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singer and fiddle player Cathie Whitesides,
THE IMAGINED VILLAGE
and the trio are completed by Frannie
Leopold on vocals and guitar (otherwise half
Empire & Love Emerson, Corncrake &
of the Delta Sisters with Bayou Seco’s Jeanie
Constantine ECC 002
McLerie: are you keeping up?).
The second Imagined
Somehow they’ve invented/ imagined a
Village album is a
deftly slanted new musical idiom where the
very different beast
San Francisco Bay meets the Aegean, infused
to the first. As the
with Greek/ Romanian/ Macedonian clever-
original grand project
ness and Texan swing. With not entirely seri-
gradually evolved into a real, live working
ous songs about elections, trousers, hippies
band, the concept of a parade of star guests
and the origins of the bouzouki (it involves a
has been largely dumped as its core unit
mandolin and a giraffe… ), ultra-catchy ear-
moves assuredly into phase two.
worm tunes and vocal harmonies that’d
charm hummingbirds out of the baklava box,
With Chris Wood, Martin and Eliza
if all else fails it could be a good substitute
Carthy, Johnny Kalsi, Sheema Mukherjee and
for the entire US healthcare system.
Barney Morse Brown among those gathered
around Simon Emmerson, the essential ethos
What tells you that I love it? So much
of a multicultural English music remains con-
that I cleaned CDBaby out of their entire
stant with enough surprises to maintain the
stock as presents for pals. Hopefully, by the
intrigue even without Benjamin Zephaniah,
time you get there, they’ll have replenished.
or equivalent. Initial plays suggest a less
www.hankandcathie.com
spectacular and more Trojan approach, but
Ian Anderson
in fact it’s just far subtler and what it lacks in
novelty value is compensated for by the fast-
developing rhythmic and instrumental inter-
CAROLINA CHOCOLATE
play developing organically between them.
DROPS
The programmed beats are gone and with
Andy Gangadeen drumming alongside
Genuine Negro Jig Nonesuch 7559-79839-8
Kalsi’s ever-vibrant percussion, the grooves –
married into Mukherjee’s sitar and Morse
There’s an energy Brown’s cello – lay a constantly absorbing
rush to the Carolina backdrop to the whole thing. And when they
Chocolate Drops (see let rip and build up a head of steam on Mer-
fR299) that immedi- maid, it gathers pace at a thrilling tempo
.
ately captivates.
But you want to be amazed? Try Martin
Young and talented, Rhiannon Giddens,
Carthy’s intensely wounded take on Slade’s
Justin Robinson and Don Flemmons swap
Cum On Feel The Noize. Used effectively as an
vocals, trade instrumentals, hardly containing
encore on the last tour, Carthy completely
themselves as their enthusiasm bursts through
deconstructs the song and turns it into some-
their old-time string-band-based music.
thing shockingly different, applying the sort
Uptempo traditional numbers Trouble In Your
of broken resignation that made Johnny
Mind, Cindy Gal and Sandy Boys rub shoulders
Cash’s version of Trent Reznor’s Hurt so
with Tom Waits’ Trampled Rose and Blu
momentous. When Eliza Carthy comes in to
Cantrell’s R&B single Hit ‘Em Up Style. Rhian-
add haunting harmonies the effect is pro-
non adds more diversity with her measured
foundly moving; a whole album in this style
vocals on the traditional ballad Reynadine as
and Martin may find a whole new phase to
well as the torch blues Why Don’t You Do
his career. At the other extreme, Eliza sounds
Right?, and Justin contributes Kissin’ And
like a sensuous Debbie Harry on Space Girl,
Cussin’, a spare but pleasant original composi-
an apparently throwaway song Ewan Mac-
tion. Producer Joe Henry (Allen Toussaint,
Coll wrote for a Theatre Workshop ballad
Elvis Costello, Solomon Burke) plays the cards
opera in 1952, again turning our perceptions
straight, keeping the vocal and instruments
upside down with an irresistibly funky and
crisp and clean, making Genuine Negro Jig a
hugely entertaining modernist arrangement.
worthy follow-up to 2008’s Heritage. It arrives
just in time for the Drops’ latest UK tour and is
More familiar old stalwarts are radically
sure to win the trio plenty of new admirers.
reinvented for contemporary woes – there’s a
very potent lyrical reworking of My Son John
www.carolinachocolatedrops.com,
to incorporate Afghanistan; an enlightened
www.nonesuch.com
sitar arrangement to give Chris Wood the
Dave Peabody perfect texture to tell the story of Queen
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Photo: Judith Burrows
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