f72 Tom Paley


disconcerting layers of atmosphere to justify any nu folk, alt.folk, wyrd folk or weirdlore tag anyone wants to hang round their necks. Always absorbing, frequently stimulating and only occasionally indulgent, it’s far more sat- isfying than its relatively limp and overly respectful predecessor, the precise, low-key undercurrents adding plenty of substance as well as style. The knob-twiddling cacophony quietly erupting behind Alasadair Roberts on Maureen From Gippursland might even be termed mildly groundbreaking in this area, while the busy blend of instrumentation sur- rounding James William Hindle on Don’t You Be Foolish, Pray provides a joyousness that warms you to the whole album. Perhaps too tentative to be completely rewarding, there’s enough here to await the next volume with rising anticipation.


www.staticcaravan.org Colin Irwin


MAIRI MORRISON & ALASDAIR ROBERTS Urstan Ceol’s Craic/Drag City DG498CD


Alasdair Roberts’ prolific journey through tra- ditional song takes another substantial leap on this inviting collaboration with Gaelic singer Mairi Morrison from the wilds of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. With his penchant for the magical and mystical, Gaelic music suits Roberts surprisingly well and in the mellifluous singing of Morrison he has found a reassuringly warm and able guiding star who works well with his own characteris- tically lugubrious style.


They were brought together by Ceol’s Craic, a monthly Glasgow club devoted to Gaelic arts and – singing in both English and Gaelic (Urstan is a celebratory Gaelic word) – they lovingly reconstruct some ancient mate- rial, couching it in modern, enlightened and sometimes left field arrangements. Indeed, Làrach Do Thacaidean starts off sounding like an old rockabilly classic and their take on the old chestnut Never Wed An Old Man turns into an orgy of rhythmic shuffles.


An intriguing cast list is involved – Trem- bling Bells drummer Alex Neilson, violinist/ composer Alastair Caplin and double bass player Stevie Jones, along with various musi- cal mavericks of the Glasgow scene – to cre- ate an album that’s very different for Roberts but, more importantly, is a completely fresh way of approaching Gaelic song. It comes dripping with delicious bursts of brass, vibrant and stimulating set pieces (The Tri-


Coloured House is Brass Monkey meeting Bel- lowhead on a date with Trembling Bells), some scary bits (Ailein Duinn is seriously weird but very wonderful), plenty of beauty (the piano-led E Ho Leigein has ‘anthem’ written all over it) and no little jollity. It also treats the Gaelic part of the equation as a natural and attractive – even, dare we say, sexy? – element of modern music and that itself must make it something of a landmark. More impressive still, this is done with no sug- gestion of compromise or dumbing-down and Morrison’s vocals stand up in any context. Her very real evocation of the past content- edly rubs shoulders not only with Roberts’ own imaginative musings on the tradition, but also with the free-thinking, unpre- dictable arrangements that come with them, particularly when they involve Alastair Caplin’s violin.


A shame the sleevenotes are virtually unreadable, but the music speaks for itself and the sense of joy and unity coming out of the speakers from those involved can’t be faked. You heard a track on fRoots 39


www.alasdairroberts.com Colin Irwin


TOM PALEY’S OLD TIME MOONSHINE REVIEW Roll On, Roll On Hornbeam HBR0001


Hornbeam is a brand new label that’s off to a flying start with their first release which gives old-timey musician Tom Paley a superbly presented plat- form to celebrate his music and musicianship. The ex-New Lost City Rambler veteran has lost none of his prowess on banjo, fiddle, guitar, and (on one track) autoharp. Tom’s voice has weathered to a warm, smoky, friendly tone that conveys the songs’ content with an ease of telling that only comes with a mountain of performing experience. And Tom’s had experi- ence in spades… from playing gigs in New York with Woody Guthrie, the years with the Ramblers alongside Mike Seeger and John Cohen, his work in the UK with the New Deal String Band and with Peggy Seeger and more recently with his fiddle-playing son Ben Paley, who plays a prominent role in the Old Time Moon Shine Review playing on 11 of the album’s generous 18 tracks.


The other good musicians of the Review are Johnny Bridgewood (bass), Robin Gillan (harmonica, guitar, vocals), Jason Steel (guitar,


slide guitar, vocal) and Dave Morgan (hand- claps, shaker). This being a ‘review’, rather than a band, it features various combinations playing alongside Tom as duos, trios… on up to the closing rendition of The Midnight Spe- cial performed as a quintet (only Ben’s fiddle is absent here). Throughout, the instrumental interplay is a delight, as is Tom’s vocal perfor- mance, especially on the songs with humor- ous lyrics. He’s having a ball playing his favourite music in good company and his enjoyment illuminates every track. His banjo sparkles on the traditional songs Little Birdie, Sally In The Garden, Little Rabbit, and Devilish Mary. He ably demonstrates his excellent gui- tar work on a selection of ballads and blues (including a solo rendition of Clarence Greene’s Johnson City Blues... a long time favourite of Tom’s), while his fiddle is show- cased (in duet with son Ben’s fiddle) on the lively medley of Shove That Pig’s Foot A Little Farther On The Fire/Prettiest Gal In The Coun- try. Tom even reveals a talent as a songwriter with two compositions, one of which, Roll On, Roll On, provides a perfect opening track for this most satisfying album. Pull up a rocking chair... and pass that jar of corn liquor!


www.hornbeamrecordings.com Dave Peabody VARIOUS ARTISTS


Jail House Bound – John Lomax’s First Southern Prison Recordings, 1933West Virginia University Press/Global Jukebox WVU GJ1012


In 1933 John A Lomax (1867-1948) and his son Alan Lomax (1915-2002) loaded a Ford, even- tually modified to carry bulky portable recording equipment, and embarked on a song collecting trip, the fruits of which were deposited in the archives of the Library of Congress. According to the interview with John Lomax, conducted in October 1933 for the American Dialect Society that closes the album, they visited lumber camps, cotton plantations and prison camps. In addition to their profoundly preservationist outlook, their expedition had an authenticity agenda. They wanted to collect “real Negro singing in the Negro idiom and the music also in the Negro idiom” from African-Americans with “the least contact with the whites”.


Compiler Mark Allan Jackson’s absorbing and fascinating anthology for the West Vir- ginia University Press Sound Archive gathers 23 song performances, captured between July and December 1933 either on cylinder or disc cutter recording machines, in prison farms, state penitentiaries and workhouses across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Ten- nessee. The recordings have been remastered marvellously, though the cylinder recordings – examples being the opening Rattler (by Mose ‘Clear Rock’ Platt and unidentified oth- ers) and Long Gone (Long John) (by ‘Lighting’ Washington and others) – fare less well.


Since these correctional facilities were little more than forced labour camps, work songs, hollers and prison tales figure promi- nently, such as, respectively, Good God Almighty by ‘Lighting’ Washington and oth- ers, Steel Laying Holler (by Rochelle Harris) and Ernest Williams’ clear-voiced perfor- mance of The Midnight Special (that man- ages to shine through the crackles). There are other flavours. My Yellow Gal (by James ‘Iron Head’ Baker and others) is a hymn to multi - racial relations, while Stewball, an American- ised Skewball, is turned into something more than a tale about a racehorse, as is the cruci- fixion gospel song He Never Said A Mumbling Word. A real feast of African-American music but prison and work run all the way through.


wvupress.com globaljukeboxrecords.com Ken Hunt


Photo: Judith Burrows


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