natural best, sixty-odd years young but still in his prime as a performer. There are some fine photographs from the Norway trip in the sleevenotse which give background information in Norwegian and English but don't have much to say about the tunes. The music speaks for itself.
© Alex Monaghan


Pádraig Mac Aodhgáin "Tobar Gan Trá"
Own Label, 2022

Artist Audio

www.tobargantra.com

A young concertina master from Cork, better known as Paddy Egan in London where he spent many years honing his craft, Pádraig Mac Aodhgáin plays a wide selection of tunes here which reflect his eclectic experience as a journeyman musician. The majority is traditional Irish - reels such as Jenny's Welcome to Charlie from Donegal, jigs including I Will if I Can which is better known in Great Britain as Hexham Races, several hornpipes, and of course the polkas and slides of Munster dance music, but there are a few exceptions. The Iron Man is a James Scott Skinner strathspey popularised in Ireland by Tommy Peoples and played here with vigour. Le Petit Accordéon is an unattributed piece of French café music, tricky enough on the anglo concertina. The final Waltz of Hope is written in a similar continental style by Eileen Healy, a blues fiddler from Cork. In between are such gems as The Muskerry Tram by Seán O'Driscoll, Ed Reavy's version of Molly on the Shore, and the gentle Daniel Hartnett's Slide named for the Sliabh Luachra fiddler from Knockanaer, Tournafulla - a detail which slipped off the generally excellent sleevenotes. There are also two lovely slow pieces among the dance music - the well-known air An Buachaillín Bán and the more unusual Caherciveen which always me think of the potato song. Paddy is joined on this debut CD by a rake of accompanists and partners to provide a varied mix of solo, accompanied, and duetting concertina music. Tobar Gan Trá has the figurative meaning of "The Well that Never Runs Dry" or "The Bottomless Pit", a reference to the depth of Irish traditional music, and a tribute to the likes of these musicians who are constantly unearthing new sources and adding to the tradition. This recording is a fine example of the health and wealth of Irish traditional music in young hands.
© Alex Monaghan


Scottish Fish "Upscale"
Own Label, 2022

Artist Audio

Artist Video

www.scottishfishfiddle.com

Five twentysomethings, still students all, Scottish Fish have been making a splash on the Boston folk scene for a few years now. I first came across them on a livestream from Club Passim during lockdown, and was instantly impressed. They follow a pattern well established in Scottish music these days: piano and cello behind a frontline of up to four fiddles, a sound which is both very traditional and highly flexible. This debut album starts funky with Rory Campbell's Nusa theme, and stays fresh to the very end of Dan R's Trip to Windsor.
There are no own compositions here, a good thing in many ways: I'm sure these young ladies will write excellent tunes in time, but it's great to see a band which is able to play and enjoy other people's music, which is more about appreciating the tradition than adding their own name to it. They've picked some great tunes from five hundred years or so of Scottish music, and the arrangements are superb: skilful fiddle melodies and harmonies, imaginative bass lines and rhythms, and of course a few virtuoso breaks on cello or piano. Listen to the depth and creativity on the delightful waltz-air Miss Bromley's, or the ancient Shetland piece Da Greenlandman's Tune. Paul Gitlitz' Flying Home to Shelley becomes a modern masterpiece, and Roscommon accordionist Alan Kelly's Trip to Dingle gets a glittering Massachusetts makeover.
Scottish Fish include one other Irish piece here, the great contemporary reel Freefalling by Mike McGoldrick, but Scots composers are certainly their preferred source with tunes by Alasdair Fraser, Farquhar MacDonald, Gary Innes, Ewen Henderson, Ross Saunders, Ward MacDonald, Gordon Gunn and more. A spine-tingling treatment of Gustav Holst's Jupiter from his Opus 32 orchestral suite demonstrates impressive classical chops on all instruments, before the final big set of strathspeys spanning both ancient and modern compositions. Upscale is a very fine recording, and I look forward to great things from these most accomplished musicians.
© Alex Monaghan


Savourna Stevenson & Steve Kettley "Wine of Life"
Cooking Vinyl, 2023

Artist Audio

www.savournastevenson.uk

You may have been wondering what Scottish harpist Savourna Stevenson had been up to since the 1990s. Well, like many musicians she has embraced a broad range of genres and hasn't really been seen much in the folk world - but this album brings her back to us full of new and exciting influences. Together with sax star Steve Kettley, Savourna presents a selection of compositions spanning folk and jazz, Latin and Asian influences, contemporary and traditional styles. Tango Mafioso and Gamelan make no secret of their inspiration, while Road of the Loving Heart is less Baptist and more Broadway than you might expect. Silverado Squatters hits that sweetspot between jazz, blues and ragtime, Steve switching to jaw harp for some good ol' mountain music. La Solitude and the opening Bookworm are more urban, lounge jazz perhaps. The second half of Wine of Life harks back to Savourna's previous recordings, harp and sax versions of Fording the Tweed, Cutting the Chord, Blue Orchid and Maybe Then I'll Be a Rose, Scots bluntness meeting cool jazz. This whole album is the work of an unsupplemented duo, Stevenson so versatile on harp while Kettley mixes flute and jaw harp into his contribution. The sound is always full and compelling. I could have borne a bit more swing at times, but mostly it was a pleasure just to sit back while Wine of Life flowed past.
© Alex Monaghan


Scots Fiddle Festival Band "The 25+2 Collection"
Own Label, 2023

Artist Audio

www.scotsfiddlefestival.com

Marking the 25th year of the Scots Fiddle Festival, delayed by 2 years because of You Know What, this collection of 27 tunes is presented by a band of Scotland/s finest: Jenna Reid, Graham Mackenzie and Adam Sutherland on fiddles, Anna Massie on guitar, Brian McAlpine on keys, and double bass from James Lindsay. The sound is great, the performances are catchy as winter 'flu, and the tunes are all recent compositions by people who have appeared at the festival at least once. Scottish music through and through, from Shetland to the Borders, with a brief detour to include the punchy Patti Fahey's Slide by the prodigious Chicago Irish fiddler Liz Carroll whose 2019 apearance in Edinburgh was a real highlight, the pieces are thoughtfully arranged into eleven tracks. The overall character of this collection is definitely contemporary Scots fiddle, with a wide range of material but mostly played in a style somewhere between Edinburgh and the West Coast to my ears - not so much North East or Northern Isles delivery, although there are plenty of tunes included from those areas.
Listening through the whole album is a rare pleasure, but you may also wish to concentrate on learning a particular tune: there is a companion book available (helpfully ring-bound) with all the melodies and suggested chords, as well as notes on the background or inspiration for each piece. This 25th anniversary initiative will be added to by providing the pieces used for the annual Youth Engagement Project on the SFF website, building up a body of tunes. Judging by the current crop, they'll all be first class: from Bruce MacGregor's The Ox which always reminds me of The Animals' Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, to the final Giant Ship by Mike Vass, every composition here is a cracker. Reels and jigs, waltzes and airs, hornpipes and strathspeys, man, it's all good. Picking favourites is guaranteed to upset some people - but what the hell, it's Christmas! Chris Stout's Hamnataing is a tune I've always loved, and Ross Couper's Melbourne is another great find from the frozen north. On the gentler side, Evie's Waltz by Amy Geddes is a real beauty, and Lauren MacColl's Still, Skye is brim-full of Hebridean mysticism, well hidden on the album, although quite unrelated to illicit whisky. There's a 7/8 of course, followed by the 6/4 of Patsy Reid's lovely Springa Like Marit, and stacks of reels where the contributions by Sally Simpson, Marie Fielding and Jonny Hardie stood out for me. A wonderful milestone for the Scots Fiddle Festival in 2022, and a great resource for future fiddlers, The 25+2 Collection should be well received worldwide.
© Alex Monaghan


Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell "You, Golden"
Own Label, 2022 p class="boxl">Artist Audio

www.spaffordcampbell.com

A gentle duo album on fiddle and guitar, in a similar vein to recent releases by Roo Geddes and Neil Sutcliffe or Charlie Grey and Joseph Peach for instance, this collection takes its name from one of Campbell's compositions. The material here is split roughly one third traditional and one third each by Spafford and Campbell. You, Golden has an experimental feel, sparsely arranged but stepping over the boundaries of folk to find a fresh sound. Taking old English and Scottish pieces such as Adson's Sarabande and Hòbhan Hòbhan, Louis and Owen make and resolve discords, invent and develop new themes. In their own compositions, Campbell and Spafford draw on contemporary influences to produce virtuoso vignettes: Nineties and Ditty III for example take English and Irish folk styles and overlay a modern American sound, syncopation and rippling chords. Elsewhere the mood is more mystical, as on the final set of Lullabies. Most tracks are led by Owen's fiddle, with Louis providing conterpoint and harmonies on guitar, as well as vocals on the old allegory Hares on the Mountain and the brief Mow Me Down. Shifting and changing, constantly surprising, this is a fine showcase for a young duo formed just four years ago, and an intriguing snapshot of the eclectic side of English folk.
© Alex Monaghan


Birkin Tree "4.0"
Felmay, 2022

Artist Audio

Truly stellar performances from an Irish band based in Italy who can rival most home-grown outfits, the fourth incarnation of Birkin Tree includes pipes, flute, fiddle, banjo, concertina and more for some fabulous instrumentals as well as four powerful songs. This album represents the full range of Irish traditional music, from the aching faery air Paddy's Rambles through the Park to the rollicking O'Rourke's Reel. Jigs, barndances, marches and more are deftly arranged and unerringly delivered, in a wide variety of tones and textures. Caitlín Nic Gabhann guests on concertina on three tracks, including her own composition Elevated: she's in good composer company with Charlie Lennon, Liz Kane, Frank McCollum and a couple of pieces by Birkin Tree's flute maestro Michel Balatti. I should also mention the wonderful uilleann piping of Fabio Rinaudo, a first class player.
Backing on guitars and bouzouki enhances both songs and instrumentals. Birkin Tree boasts a fine vocalist in Laura Torterolo who leads Edward on Lough Erne's Shore and the final tingling Bonny Light Horseman. The two other vocal numbers are fronted by guest Tom Stearn, and apart from the change to a male voice I do wonder why Laura didn't handle all the songs: her voice is strong and pleasant, the words are clear and the intonation is spot on. In contrast, I struggle to make out the lyrics of The Mountains of Pomeroy - and I already know this story well. The Land o' the Leal harks back to the Scottish origins of Birkin Tree perhaps, and the singing is similarly opaque: maybe Italian audiences don't expect to understand these songs, but for me the main function of a folk singer is to transmit the story and the message. I would certainly have no problem attending a live performance by Birkin Tree with or without guests, and I urge you to check them out if you have the chance.
© Alex Monaghan


Dan Walsh "O'Neill's Tunes"
Rooksmere Records, 2023

Article: O'Neill's Tunes

www.danwalshbanjo.co.uk

Irish dance music on a 5-string banjo is a tough gig, made even harder by Dan Walsh's clawhammer style, but he executes it with aplomb. Admittedly there are some simplifications on the reels, and some liberties with timing, but overall this is a great example of both Appalachian banjo and Irish music. It seems Walsh, who normally sings, had long wanted to make an instrumental album of music from O'Neill's classic collection. COVID finally gave him the opportunity, so O'Neill's Tunes is another pandemic silver lining. The banjo is backed by guitar, and occasionally the guitar leads. Dan plays all banjos and guitars, plus banjolas (sort of 5-string mandolas), with at least three instruments multitracked at times.
Jigs and reels, hornpipes and not much else: this CD is packed with session favourites and some surprises. The Kesh, Fermoy Lasses, Tomgraney Castle, Drops of Brandy, The Star Hornpipe and Mullingar Races are all handled with skill. The Dawn Reel causes Dan no trouble, and The Contradiction gets a showcase track to itself. Langstrom's Pony is saddled up incognito, and the modal character of The Old Bush is faithfully preserved. Roudledum, Coming from the Wedding and Miss Crawford's are unfamiliar to me, but all fine tunes neatly turned. Walsh finishes with a stab at the great slip jig Will you Come Down to Limerick? paired with The Morning Star and the lesser-known Mooncoin Reel to close out an impressive album.
© Alex Monaghan


Graham Mackenzie "The Dawning"
Own Label, 2023

www.grahammackenziemusic.com

This beautifully presented album comes from a fiddler who should really be a household name but he has spread himself thin since his 2015 debut album: classical, jazz, soundtracks, and even a bit of tennis take Mr Mackenzie away from folk fiddling, but as well as two albums with his band Assynt he has now produced this fine collection of mostly his own compositions in a fairly traditional Scottish style. I say produced - actually Mike McGoldrick is a co-producer, and he guests on flute alongside five other superb musicians contributing guitar, bass, piano, trumpet, saxophones and more. The Dawning draws on influences from Ireland and Cape Breton, and even Manchester, mixing modern influences with old-style dance tunes, but mainly it's about highland fiddle music expressing the mood and magnificent landscape around Graham's Inverness home.
The opening set of traditional reels shows the power and control of Mackenzie's fiddling, while a pair of original slow jigs begins to reveal the depth of expression in his music. Bridge Street Reels is a trio of funky earworms which remind me of John McCusker's time with Battlefield Band, brass section not withstanding. Belmaduthy is drop-dead gorgeous, a mournful Breton-infused air on fiddle and flute followed by a delightful lyrical waltz. A set of Irish reels delicately articulated, and then three slower descriptive tunes showcase Graham Mackenzie's composing and arranging skills with contemporary sounds evoking the windswept spaces of Hebridean islands and Heaton Moor. The scene switches to Nova Scotia for a strathspey and reel selection honouring The Beatons of Mabou, starting slow before driving the bow like a native. The Dawning never kicks over the traces, but jogs along very nicely. Another set of Mackenzie jigs, this time with blaring brass counterpoint and jazzy piano chords, brings us to the final march Kirkhill in fine highland style, blending bagpipe influences with perfectly poised fiddle. This album might not blow your socks off, but it will give you a warm glow from toes to tonsure: one for repeated listening in the wee small hours of The Dawning.
© Alex Monaghan


Emilyn Stam & John David Williams "The Farmer who Lost his Cow"
Own Label, 2022

Article: Emilyn Stam

Artist Audio

www.emilynandjohn.com

Subtitled "and other old Dutch tunes", this album takes almost two dozen melodies from music books published in Amsterdam in the early 1700s, and arranges them for fiddle, clarinet, harmonica, accordions and piano. The tunes in these old collections have travelled a long way - they may have been Dutch rural songs and dances three hundred years ago, but many of them are also well known in Ireland, England and other places around the North Sea. We'll skip over 'T Varke Krabt syn Gadt, but Noble Karste for example is known as the Kerry polka The Girl with the Blue Dress on, and Heeft een Bagyntie Leere Schryven has been re-used for at least one Morris dance tune. While eighteenth-century Dutch music might not seem the most relevant to followers of the Irish, English, Danish or even American traditions, it seems there is in fact massive historical cross-over.
The performances here are exemplary, Stam's grinding fiddle and Williams' smooth clarinet complementing each other perfectly. From the swirling visceral Renaissance dance Helena to the hymnal tranquility of Van Delft, this album is full of variety as two accomplished musicians turn their hands to different styles and textures. The graceful Galliarde Slof, well known as an English country dance, is beautifully played on accordion and clarinet. Galliarde Roemer is taken at a sprightlier tempo, with a hint of Klezmer improvisation. The lovely waltz De Bloemties die in 't Kooren Staen and the swaggering march De Harderties are highlights for me, but there are lots of good tunes before we reach the final Gaillarde Engels with its concertina-like treatment over a piano ground, a gentle finish to a fine collection.
© Alex Monaghan


Jenna Reid & Harris Playfair "One Day"
Own Label, 2023

Artist Audio

www.jennareidmusic.com

Fiddler, composer, and excellent ambassador for Shetland music, Jenna Reid has developed a creative partnership with Shetland-born Borders piano icon Harris Playfair and this is their second full album together. One Day features mostly Jenna's compositions, with two by Harris and four by other composers. The whole album has that delightful mix of grace and wildness which is the Reid hallmark. Playfair's piano provides much more than just accompaniment - he cuts in for solos, and strides around the keyboard in fine style. I'm guessing that his charming ballroom waltz Tom and Wendy's is written for Mr and Mrs Rutter from Berwickshire - it would certainly suit them. Harris and Jenna arrange and play everything except the last track where they are joined by Seonaid Aitken, Kristan Harvey, Bethany (Reid) Thomson, James Douglas, and Su-a Lee for a string symphony.
The smoothness of Oak Cottage opens this album, a slow reel with knobs on. Many of Ms Reid's compositions buck the forms of traditional dance music with extra beats and bars, but I'm reluctant to call them crooked as they seem perfectly formed, and kinky seems inappropriate, so I'm still looking for a word to describe music which breaks the rhythmic rules but feels totally natural. The Rose of Fortrose is a fiery wee piece, contrasting nicely with the lyrical Sanctuary which I seem to have known forever. The bitterseweet Alex's Tune and the jaunty Isbister's Joy bring us to the only unequivocally traditional tune here, Auld Swarra, a Shetland heavyweight delivered with depth of feeling. Roger Tallroth's 30 Year Jig raises the mood as Reid and Playfair burst into exuberant flight, before the oh so catchy oldtime waltz Heather Mary’s from Harris which rivals Reid's Gamekeeper's Cottage - it's certainly a keeper! Another moment of wildness on Granny Fee, and it's time for the graceful finale: Findhorn Bay on whispering fiddle and tinkling keys, backed by a resonant quintet, a powerful conclusion to One Day.
© Alex Monaghan


Juliette Lemoine "Soaring"
Own Label, 2023

Artist Audio

www.juliettelemoine.com

Exciting music! Blending several influences, as many album's do these days, cellist Juliette Lemoine's debut release puts things together in new and satisfying ways without breaking the musical mould of folk, jazz, and classical. Take Peak for instance, almost classical piano from Fergus McCreadie, with Matt Carmicheal cruising on jazz sax in the background, while Juliette's cello romps through a rollicking jig and Charlie Stewart's fiddle chips in for the high notes. Or the one after, a gorgeous air in Scottish style with minimal piano accompaniment and modern fiddle effects, morphing into a cello and fiddle duet while the sax gently weeps.
As well as her outstanding talents as a performer, composer and arranger, Ms Lemoine is also an accomplished painter: her artwork provides the CD cover, and her website includes many music-inspired paintings. The way she blends tones and alternates dark passages with brighter panels is reflected in Soaring: the gentle opening track combines colours of sax, fiddle and piano with the cello in a sharing of the music, rather like a session. Persian Omelette is a more focused piece with the cello front and centre whle other instruments drift in and out of the spotlight, and Twilight in a City Park takes a subtle almost monochrome approach to a slow piece where the silence plays almost as important a role as the musical notes. Highway Bridge is more vibrant, and possibly my favourite here: a languorous jig swapped from sax to cello and back again, building into a reel with driving cello and piano, adding spicy sax and fiddle until we reach saturation, before gradually drifting back to the sultry jig groove. The final piece is even more relaxed, a lullaby almost, at the end of a fulfilling album.
© Alex Monaghan


Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy "Canvas"
Linus Entertainment, 2023

Article: Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy

Artist Audio

www.natalieanddonnell.com

Well I was wrong, and I'm not ashamed to admit it! The follow up to Natalie and Donnell's 2015 album One is not called Two. Instead, it has a very elegant and arty theme which explains the choice of title. The queen of Cape Breton fiddle music, and let's call him the knave of Canadian Irish fiddle music: MacMaster and Leahy present a selection from their broad pallette of styles and influences. The title track sets the tone for a full-band virtuoso recording, upbeat and sassy. Colour Theory combines the best of contemporary Scots fiddling on Hanneke Cassel's reel Leila's Birthday with a catchy composition by the very talented Mary Frances Leahy featuring Brian Finnegan on flute and whistle. Dance Arnold Dance brings in swing and jazz influences, and a horn section which owes a lot to the UFOs of La Bottine Souriante. Woman of the House pulls us back to Gaelic Canada with the singing of Rhiannon Giddens on a piece by Natalie.
Most of Canvas is original material by Leahy and MacMaster, jointly or severally, with a few collaborators. In a cast of eighteen guest musicians, the two fiddles shine on the powerful slow piece So You Love, the Spanish dance rhythms of Galicia, the rocking showpiece Case of the Mysterious Squabbyquash, and the delicate Gypsy-style Caramelo. Mary Frances' Choo Choo has all the flair of a pre-Prohibition dance party, and her feet rattle the boards impressively on Dance Arnold Dance. The only two traditional pieces on Canvas are the graceful air The Laird o' Bemersyde and the Scots measure The East Neuk o' Fife, both attributed to 19th century fiddler and composer James Scott Skinner. They get dramatic and emotional treatments here, Natalie driving the bow on The East Neuk and dragging it beautifully for Bemersyde. This action-packed CD closes out with another song, intriguingly arranged to span traditional and contemporary styles, and the final short Voice Memo 3049 reflecting the way even husband and wife duos have to work these days. There's a message there for all of us!
© Alex Monaghan


The Willow Trio "The Swan of Salen"
Own Label, 2023

Article: The Willow Trio

Artist Audio

Artist Video

www.thewillowtrio.co.uk

The parallel evolution or convergence of cultures is a fascinating subject. So many different peoples have the same stories, perhaps because of shared history lost in the mists of time, perhaps because of the shared experience of the human condition. Or maybe we were all visited by aliens. Whatever the reason, the story of The Swan of Salen or Eala Shàilein is a Scottish legend which closely parallels the Russian narrative behind Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake. This trio of harpists have merged the two, taking well-known pieces from the classical ballet score and weaving them into traditional Scottish melodies, along with some of their own compositions. The result is both new and old, familiar and innovative, executed flawlessly, highly entertaining and at times quite captivating.
Accomplished young harpists Romy Wymer, Sophie Rocks and Sam MacAdam have put together a soundtrack to the legend, a typically gruesome highland story of love and bitterness and treachery and death. It stands alone, and is also part of a multimedia recreation of Eala Shàilein. On three clarsachs, The Willow Trio perform Tchaikovsky waltzes, Gaelic songs, traditional dance tunes and more. The flexibility of a harp trio is surprising, sounding like a classical chamber group or a ceilidh band or a cinema orchestra as needed. There is delicate purity in their treatment of Tchaikovsky themes, gritty realism reminiscent of Prokofiev in The Hunt, and everything in between. Fine sleevenotes outline the legend, and give full details of the music which fed these imaginative arrangements. Somehow the marriage of 19th century Russian ballet and older Scottish culture seems natural, a perfect way to express the tale of The Swan of Salen.
© Alex Monaghan


Úna Na Monaghan "Aonaracht"
Own Label, 2023

Artist Audio

www.unamonaghan.com

A second album from this very innovative Belfast harpist and technomancer, the title refers to the business of being a solo performer. Aonaracht explores the relationship between a musician and their instrument, the intimacy which produces great performances but also puts a screen between the performer and the rest of the world. The opening piece focuses on the mechanical and incidental noises of the uilleann pipes - the bellows, bag and keys, the first testing note from the chanter, a world of sound which the audience rarely experiences but which is essential to the player. The Chinwag takes a kitchen table conversation and filters it through the melody of Úna's harp, colouring each fragment of talk with the tones being played, as if anything entering the harpist's world must be fitted to the tune. Safe Houses is more conventional perhaps, the concertina melody more central to the piece, although like Cormac Breatnach's recent album all the mechanical noises of this instrument are undisguised. A very disturbing and moving song about the treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland is followed by an almost genteel selection of tunes on piano, like a lady practicing for a parlour performance. The final track is another which focuses on the music, a fiddle solo over and through a recitation, nested in snatches of archive recordings, maybe the clearest expression of the idea that a solo musician is a singularity, part of this world and yet hovering on the edge of something else.
Some of Úna's creations here can be easily interpreted as pieces of music, stand-alone tracks to enjoy. Others need to be considered in relation to the overall theme, and are more ambient sound than traditional pieces: to adapt a quotation from the sleeve notes, "piping it may be, but music it certainly isn't". The notes themselves are fascinating - separate booklets in Irish and English, the first time I've encountered that, and each booklet full of ideas and explanations and details to help make sense of the listener's experience. Aonaracht is an album of extremes, stretching creativity between the ultra-modern computer effects and the super-traditional performances of the guest musicians: fiddler Paddy Glackin, pianist Saileog Ní Cheannabháin, singer Pauline Scanlon, concertinist Jack Talty, piper Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn, and Úna Monaghan herself on harp. In between are hung snippets of old tapes, recordings of real life, and improvisations galore. There are powerful emotions here, beautiful music, sounds of HGVs reversing, a whole tapestry of events going on outside the crystal sphere inhabited by the solo performer.
© Alex Monaghan


Own Label, 2022

Artist Audio

When choosing a tune to open his debut melodeon album after almost fifty years playing the instrument, at the age of nearly eighty, Frank Lee couldn't beat About the Bush. The twenty-something tunes which follow it are mostly mainstays of the English tradition, simple melodies as a rule, but that's not the point. The joy of melodeon music - so I'm told - is in the inventiveness of the left hand accompaniment which requires considerable skill and imagination due to the paucity of bass buttons available. On what looks like a standard two-row box, probably with eight or twelve buttons on the left hand, Lee certainly demonstrates invention. His melodeon is not as resonant as some, and he doesn't share the inordinate fondness of many players for Em, but he does coax some sonorous beauties from his Bric-a-Brac Box. The sound is supplemented on a few tracks by hurdy-gurdy, recorder,and a spot of guitar.
Practicing his craft mainly on the gentler side of Hadrian's Wall, within the influence of Northumbrian music but looking south to Cotswold Morris and English country dances, Frank presents a repertoire ranging from the elaborate Cuckoo's Nest to the rustic Trunkles, the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book of the early 1600s to the Irish melody adopted for the Napoleonic song The Wounded Hussar. In between are a Durham mining song air, Playford dances, a New York waltz, and quite a few Morris tunes. My favourites include Idbury Hill, None So Pretty and a Kimber-esque version of Riggs of Marlowe. At times Frank Lee's left and right hands seem to become decoupled, although this doesn't interfere much with the music which is taken at a relaxed pace with few exceptions. I hesitate to call Bric-a-Brac Box the acceptable face of melodeon music, but it certainly serves as a gentle introduction to this dark and secretive area of English folk.
© Alex Monaghan


Will Pound & Jenn Butterworth "Volume 1"
Own Label, 2023

Article: Will Pound & Jenn Butterworth

Artist Audio

www.willpound.com

In a class of his own, this English harmonica and melodeon maestro has teamed up with one of Glasgow's finest accompanists for an album of classics. Drawing on Scottish, Irish and English traditions, throwing in a bit of Georg Friedrich Händel, and offering half a dozen of his own compositions, Will Pound performs diatonic magic on jigs, reels, bourrées and a bagpipe slow air. As well as underscoring and counterpointing these melodies, Jenn Butterworth sings the hard-hitting Peggy Seeger song There's Better Things as a brief but bold interlude between the instrumentals. The rest of this album is suck-and-blow solos with strong and sensitive guitar accompaniment.
Addie Harper's Barrowburn Reel, Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Backstep, a pair of brooding Pound bourrées in triple time, Northumberland's Hesleyside Reel and two of the best known Irish jigs are joined by favourites of uncertain origin such as Speed the Plough and Soldier's Joy. It's nice to hear The Jolly Beggarman on the moothie, a nod to inspirational player Brendan Power, and there's Irish influence too on a button box version of The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba which De Danann first introduced to the folk repertoire. The only slight disappointment for me was William Lawrie's great retreat march The Battle of the Somme, often played for the dance Flora MacDonald, which gets a slow syrupy treatment here that misses some of its spirit. That aside, Volume 1 is a triumph of duo playing with nice twists and a touch of humour. I wonder if Pound and Butterworth will go all the way up to Volume 11.
© Alex Monaghan


Simon Pfisterer "Half Way There"
Own Label, 2022

Simon Pfisterer "Another Way"
Own Label, 2022

Artist Video

www.simonpfisterer.com

Two CDs from a master uilleann piper, one of Germany's finest - and that's saying something these days. Pfisterer has studied in Ireland and played with many great musicians including the group 3 on the Bund and German Irish superstars Cara. Just to be different, his debut solo release is actually two albums - one packed with Irish piping as we know and love it, and the other full of different styles from classical to French café. Both repertoires are played with rare skill on a great set of pipes, using the regulators more than most players, to great effect on slow airs such as The May Morning Dew and also on two lovely set of slipjigs and reels on the flat B pipes. He's joined by other young stars Seán Kelliher, Susan Ní Cholmáin, Sylvain Pourtier and Lucia Wagner on guitar, concertina and fiddles for the traditional material, and there are some solo piping tracks too.
Trip to Athlone and Boys of the Lough, King of the Pipers and Ormond Sound, Simon flies through classic pipe tunes in fine style on Half Way There. Apart from the odd choice of Bagpipers, a very English tune taken rather slow here, this is a stunning display of uilleann piping. Colonel Fraser and The Oak Tree, Lord Galway's Lamentation and Upstairs in a Tent: there's a good range of material from the Irish tradition. In total contrast, Another Way sets Bach, Händel, Mozart and Vivaldi favourites for the pipes, using the full two octaves and a large number of guests to create classical arrangements, before switching to traditional forms from Hungary and Germany. Pfisterer rounds off this convincing showcase of complex music with a version of the Super Mario video game theme tune and a breathtaking performance of John Cage's most famous modernist composition. Together these two albums set the bar very high for young pipers - they'll need a leg up to order a pint!
© Alex Monaghan



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