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Big Horns, netted her the city’s Big Easy Award for best female performer earlier this year, and now their debut album’s arrived.
And what a New Orleans affair it is. The spacious arrangements, intertwining horns and abrasive trombone or cornet solos are all characteristic of the Crescent City’s sound. Its unquenchable good humour is well-repre- sented too, thanks to elements like the fran- tic spoons solo on The Curse Of An Aching Heart, the stately sousaphone pulse under- pinning Do For Myself, and the witty lyrics of songs like the mock-mournful Lucky Devil. The lazy, half-stoned lurch of even the album’s slowest numbers always bursts into celebration before the track’s done.
Lake includes just two of her own songs, filling the rest of the album with covers such as Duke Ellington’s I Ain’t Got Nuthin But The Blues, Bessie Smith’s Gimme A Pigfoot, and Jelly Roll Morton’s Sweet Substitute. Her own compositions sound thoroughly at home in this company, although the smouldering Slowburn reminds me powerfully of another song I can’t quite put my finger on.
Pigfoot is just one of three Bessie Smith covers included here, the others being Sam Stept’s Comes Love and Smith’s own composi- tion Backwater Blues. Lake can’t quite match the sheer grunt of Smith’s own performances, but the experience of making herself heard over busy city traffic has given her enough lung- power and presence to ensure she’s not over- whelmed by the comparison either. She’s at her best on the album’s wryly humourous numbers, infusing them with just the sense of salacious mischief a song like Lucky Devil demands.
Her vocals on Backwater Blues –which you can only hear as a Hurricane Katrina song in this context – are less successful. For a band which declares itself so rooted in New Orleans, you’d expect Katrina to inspire much more emotion than Lake’s rather man- nered vocal conveys. That’s really just a quib- ble, though, and no reason to miss seeing the band on their promised 2012 UK tour. On the evidence here, they’ll provide a bloody good night out.
www.facebook.com/pages/Meschiya- Lake/227821879926
Paul Slade FIOLMINISTERIET
Fiolministeriet Go’ Danish Folk Music GO0511
One of the great beauties of Danish folk music is its malleability. In large part this is because the music is largely instrumental, so the framework of the song can be forgotten. The Fiddle Ministry (which is how the band’s name translates) has a wonderful time turn- ing Danish folk into neo chamber music (along with a couple of original pieces). The lineup – two violins and a cello – gives them plenty of scope for their purpose, and the background that all the players have in folk music means this isn’t dilletantism at all.
They pull from some well-known manuscript books for their material, includ- ing the wonderful work of Rasmus Storm, back when English music was a great influ- ence on Denmark (listen to Storm/ Enge- liska). They can play with great delicacy when needed and then push up the passion and even add nice touches of humour to the proceedings.
By offering such a different take on tra- ditional music they open it up to a new audi- ence (no bad thing) and expand the possibili- ties for the music in the future (also no bad thing). Danish music continues to be the most exciting prospect in Europe, and Fiolminis- teriet adds to its glory.
www.fiolministeriet.dk Chris Nickson
THE HOME SERVICE Live 1986 Fledg’ling Records FLED3085
The blast which heralds the arrival of Alright Jack means not only is something very spe- cial about to unfurl but anyone listening can be in no doubt about the credentials of the Home Service; this is a wonder indeed. Be grateful that their long-ago sound engineer Doug Beveridge had the sense to save a recording of them at the height of their powers, searing the green lawns of Cam- bridge 1986. In 1986 – it seems but a while ago – a principled band couldn’t just sit by and watch all notion of community, person- ality, service and self-respect go up in the grey smoke which raged over the burning bonfires of Thatcher’s England. For not only were the Home Service about moving Anglo roots rock forward by light years, they were also keen spokesmen for a generation of the dispossessed. It’s a belief John Tams carries to this day; within their ranks he turned a keen eye on unrest and disparity, on grow- ing self-indulgence and greed. “Did I hear you call me brother, did I hear you say, all we have is one another? Won’t you walk my way?” His lyrics cut to the chase, there is no place to hide, the bleak winds blow through Sorrow as a gentle hymn is delivered to the hopeless and unemployed, there is a future, we can all be angels – if that is, you’re dead! No wonder the scarecrow on the reverse of the CD stands in a windswept, snow strewn pile of rubble, buried in snow – these lads could be grim.
Grim yes, but by God they were equally uplifting, they had after all not only the songs of John Tams, but a mighty brass sec- tion which, bolstered by the addition of Andy Findon on sax and flute, delivered shiv- ering rumble and merry counterpoint throughout the twelve tracks. No group has really taken the folk-rock’n’brass path any further since. The third ace in the hole was Graeme Taylor, much underrated as a gui- tarist, he learned his chops in Gryphon, refined a medieval electric twang in the Albion Band and here goes full tilt with sear- ing leads. There exist several versions of Bramsley in various stages of development but here it is a full-throated English roar and GT revels in his creation, the band hit the roof and the audience go understandably bonkers – it’s glorious testament to the potential of endemic rock.
Home Service 1986
The tenderness of Snowfalls brings you right back to the roots of their creation, an ability to capture the commonplace in deli- cate traces and webs, yet the crowning glory doesn’t come until the final track in the growling maelstrom which is Babylon. All eight of them go hell-for-leather at the throat of the old Civil War rallying cry, the studio original was indelicate enough, here it’s seven-league boots, Tams is in his ele- ment, fronting up a sonorous rush of squeal- ing synth, wild guitar, thundering clarion brass and deep English rhythms. It stands proud and mighty, a rising phoenix above an already exalted set.
Even if they hadn’t reformed, Live 1986 should have been granted release – a fine job of archaeology by Graeme Taylor and David Suff. Look around you reader, we live in potentially troubled times, soon there may be placards and protest. Appropriate indeed then that the Home Service should once more be amongst us. Catch them at one of several festivals this season and pray for new product to follow. Expect this to be in the ‘Best Of 2011’ and no mistake. Make it the soundtrack of your summer y’hear?
www.thebeesknees.com Simon Jones
DAVE GOULDER & FRIENDS
A Gathering of Stones Drystone DRYSTONE 5
Dave has always produced a high quantity of his output from the jobs that he has done. This started many years ago in his days as a footplate man in the days of steam engines, then when he ran a mountaineers’ hostel in the Scottish hiµghlands, we had some won- derful songs with those mountains as the background of his superb compositions. Dave was never a prolific songwriter; the suspicion is that he is his harshest critic and that we only hear the tip of the iceberg of his output; the best of his carefully-honed words and fine melodies.
Dave has been a dry-stone waller for 30 years and is highly regarded as a teacher of this art. Only a few of his poems and songs make their way into this fascinating compilation. As well as poems, prose and songs from a variety of sources, there are some actuality recordings
Photo: Dave Peabody
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