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Photo: Rosalie Portman
Photo: Judith Burrows
Ry Cooder with Los Cenzontles in Glasgow Emily Portman
THE CHIEFTAINS
Having been lucky enough to enjoy its we even reach the final trilogy of Sirens – all
FEATURING RY COODER
‘premiere’ outing at Glasgow’s Celtic Connec- weirdly mournful harmonies and a disquiet-
tions festival when Cooder and Cenzontles ing evocation of different worlds colliding –
San Patricio Concord 7231321
delivered some sensual sentiments alongside leading into a nimble harp arrangement of
the timeless Chieftains and some stomping one of the most bewitchingly evil ballads of
San Patricio will surely guests, let’s hope the whole thing takes off and them all, Two Sisters; before closing with the
prove the most per- travels the world. Meanwhile enjoy the disc! unaccompanied Three Gold Hairs, with its
suasive project Paddy
Released 8th March via Universal in the
strange theme of death and rebirth.
Moloney has pursued
UK.
www.concordmusicgroup.com At the end you feel you either need a lie-
since Santiago. A host
down or a session down the pub singing
of vibrant Mexican musicians from Lila Downs
Jan Fairley
C’mon Feel The Noize (but probably not Mar-
to Los Camperos Del Valle join The Chieftains
tin Carthy’s version), but the ultimate conclu-
and other long-term collaborators Ry Cooder,
sion must be that this is a remarkable work by
Linda Ronstadt and Carlos Nuñez pursuing EMILY PORTMAN
a singer and writer so totally consumed by
Irish-Mexican connections. The springboard is
The Glamoury Furrow Records FUR002
folk song and storytelling that she’s moved to
the story of Irish immigrants who, having
interpret and reposition it in such a boldly
been conscripted direct from the ships bring- From her sublime
individual fashion. It’s not light and it’s easy
ing them to the ‘promised land’, switched partnership with Lau-
to lose patience with a style that offers only
sides to fight alongside the Mexicans in the ren McCormick to the
rare glimpses of brightness, but Portman is an
Mexican-US war of 1846-8. close harmony thrills
accomplished singer and this helps enor-
The music they and their comrades in
of The Devil’s Interval
mously in the assimilation of her complex,
arms might have made is the imaginative
to the eerier intrigue of Rubus, Emily Port-
rampantly imaginative ideas. An album, cer-
vision which powers a disc with a strong
man finally releases her debut solo album.
tainly that merits major respect.
melody-driven narrative. Mexico has one of
Given her track record so far you wouldn’t
www.emilyportman.co.uk
the most diverse musical cultures on earth
expect a simple collection of jolly songs and
and Moloney’s assumption that where there
here indeed is a darkly engrossing thematic
Colin Irwin
is an Irishman there is music is totally plausi-
concept usefully explained on the sleeve as “a
ble. Ry Cooder, a long-term Mexican music
collection of new songs with old bones, old
fan, tells the San Patricio story in The Sands
stories with new skin, drawn from folk tales, BKO
Of Mexico. The homesickness of all migrants
ballads, dreams and real life”.
Moon Over Mendocino Avocet CD 108
comes over in a persuasive account of the Surrounded by brooding layers of
Mexican classic Canción Mixteca sequencing strings involving the likes of Lucy Farrell on It’s easy to come up
into a second version by superstars Los Tigres viola, Rachel Newton on harp, Gabriel Waite with cute descrip-
Del Norte. Carlos Nuñez offers a Galician pipe on cello and Rachael McShane on fiddle and tions of what BKO –
tune for Sailing To Mexico and also joins the cello, Portman embraces the magical ele- Balkan Kafe Orches-
Churubusco Mexican pipe band, founded in ments of folk song and intricately melds tra – do. Notions like
the place where the Irish battalion made them into an impressively challenging and at ‘imagine if the Holy Modal Rounders or Any
their last stand, and where many were hung times quite daring suite of songs tackling Old Time had been rembetika bands’, or
as deserters after the final battle was lost. unworldly topics. nicknaming them The New Lost Thessaloniki
Californian Mexican group Los Cenzon- Galloping along with mounting urgency,
Ramblers trip off the keyboard. It’s less easy
tles do some great close harmony singing for Bones & Feathers is a detailed narrative
to capture what immense joy there is to be
Ojitos Negros as well as a lively mariachi El about a woman seemingly going about her
found in this album.
Chivo. Other welcome Mexican presences are daily routine, waiting to catch a bus who BKO are fronted by the very legendary
harpist La Negra Graciana, veteran singer suddenly transforms herself into a ‘birdwom- (in this house) Hank Bradley on vocals, fiddle,
Chavela Vargas and the pioneering group Los an’; Fine Silica hauntingly relates the love of banjo, bouzouki and baglama. He’s the one-
Folkloristas. Any danger of guest overdrive a woman living underwater for the half- time Bay Area stalwart famous for staring out
(Liam Neeson reads the March To Battle human daughter she leaves on dry land; Grey judges at traditional old-time fiddle contests
poem) is avoided because of the sheer Stone sheds yet more light on the underwa- playing tunes they thought they knew but
strength of the musical material and its ter life of the seal woman; and, leaping out he’d written himself, and is engraved on the
coherence. Many of the songs are traditional, of the speakers in a frankly scary blast of marble slabs of history for composing one of
some are well-known evergreens, and each vocalised ‘rat-a-tat-tats’, Pretty Skin conveys life’s great tunes, Olympia, found on his
has been respectfully dusted down and the inner thoughts of a dead witch. Bouncy 1970s album Music Of The Poison Coyote Kid.
reworked for the 21st century. poppery-folkery this isn’t. And that’s before These days he lives in Seattle with his partner,
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