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fortable, even confrontational experience, while for those actively engaged in seeking new ways of traditional cultural expression, this could well prove an exhilarating, inspiring record. For Familha Artús, it’s all in their motto: “jogam ço Em” (we play what we are).
www.familha-artus.com Steve Hunt
THE YOUNG ’UNS Never Forget Hereteu YNGS10
This irrepressible Teesside trio (Sean Cooney, David Eagle, Michael Hughes) have, through their gritty and no-nonsense stance and entertaining, in-yer-face stage presence, fast become a must-see/must-book act at folk venues the UK over.
The lads’ early promise was grounded in their grasp and execution of vocal harmonies (clearly inspired by the mighty Wilson Fami- ly), showing a particular affinity with chorus- centred repertoire. Yet it would be too easy to overlook the Young ‘Uns’ second major selling-point: Sean’s songwriting. His stock-in- trade is topics of local import or regional interest: here notably Three Sailors, which gives voice to those WW2 veterans buried in a military grave in a Hartlepool cemetery, and The Sandwell Gate, about those who wait at that port’s archway by the sea. Both of these are done a cappella, and arguably form the emotional core of the album, with the lads showing exemplary control of dynamics and expression at the measured pace. Other songs take the local connection further afield, and are no less impressive: the tender northern romance of The Long Way Home contrasts with the CD’s bookenders, which embrace a wider, more political consciousness.
Another vital aspect to the Young ’Uns’ repertoire is the trio’s proud promotion of the songwriting talents of the north-east, in this case Graeme Miles and Jez Lowe, with wel- come exposure too for Joy Rennie’s fine set- ting of Cicely Fox Smith’s Rosario. The last- named is one of seven tracks which involve a modicum of instrumentation; mostly just a piano supplemented by accordeon and/or gui- tar. However, guest brass musicians make an effective and sensitive embellishment to John Hill, a portrait of Sean’s great-grandfather who died in the early stages of the Great War.
Further proof of the inventive nature of
the Young ’Uns’ vocal arrangements comes with the disc’s other a cappella tracks – a well-paired chalk-and-cheese brace of shanties and a rousing and committed rendi- tion of Sydney Carter’s John Ball. The lads
Emily Smith
EMILY SMITH Echoes White Fall Records WFRCD008
After initially dismissing this as a poorly produced over- load of instruments confus- ing the issue and clouding a great singer, I’m starting to warm to this. After all, when you get musicians of the quality of Jerry Douglas, Tim Edey, Kris Drever, Natalie
Haas, Rory Butler and Aoife Donovan involved it’s maybe foolish not to give them their heads and only a philistine wouldn’t appreciate what they do.
The point remains that the quiet subtlety
of Smith’s sumptuous voice – and perhaps more importantly the potency of the songs – is occasionally sacrificed in the parade of brilliant musicianship when what you leave out rather than what you put in might count for more. For all that, the Transatlantic Sessions effect still brings its rewards when Douglas gets to work in earnest and the band start to flow.
Smith undertakes some formidable tradi- tional material here, too – from the opening Reres Hill to a moody take on the epic King Orfeo, Twa Sisters and a lovely piano/violin arrangement of Clerk Saunders, though I could live without My Darling Boy (if I never hear another version of The Trees They Do Grow High it’ll be too soon). Most negative thoughts disintegrate, though, in a sympathetic treat- ment of John O’Dreams, Bill Caddick’s magnifi- cent song set to set to the theme from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 7, Pathétique.
www.emilysmith.org Colin Irwin
DIRTMUSIC Lion City Glitterbeat GBCD011
The follow-up to last year’s superb Troubles comes from the same 2012 Bamako sessions, but offers an utterly different mood. Troubles was organic, musicians from the West and Africa coming together and creating a new language of rock that drew from both tradi- tions. It was, as they say, a game-changer. So is this. It’s a slower, more meditative disc
exhort us to “drown your hatred in a barrel of love, but never forget”; and indeed, who is likely to forget these performances?
www.theyounguns.co.uk David Kidman
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