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2 Patti Casey The Heart Of A Waiting Boy (Long Shot Music LSM 005 7 00262 31463 1) Outstanding singer-songwriter from Ver- mont. Sets her music in a mainly bluegrass derived context with strong country roots. Casey uses her players and singers well. Solos, duets, double tracking and even an a cappella quartet add to the variety and quali- ty. Production, songs, playing and singing all gain top marks.
www.patticasey.com
1 Barbara DicksonWords Unspoken (Greentrax, CDTRAX353) Barbara’s polished, expressive voice sings Scottish traditional bal- lads, a mediæval carol and Bridge Over Trou- bled Water. Troy Donockley’s lush, inventive production features arrangements for elec- tric and acoustic guitars, uilleann pipes, whis- tles, bouzouki, keyboards, double-bass, elec- tric bass, violins, fiddle, harp, percussion.
www.greentrax.com
The albums – good (2), adequate (1) and bad (@) – which didn’t get the full-length treatment, contributed individually by a selection of our various reviewers cowering under the cloak of collective anonymity.
2 Cubs The Whispering Woods (Rusted Rail RR24TN17) The quaintly charming sound of nincompoop folk. Various people connect- ed with Ireland’s United Bible Studies, the majority of whom seem to be called Aaron, all noodling away in pastoral mode on not- quite-tuned acoustic instruments and sort-of songs to surprisingly lovable effect. Statutory psych folk glockenspiels and cellos included. Nice one, man.
www.rustedrail.com
1 Joachim Kühn, Majid Bekkas, Ramon Lopez Chalaba (ACT9502-2) German jazz pianist, Moroccan guembri/ oud player/ and singer, Spanish percussionist walk the tightrope such a combination implies and stay safely aloft. Atmospheric Maghreb din- ner zazz, beautifully played if occasionally a bit directionless.
www.actmusic.com
1 Knicely, Leath, Curl, Carlson The Melody Lingers On (Own label 7 00261 30752 7) Danny Nicely is a superb mandolin player and his bluegrass band are also good players. Sadly their singing is less good, and so is their choice of material. Leads inevitably to unfav - our able comparisons.
www.dannynicely.com
1 Pekko Käppi Vuonna ‘86 (Helmi Levyt HELMI041) Rending distorted sounds, clank- ing, thudding, dark roaring, old-man vocalis- ing, humming, muttering; Finn Käppi, noted for his runo-singing and jouhikko playing, unites them with grainy sound-worlds of industrial-noise-art. Uneasy listening at first perhaps, but it makes increasing sense, tap- ping into aspects of the old musics that pretti- ness and guitars don’t touch.
www.helmilevyt.com
2 SieGra Memories Of The Stone (Folken Music 03) Appealing, sensitive set of melodi- ous trad Polish, Yiddish, Balkan and originals from Polish trio of Jarek Adamów on clarinet, sopilka and kaval, accordeonist Bartlomiej Stanczyk and double bassist Robert Brzozowski, with occasional vocals from all three, well recorded in the natural, warm acoustic of Wlodawa’s old stone synagogue.
www.myspace.com/folkenmusic
1 Acoustic Earth Travelling Man (AE AE 01) Ambient trio based around the flute play- ing of Andy Findon record concept album based on the work of Turlough O’Carolan. Not as precious as it sounds – ideologically OK and some thoughtful arrangements of famil- iar airs. Interesting
www.acousticearth.com
1 Felonius Bosch Toy Box (Omnium OMM2047) From reworkings of mediaeval dance tunes to free jazz, via Cream covers and a whole lot else, this Minneapolis collec- tive have the lot, it appears. The approach is ‘eclectic’ if you’re feeling well-disposed, ‘scat- tershot’ if not.
www.feloniousbosch.com
2 Matheu Watson Matheu Watson (Seer, SEE001) Zesty debut album from newly- crowned Scots Trad Award winner. Multi- instrumentalist Matheu (guitars, fiddle, whis- tles, banjos, etc) performs Scottish traditional tunes with Americana influences and bags of toe-tapping syncopation, accompanied by A- list musicians on pipes, button accordeon, double-bass, guitars and percussion.
www.matheuwatson.com
@ Elena Piras Journey (EP Records, EPR001 CD) Sardinian singer moves to Scotland via London. Her debut album contains tradition- al Scottish ballads plus two excellent tradi- tional Bulgarian songs with London Bulgari- an choir. Alas, the vocals on the Scottish songs struggle with the grace notes and are some- times flat.
www.elenapiras.com
1 Daniel & Emma Innerligheten (Own label EMR02) Once past an off-turning English-actorish recitation of William Blake lines by a guest over track one, there emerges a sensitive, mellifluous pairing of Emma Reid’s fiddle and Daniel Carlsson’s saxes in elegantly reflective exploration of mostly Swedish tunes recent, original and trad, joined for three by Roger Tallroth’s 12-string guitar.
www.myspace.com/danielemma
1 Joe Louis Walker ...On The Legendary Blues Cruise (Dixiefrog DF GCD 8695) Walk- er, his band, plus 18 guest musicians set fire to the seas on this live jam session. Johnny Win- ter, Duke Robillard, Tommy Castro, Tab Benoit, Kirk Fletcher, Nick Moss, Paris Slim, Todd Sharpville, and Paul Nelson vie with Walker for the guitar spotlight while other guests (on harmonica, horns, organ, and piano) fill the sound to overflowing. If jam sessions are your thing... get onboard!
Joe Louis Walker
1 Luomala & Salminen Konsta Lives! (Prasunkantajat PRASUCD2) Very talented guitarist Anssi Salminen and accordeonist Markus Luomala bring wild, clangorous deconstructions to six well-known and cher- ished compositions by 20th Century Kausti- nen wedding-band leader and tune-writer Konsta Jylhä. Not a pretty listen for non- Kaustinians perhaps, but great that the local tradition is so alive it embraces such loving iconoclasm.
www.prasunkantajat.fi
1 Colum Sands & Maggie MacInnes The Seedboat (Bata an t-Sil) (Spring Records, SCD1061) Colum (vocal, guitar, double-bass, concertina, mandolin) is a singer-songwriter from a famous Irish musical family. Maggie (vocal, harp) hails from generations of Gaelic singers in Barra. They sing songs old and new showing the deep connections between Scot- land and Ireland.
www.columsands.net
2 Duncan McFarlane Acoustic Band Marked Out In Pegs (Dunxmusic, DMCD025) Fronting an experienced four-piece band with a big sound (guitar, fiddle, melodeon, double-bass, four vocals), Duncan’s lead vocal is rich with English music hall theatricality. The material is 50/50 English traditional and Duncan’s own.
www.duncanmcfarlane.co.uk
2 Tuulenkantajat Koirankuria (Helmi Levyt HELMI033) Five and ten-string kanteles, horse-hair-strung jouhikko, birch-bark-bound whistles, clarinet, wild gruff incantation, nature sounds – the re-emergence of a band from the Finnish folk music revival’s questing early days. They’re still exploring runo-song and its world, and the recorded result this time is more focussed, substantial and con- vincing.
www.helmilevyt.com
1 The Glencraig Scottish Dance Band Scottish Country Dances “Ah’m askin’” (Greentrax, CDTRAX355) The Glencraig line- up is two accordeons, fiddle, piano, double- bass and drums. Here’s your chance to hear an award-winning Scottish Dance Band play- ing Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther, Disney’s Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Gershwin’s Swannee, and the TV theme tune for Dallas!
www.greentrax.com
1 The Scoville Units Same (Get Real Records GGRCD 015) Debut from British band of super players, particularly Leon Hunt on banjo and Rex Preston on mandolin. Whilst some of the old time American tunes are superbly played, arranged and recorded the recording offers mostly textures of sound and musical cleverness. Music to admire, but not to excite.
www.thescovilleunits.com
1 Strawbs Strawberry Fayre: 40th Anniversary Celebration (Witchwood Media. WMCD2048) Huge weekend party with all things Strawbs captured live in September 2009, lotsa line-ups, offshoots and new aggregations of which Zeus look and sound interesting. Some moments work bet- ter than others but overall it’s a decent effort to capture 40 years in one small net.
www.witchwoodrecords.co.uk
1 Lars-Ánte Kuhmunen, Chief Dancing Thunder, Spiridon Shishigin Rhythms Of The Tundra (Singing Frog SFM 1108) Sámi joiker, Sakha/Yakut jew’s-harp master and Susquehannock drummer-chanter (from Florida/Pennsylvania – not much tundra there) meet in Germany and show that they can blend their musics as well as (probably more meaningfully) take solos. A gig’s a gig, though, and the whistling, cheering audience goes for it.
www.singingfrog.com
2 Stevie Palmer Heartprint Shadow (Greentrax, CDTRAX347) Debut album of original songs from former drummer turned singer-songwriter. Well crafted, intelligent, infectious, acoustic pop, beautifully accompa- nied on piano, guitars, bass, harp, cello, ukulele and Hammond organ. The sound lies somewhere between The Proclaimers and Antony & the Johnsons.
www.greentrax.com
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