The latest edition of our roundup of Folk album mini-reviews veers away from the “fiddles with everything” of the last batch of reviews and heads very definitely into the “mixed bag of folk” direction with perhaps the slightest of emphasis on singer-songwriters of different types and maybe a little less of the traditional sounds – although as we’ll rapidly see there’s always exceptions.
There’s always exceptions, and there’s always time to talk about Anne Briggs, one of the most influential singers of the last fifty years with a voice that takes no prisoners in its strength and forthright directness in the service of folk song. Topic Records reissued her eponymous album for Record Store Day, but of course it is also now available in other formats. It’s a seminal album – and a general assumption might be that anyone reading this has already got it, however it’s worth pointing out that this is the Deluxe release and includes some previously unissued songs. It has been remastered from the original tapes, and the RSD release came with a special 7” single called ‘The Lost Tape‘ containing four tracks from the original recording sessions and these are truly worth hearing for themselves, ‘The Cruel Mother‘ being particularly effective. It is this album, as much as anything, that made so many of these songs core folk standards for the next decades. (9/10)
‘Yellow Roses‘ was released via Claddagh Records and is the debut album by Niamh Bury which has the confident sound of a musician well into their recording career. There’s a fine mix of very personal stories like ‘Discovery‘ which opens with a classical piano flourish and then walks a light jazz path, or the acoustic guitar travelogue of ‘Budapest‘ and historical vignettes like ‘The Ballad of Margaret Reed‘ which tells of a woman accused of witchcraft, and burnt alive as a result. It’s a chilling reflection on the power of the patriarchy that resonates down the ages. ‘Beehive‘ is a compare and contrast of scientific and spiritual ways of looking at the world, and finds that they have a certain equivalence. ‘Yellow Roses‘ is an album of fine song writing, a lovely voice and imaginative arrangements which makes for a very listenable album. (7/10)
Martin Simpson provides a double helping of pleasure on ‘Skydancers‘ with an album’s worth of studio recordings accompanied by another album of vibrant live recordings. Both, of course, show off Simpson’s guitar mastery, it’s amazing how much music can be jammed into Dylan’s almost throwaway ‘Buckets of Rain‘, which was also a live favourite for John Renbourn. In complete contrast is the haunting slide guitar on ‘Donal Og.’ The studio side (which also includes ‘Donal Og‘) of the release is no let down either – the combination of ‘Lowlands/Billy Waters‘ is a meditative delight with ‘Lowlands‘ acting as an introduction to the shanty form of ‘Billy Waters’ which highlights the dangers of a sailor’s life, and how easily the navy discarded those it maimed and how a racist society treats a “vagabond” making his way by playing music. If we put Anne Briggs to one side (always hard to do) this is the highlight of this column. (8/10)
Will Page provides the dance music this time with two tracks on ‘Still Standing’ – ‘Strip Jig – part 1‘ and ‘Strip Jig – part 2‘ a back-to-back pairing which switches the emphasis from fiddle to mandolin between parts and together would provide a breathless five minutes. There’s a robust take on folksong that with Page’s forthright vocal combined with fiddle and a pulsing band accompaniment brings to mind Jon Boden’s full energy embracement of folk song, especially on songs like ‘The Cuckoo.’ There’s a guest appearance on ‘Find Your Light‘ by Show of Hands’ Steve Knightly for a song that eschews bullshit and easy lies. If you like your folk fast paced and enthusiastic then this is an album that’ll please. (7/10)
Nate Sabat‘s album ‘Bass Fiddler‘ has a title which perfectly describes the musical content – Sabat plays upright bass, and sings. It is a pared back experience for certain, and whilst Sabat is an inventive player the album quickly persuades the listener why the guitar and banjo are more common solo accompaniment stringed instruments. It’s possible to bow out a melody on the upright bass, but it’s always going to be an invariably deep voiced melody. Sabat’s lyrics tend to the personal, with reflections on moving and being missed, and the better aspects of one’s favourite dog (‘Eli‘). Full instrumental pieces such as ‘Year of the Ox‘ feel the most satisfyingly developed since they exist only to show off the range achievable on the instrument and so take a fuller musical journey. It feels somehow instrumentalist to suggest that ‘Bass Fiddler‘ will probably find a rather specialist fan base, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. (5/10)
Amelia Coburn‘s first full length release is ‘Between the Moon and the Milk Man‘, and it features a series of songs that she has written which reflect her recent travels and living variously in Paris, St Petersburg and Mexico City with stopovers in Ireland. Her music is characterised by thoughtful and lyrically witty songs accompanied on her ukulele. Themes might be love, or they might be carefully observed travelogues – or a mix of both. There’s a feel of the Beatlesque pop of ‘Eleanor Rigby‘, or Joni in her ‘Ladies of the Canyon‘ moments – ‘Sandra‘ exemplifies that feel although Coburn is a smaller – and yet so intimately intriguing – voice. Working with Bill-Ryder Jones, the music on the majority of the songs has been expanded out to include a variety of additional instrumentation – Jones has said that he could have just recorded the voice and ukulele arrangements in a day, it’s much to Coburn’s merit that her vision was for a bigger presentation of her beautiful songs. Would appeal to anyone who might enjoy a filtered through a folky Tea and Alice in Wonderland British psychedelia or The Divine Comedy’s output. (8/10)
