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shared among the participants (Lucy and Bella losing out, sadly); however, each of the four gets one a cappella outing, and Lucy’s chillingly paced, tellingly dramatic account of The Cruel Mother is a real showstopper while also brilliantly concise at just five minutes.
The virtue of economy extends to all of the readings, from James’ Claudy Banks and Bella’s Seeds Of Love to Brian’s account of Cap- tain Ward And The Rainbow. Another key sell- ing point of this disc is that a majority of the selections, while familiarly-titled, adopt tunes from the book which avoid the versions most familiar to the folk scene, further stimulating the ear into listening afresh to these songs.
www.fellside.com David Kidman
SOLAS Shamrock City THL Records THL001
NIAMH NÍ CHARRA Cuz Imeartas Records IMCD004
DERVISH
The Thrush In The Storm Whirling Discs WHRL015
I spit in the eye of those who claim Ireland has dried up as a musical force. In the case of Solas and Niamh Ní Charra, anyway, extra points for reviving the honourable but often derided art of the concept album, in both their cases looking backwards to move for- wards and digging deep to do it.
In their long career Solas have previously dipped their toes into social history, but they’ve never before tackled anything quite like Shamrock City, the story of Michael Con- way’s 1910 emigration from Ireland to Butte, Montana to work in the copper mines. Open- ing with a scratchy sample of the Co Galway singers Sarah and Rita Keane singing A Stór Mo Chroi, the portents are good as the band’s outstanding current singer Niamh Varian- Barry assumes the role of guide along Con- way’s fateful journey, with an emotional delivery of Far Americay over Winnie Horan’s appropriately mournful fiddle.
Some of the rockier, more countrified material we encounter en route falls well short of this sort of impact but the samples keep coming, a romping banjo is never far away and we get guest vocalists popping up all over the place (Rhiannon Giddens, Aoife O’Donovan and Dick Gaughan with a fero- ciously good Labour Day) to accommodate the mood swings in what evolves into a crack- ing story. It’s a match for Tom Russell’s The Man From God Knows Where album on a sim- ilar theme…and that’s saying something.
www.solasmusic.com
Niamh Ní Charra’s historical document is of a far more personal nature. The Cuz of her title is Terry Teahan, who followed Michael Conway’s emigrant footsteps in 1928, though he ended up in Chicago, where he was a much-loved tune writer, embroiderer, accordeonist, concertina and fiddle player, championing the proud Sliabh Luachra tradi- tion. He even made it back to Ireland on a few occasions, on the last of which he met Niamh Ní Charra, then a schoolgirl, and effec- tively became her mentor – albeit a long-dis- tance one – as she embarked on her own journey as one of Ireland’s finest young con- certina and fiddle players into Riverdance and beyond. He died in 1989 but, using sam- ples of Cuz singing and playing and drawing material from the tapes of rare tunes he bequeathed her, this is her heartwarming tribute. She too has plenty of guest stars to keep the tunes flying and the adrenalin flow- ing, among them the great Irish American fiddler Liz Carroll, Mick Moloney on banjo,
Jimmy Keane on piano accordeon, the guitars of Tommy O’Sullivan and Donogh Hennessy, Anne and Nicky McAuliffe on flute and fiddle respectively and the redoubtable Séamus Begley contributing accordeon and vocals. It’s a lovely project which also comes beautifully packaged with fulsome booklet and a sleeve based on Cuz’s embroidery.
www.niamhnicharra.com
Against such colourful back stories, the more conventional Dervish album seems rel- atively mundane but, having scattered lat- terly to embark on other projects – not least Cathy Jordan’s outstanding debut solo album – there’s a real sense of purpose about this collection. No concept or overrid- ing theme as such here (unless you count an abundance of traditional tunes from Co Leitrim) but good music is good music and, as we’ve seen for more than a couple of decades now, it doesn’t come much better than Dervish with the bit between their teeth. Whether a stonking jig, a flowing reel or the impish set of dance tunes that give the album its title, magic reigns whenever the Dervish guys blend fiddle with flute, accordeon, guitar and mandolin in ever- uplifting circles. And, of course, their trump card is Cathy Jordan, singing as endearingly as ever throughout, whether giving us melancholy on the Irish song Baba Chonraoi, spirited defiance on the brilliantly arranged Handsome Polly-O or simply killing us with vocal beauty on the album-winning tracks Shanagolden and The Banks Of The Clyde. As is usual with Dervish, the whole package looks great too and there’s even a credit on the sleeve to the Irish president Michael D Higgins. You don’t see that every day.
www.dervish.ie Colin Irwin
DIEUF-DIEUL DE THIES Aw Sa Yone Teranga Beat PTBCD 017
Afro-Manding, Afro-jazz and electric psychedelic – for those who like pigeon- holes, these are the key tags of this free- steaming thirteen-piece Senegalese band from 30-odd years ago, rescued from the dustbin of the past by label-founder Adamantios Kafetzis. They boasted a wider cultural spread than any other Senegalese band of the time, taking their place as formidable contemporaries of the young Youssou, Thione Seck and Omar Pene. Good stuff, sophisticated, amazing voices, well- recorded too. Food for ears as well as feet.
www.terangabeat.com Rick Sanders NATACHA ATLAS
Expressions Live in Toulouse Mazeeka Records MR0001
Expressions, recorded before a jubilant crowd in Toulouse, is a tour de force for Natacha Atlas and a reminder of just how the Belgian singer still manages to pull a crowd after so many years. Natacha’s always fine voice is complemented by an incredible backing band as well as the Chamber Orchestra of Toulouse. The line-up makes for a rich, potent sound and, despite being a live recording, doesn’t miss a beat.
From the outset Expressions is a heady mixture of influences old and new, occidental and oriental. Rise To Freedom gets things rolling with a mix of Malek Jandali-style com- position with percussive and bass interludes from the worlds of hip hop and jazz. Mon Soleil also, a beautiful, haunting track lays down some incredible cinematographic riffs, weaving a noise that, somehow, does seem to sound like a rising sun.
Natacha Atlas Other treats include an inspired version
of Nick Drake’s Riverman and the broody, Vangelis-sounding Le Shou El Haky. Shot throughout the record is a healthy, and refreshingly subtle, dose of Natacha’s own diverse and wide-ranging Middle Eastern her- itage. Expressions is a great record from a gifted artist and the only regret it leaves you with is that you weren’t in Toulouse to see the show.
www.natacha-atlas.com Liam Thompson
BUDIÑO Sotaque Fol Música 100FOL1068
Galician bagpiper Xosé Manuel Budiño is still the excellent player I first met a couple of decades ago, just before he played a daz- zler to win what I think was his first major gaita competition. His 1997 first album, Par- alaia, is a melodious gem (and features one of the first appearances on CD by Mercedes Peón). He’s gone on to create the sort of big, live, foot-on-monitors spectacle that during el boom hoisted gaita music and individual gaiteiros from the streets to Galicia’s big outdoor stages.
As in most of his albums, the tunes on
the latest, Sotaque, are nearly all Budiño’s own, and there’s no doubting his undimin- ished musical sincerity, adventurousness and engagement with his tradition and search for new paths for it. But he seems infatuated with the possibilities of the multitrack studio and programming. Listening to this album my mental picture is primarily of two or three guys at a big mixing desk, working late into the night in a windowless control room layering sounds, painstakingly tweaking details, and then compressing and limiting it to a flat-topped block of a wave-form so that nothing jumps out.
He’s joined by a small team, mainly Alfonso Merino on violin and frets and Carlos Castro and Chisco on pandeiretas and other traditional percussion. There’s a guest appearance by Michael McGoldrick on the title track, and film-trailer type weighty speaking of poetic lyrics by a guest on track two (too early for that sort of thing, if it has to be there at all). Chai Indiano shows strong Indian influence; the closer, Bica Na Baiúca opens with a chopped-up sample from a Lomax Galician recording. The most refresh- ing contrast comes with the robust male vocals and thump-rattling pandeiretas of
Photo: Judith Burrows
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