f60


they stuck with that and evolved it they could become a very employable band around Europe. Sadly, though, it seems that Gordana mostly stays at home looking after their kids. Rock’n’roll…


The good stuff here is very good, but where it falls down is when Miroslav tries to do straight blues, as on Lotam Blues, or the over-long live blues rock of Blues Reke Drave which doesn’t rise above bar band level.


The good news, and why I’m recom- mending it, is that you can buy it through iTunes. I can’t remember the number of emails I’ve fielded about their previous albums, especially Gordana’s solo one, from frustrated readers who’ve got absolutely nowhere with trying to find them online. Cherry pick the tracks I mentioned in the first paragraph and you won’t go far wrong.


www.crorec.hr or in iTunes go to Music > Blues > Miroslav Evacic.


Ian Anderson


FAY HIELD & THE HURRICANE PARTY Orfeo Topic TSCD 586


Interviewed in last month’s fRoots, Sam Lee ruffled a few feathers with his complaints about the conservatism and lack of ambition – in terms of both repertoire and arrange- ments – among the current breed of young folk revivalists. He won’t have been talking about this second solo album by Fay Hield, a singer of determined substance who not only goes out of her way to unearth unfamiliar material, but invests it with thoughtful, chal- lenging and quietly offbeat arrangements.


The title track, for one, is something of an epic, dipping and weaving in unexpected directions from its starting point as an intrigu- ing medieval take on the Orpheus/ Eurydice story, while big ballads like The Lover’s Ghost and an appropriately bleak re-telling of Edward (or My Son David) under the guise of Henry vie with the positively vaudevillian Wicked Serpent. Shades of music hall flavour the trials of Lancashire mill-girls on The Old ‘Arris Mill alongside the tenderly romantic The Weaver’s Daughter and the plaintive lullaby Naughty Baby…all adding up to an album of subtly beguiling elusiveness that bucks the modern trend of recycling greatest hits.


It helps, of course, that she can call on some of the most outstanding musicians of her generation in the assembly of her sup- porting band, the Hurricane Party – any outfit that includes Jon Boden on fiddle, Andy Cut- ting on melodeon, Rob Harbron on concerti-


na and Sam Sweeney seemingly on every- thing else – not to mention Martin Simpson weighing in with beauteous banjo and guitar – is hardly going to sound anything less than utterly wonderful. Yet in no way do they carry the singer or get in the way of her unusually expressive and highly distinctive delivery. There are some stand-out instru- mental moments – the moody string chorale that closes the album on Naughty Baby, the delicious concertina arrangement of The Old ‘Arris Mill, the unexpected banjo dancing into frame on The Weaver’s Daughter while the hearty vocal choruses that lift The Par- son’s Gate and the otherwise unaccompanied Pretty Nancy add immeasurably to the enjoy- ment of the album. But it’s the distinctive stamp of Hield herself – singing with such verve on Tarry Trousers where the influence of Frankie Armstong and perhaps Maddy Prior too is evident – that stays with you.


Her previous album The Looking Glass was good, but this knocks it into a cocked hat, even if its timelessness and full stature may not become apparent or fully appreciat- ed until the time comes to analyse this sup- posed ‘golden period’ of British folk music. Oh and it would be remiss not to compliment the beautiful packaging…


www.fayhield.com Colin Irwin


ERIC BIBB Deeper In The Well Dixiefrog DFGCD 8720


In September 2011 Eric Bibb shipped up in Louisiana at Dirk Powell’s Cypress House Stu- dio to record this album. Eric had met Dirk the previous January in Scotland when both had been participants in the BBC’s Celtic Con- nections music series. One thing led to anoth- er and, with further input from producer/ engineer Michael Bishop and Folklore Pro- ductions’ Matt Greenhill, the session was set and musicians gathered for the recording of Deeper In The Well. The end product proves to be Eric’s most relaxed outing yet, a smooth acoustic flow of gentle music that wafts around the ear like a warm summer breeze.


There are six new Bibb songs plus one co- written with Michael Jerome Brown (who makes a guest appearance playing fretless gourd banjo and mandolin on the Taj Mahal number Every Wind In The River). Other items include the traditional songs Sinner Man and Boll Weevil, Bob Dylan’s The Times Are A Changing and the hootenanny-ish title num- ber Dig A Little Deeper In The Well. Playing some very nice harmonica is regular Bibb accompanist Grant Dermody. Dirk Powell con-


Ms. Hield relaxes in the bath after a hard day at the folkface


tributes fretless banjo, fiddle, mandolin, accordeon, upright bass, banjo and harmony vocal , and other local Louisiana musicians Cedric Watson (fiddles and backing vocals), Danny DeVillier (drums and tambourine) and Christine Balfa (cajun triangle) add subtle flourishes. Another Celtic Connection perfor - mer, Jerry Douglas, plays his dobro on one track and elsewhere guitarist Michael Pepin adds baritone and ambient electric guitars. The arrangements feel organic with no musical/ instrumental clutter leaving plenty of space for Eric’s positive vocals. If there’s one surprise, it’s that having gone all the way to Louisiana, and harnessed some local music talent, there is so little Louisiana flavour to be heard... only the opener Bayou Belle has the slightest sprin- kle. For the rest it’s Eric Bibb business as usual... good songs performed superbly, good musicians playing their professional best.


www.bluesweb.com Dave Peabody


SIDI TOURÉ Koïma Thrill Jockey THRILL 301


Gao, the ultimate travellers’ refreshment and rest, is where the desert ends and the mighty Niger arrives, extending itself under a large mystic pink dune called Koïma – which, also the title of this album, is where the greatest sorcerers and magicians in the world are reputed to meet and conjure. Gao is currently a difficult place, claimed both by the state of Mali and by the secessionist Tuareg Azawad liberation movement, but Sidi Touré’s music is firmly on the side of the magicians. Recorded in 2009, when things were less tense and uncertain, he plays guitar and sings with an entirely convincing touch. His first record Hoga was a revelation when it came out in 1996 – real desert blues, or Songhai blues as Wiki - pedia has it – with great clicking calabash-led rhythms, light but passionate singing, and casting a bone-dry spell over everything, the weird and abrasive sound of the sokou violin. This is equally rewarding, if less startling – same general sound, though better recorded, a more mature but still essentially soft-textured voice, supported by eerily high-pitched female vocal, plus bass, calabash and guitar. Some speak of Sidi Touré as a successor to the late Ali Farka, but has his own, lighter feel. With passing flashes of old Delta blues and a solid melodic backbone, he’s actually more like a somewhat jollier Boubacar Traoré.


www.thrilljockey.com Rick Sanders VARIOUS ARTISTS


The Kankobela of the Batonga Vol 2 Sharp Wood Productions SWP 039


Produced by musician and field recordist Michael Baird, this is undoubtedly the kind of album that ought to feature on the shelf of any reputable ethnomusicologist alongside the Hugh Tracey and Nonesuch sets. This col- lection of recordings of traditional ‘thumb piano’ songs (although we prefer to say lamellophone, a more correct musicological classification), made in Zambia and Zimbab- we in 1996 and 2008, is an important anthro- pological time capsule. Specifically, it’s of 12 individual males of the Batonga people of the Zambezi Valley, who live either side of Lake Kariba in the east of Zambia and the west of Zimbabwe.


In-depth sleevenotes detail the origins of the musicians, their history and an impas- sioned look at how the music is faring in the region today (although sometimes the track listings get a bit mixed up between disc and insert). It’s not the happiest tale as almost predictably in this neck of the woods it’s about a culture of people marginalised by the


Photo: David Angel


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