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What singles out this truly remarkable performance from the Morgenland Festival – Orient or Eastern Festival – in Osnabrück, Ger- many on 23 August 2009 is the heady depth of the performances. The accompaniments throughout are tar (long-necked lute) and kamancha (spike fiddle) from Ali Asgar Mam- madov and Ra’uf Islamov respectively. It begins with his daughter delivering a composition – Girdim Yarin Bagcasina in mugham Shushtar and she is exceptional. By the time, two reper- toire items on, she is duetting and trading vers- es with her father in a setting of the, in Euro- pean terms, late medieval, poet Fuzali’s words in Bayati Shiraz (the Shiraz part of the name, like the grape, gives away its Iranian origins), they are aflame, not to mention Sufi-like intox- icating. And to cog the dice still more, Dreyer Gaido has Jean During, the French musicologist who most likely began it all for anyone with even the vaguest interest in Azaibaijani music, providing truly insightful notes. Plus there are translations of the lyrics. If there is a finer vocal duo performing art music anywhere on the planet right now, please send details to the usual address. Intimate Dialogue is the sort of stuff to send shivers down your spine.


www.dreyer-gaido.de Ken Hunt VARIOUS ARTISTS


Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan Season 3 Ace CDCH2 1270


The third and final season of Mr Zimmerman’s indispensable theme-based meander through the panoply of 20th century popular Ameri- can vernacular music, and its tributaries and byways, featured such subjects as ‘Fruit’, ‘Blood’ and (appropriately enough) ‘Good- bye’. But the key words for yet another immensely enjoyable 50-song romp through the highlights of the show are probably ‘rhythm’ and ‘blues’, reflecting this volume’s centre of musical gravity in the geographical and chronological cradle of the southern Unit- ed States circa mid-last century, and incorpo- rating the influences, descendants and classy contemporaneous side-products that reached into middle-America and beyond.


Aside from the great man’s asides, it was the adherence to genuine, big-selling music from Dylan’s youth (step forward Fred Astaire, Sarah Vaughan, Annie Ross) that anchored the shows in radio-era America, whilst recasting the roots influences – folk, blues, country, gospel, doo-wop, jazz – in their proper place alongside and vital to the mainstream, past and present.


To wit, the arresting habit of exposing original versions of numbers integral to pop’s rich tapestry – highlights this time Bessie Banks’s deep soul precursor to the Moody Blues’ Go Now, and Clarence Ashley’s depres- sion-era chiller Little Sadie, later transfused into versions by Johnny Cash and Dylan him- self. Speaking of murder songs, a word for Los Socios De San Antonio’s corking mid-70s corrido, La Muerte De Fred Gomez Carrasco, earthy accordeon gratifyingly to the fore, the ensemble vocals transcendent and touching. And great to see Jesse Winchester get his (over)due props, and so too Brenda Evans, the (at the time) 12-year-old vocalist receiv- ing equal billing on Elizabeth Cotton’s achingly bittersweet Shake Sugaree.


All those punctuated by the aforemen- tioned R&B and its cousins, from Elvises P and C through Professor Longhair to the mighty vocal pipes of O.V. Wright, taking in reggae and calypso too (early, hilarious Mighty Spar- row) and topped off by Bob’s hero, the man who closed the series and (but for Roy Rogers’ evocative Happy Trails) this collection, Woody Guthrie bidding so long to a collec- tion of depth, heritage and quality.


www.acerecords.co.uk Con Murphy


GALANT, TU PERDS TON TEMPS


Galant, Tu Perds Ton Temps II: Chansons Traditionnelles A Cappella Disques De La Tribu TRICD-7290


A quintet of Québécois women sing 24 main- ly traditional songs over two CDs. They sing in harmony, in unison and in various combina- tions of the five of them. The only accompa- niment comes from one man and his percus- sion, mainly this comes from his feet, either from the familiar foot-tapping accompani- ments to Québécois music or from his percus- sive step dancing, though at times he does resort to percussion instruments; the bodhran and the – ahem – suitcase.


Well, that’s it, in a nutshell. Perhaps it would be fair to add that listening to these two CDs is a thoroughly enjoyable experience as the singers vary the mood and pace from song to song with some quiet reflective pieces interspersed with uptempo exciting call and response songs. The memory that stays in the mind after listening is the outstanding quality of all the singing, the clarity of the diction and the superb and sure quality and adventurous nature of the harmonies, some of which were worked out by all of them but others were arranged by one member, Josianne Hébert.


This double album comes six years after their excellent debut produced by André Marchand and if you have heard André sing with Les Charbonniers De L’Enfer and then imagine that sort of singing transferred to female voices, then you will have a strong idea of what this album sounds like.


www.galanttuperdstontemps.ca Vic Smith THE BAD SHEPHERDS


By Hook Or By Crook Monsoon Music MONMUCD005


Adrian Edmondson was suggesting at the time of the Bad Shep- herds’ excellent first album that a logical


progression would be to write their own material ‘in the style’, but this follow-up is very much business as usual, and none the worse for that.


They have their detractors who don’t get it, of course: mainly that they’re not a comedy act. It’s hard for some to get their heads round this basic point, given their front man, but what this band do is uncover great songs and play them really well. There’s a second problem for some people:


Adrian Edmondson


songs from the punk and post-punk era played to a high standard in loosely Irish folk style –must be a joke, right? But strangely enough the idea really works because they’re a bunch of really first class musicians playing it straight – in the studio anyway – and Edmondson has the knack of spotting some fabulously well-written and catchy songs beneath the surface of their original record- ings. And they make a surprising amount of music for a trio – Edmondson on mandolin and octave mandola, Troy Donockley on uil- lean pipes, bouzouki and whistles, Andy Dinan on fiddle and banjo –with a guest double bass player in Tim Harries.


This album’s Down In The Tube Station moment is probably The Members’ Sound Of The Suburbs but they reveal other gems in the Specials’ Friday Night, Saturday Morning, XTC’s classic Making Plans For Nigel, the Smiths’ Panic and the Buzzcocks’ Ever Fallen In Love With Someone (You Shouldn’t’ve). The Sex Pistols’ Anarchy stands up well to an altogether prettier treatment than Simon Ritchie gave it a few years back (though Simon probably wins on points), and else- where the Ramones, Motorhead and the Clash (with a closing attack on White Riot) all enjoy breaths of fresh air. Not better or worse, just different.


I’ve been playing it lots, and my only complaint is that it seems relatively short. But then that never bothered the Ramones. Hey ho, let’s go! www.thebadshepherds.com


Ian Anderson BRIAN FINNEGAN


The Ravishing Genius Of Bones Singing Tree Music DDD3623CD


Northern Ireland’s former Flook flute/ whistle maestro has been nominated as Musician Of The Year in this year’s BBC Folk Awards and, on the evidence of this highly ambitious, immaculately constructed suite, his place at the top table is well merited.


After all those years with Flook, his breathless virtuosity can be taken as read, but here he launches himself into a rather vaster field of play involving a complex mias- ma of moods and textures as over 25 of the folk (and other) world’s finest join him in cas- cading orchestral settings of his cinematic soundscapes. They include his old Flook chums Ed Boyd (guitar) and John Joe Kelly (bodhran) along with other luminaries like James Fagan (bouzouki), Leon Hunt (banjo, dobro), Aidan O’Rourke (fiddle), Justin Adams (electric guitar), Damien O’Kane (banjo) and Ian Stephenson (double bass) with some more unexpected contributions from the St Petersburg Strings and Crooked Still, who even get their own reel written for them by Finnegan as part of the set.


Musically it covers some unexpected ground too – a lovely jazzy take on Kepa Junkera’s Bok-Espok segueing neatly into a flowing trad tune, howling guitar filling the space before Leon Hunt’s dancing banjo ush- ers Finnegan’s flying whistle back into the action. In contrast, his expansively cinematic Last Of The Starrs is a deeply evocative and rather moving mood piece. It creates the sense of a slightly spiritual journey, showcas- ing Finnegan’s lyrical playing on lovely pieces like If Only A Little and ending joyously as the mellow, atmospheric mood of The 40 Year Waltz is overtaken by John Joe Kelly – the man who uses the bodhran as a melody instrument – who joins Finnegan to lead us dancing into the homecoming Night Road To Armagh finale. It’s the last piece in a chal- lenging but satisfying jigsaw. Hear a track on this issue’s free FAF Tracks CD.


www.myspace.com/briantfinnegan Colin Irwin


Photo: Ian Anderson


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