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the fire, open a nice bottle of something warming, snuggle up to a favourite person and let Eddi transport you.
www.revealrecords.co.uk
I’m guessing David Steel would probably prefer Fiona Hunter’s treatment of Burns’ The Weary Pund O’Tow. Perhaps best known as a member of Malinky, her first solo album is an extremely fine affair. Drawing almost entirely from the Scottish tradition, her rich and expres- sive voice is perfectly suited to the material, whether big ballads (The Laird o’Drum, The Cruel Mother and the gripping Young Emsley) or lighter material such as The Bleacher Lass and Jock Hawk’s Adventures In Glasgow.
The inventive arrangements are com- pletely acoustic and tastefully low key, with Fiona’s cello and harmonium augmented by multi-instrumentalist bandmate and produc- er Mike Vass, along with Matheu Watson, Euan Burton and Gillian Frame. I’ve always thought Fiona Hunter is one of the best tradi- tional singers and song carriers of the younger generation, and this album indu- bitably backs that up. A class act indeed.
www.fionahunter.co.uk Bob Walton
THE BEVVY SISTERS Plan B Interrupto Music IM 004
First reaction. What is this? The opening cut Ain’t No Grave just hit me right between the eyes. A guitar sound to die for and three-part harmony with an edge and delivery that fits the song perfectly. No matter how many ver- sions of the song have gone before this one really raises the grave. Such a stunning open- ing sets you up, either to enjoy the rest of the album, or to head for disappointment if such a dynamic start is not maintained.
Worry not, since this is not a false come- on. Original songs, more fine arrangements of traditional songs and a couple by a fine Scottish writer Sandy Wright. Wright’s two songs are finely crafted and well performed offering one of the Bevvies the opportunity to sing solo to show their parts are as good as the whole. Their own songs, including Whisky and Junkyard Blues are also good but I have to say it is their reworking of two other tradi- tional songs that leap out from the pack: Down In The Willow Garden, starting out as an uplifting duet and then picking up the third voice later, and an a cappella Sylive, as in Bring a Little Water, that adds the fourth voice of David Donnelly, whose contribution to the album earns him a Bevvy Sisters badge, ending the recording almost as excitingly as it begins. More of all of this please.
www.bevvysisters.co.uk John Atkins
KOMPANÍA Round Trip CHARA Chara 2013-2
Kompanía are back less than a year since their previous release, Kompanía Live and they take us on a Round Trip journey of rebetika and smyrneika songs. Four of the album’s thirteen tracks are traditional and the other nine are by composers like Tsitsanis, Toundas and Eskenazi.
The album starts with a gentle tsifteteli Arapína Mou Skertsóza sung by Katerina Tsiridou. Erináki is a slow song about unre- quited love with heartbreaking lead vocal by Sotiris Papatragiannis, beautifully accompa- nied by Giannis Kalafatelis on accordeon, Loek Schrievers on slide guitar and then the resonator guitar and guitar of Dimitris Kranidas and Nikos Protopapas picking up the rhythm to turn it into a hasaposerviko, lightening the atmosphere, though the love remains unrequited.
O Pinóklis is one of my favourites with faster rhythm and tragicomic lyrics. The slide guitar intro is reminiscent of Nashville, but we’re actually en route from the port of Pireus to New York. I have never heard the name Tsoklis (it comes from Themistokles), but this song is the anthem of a true mangas, the strong cool guy who’s sadly taken the wrong path in life and lost his money at cards. Kranidas’ singing and the brilliant and witty lyrics make this a true diamond.
Chanoumáki is a karsilamas dance with an upbeat rhythm that should get you danc- ing, although the album is otherwise fairly laid-back.
Two more favourites are Pame Sta
Bouzoukia and the more serious Ksipnó Ke Vlépo Sídera (Ta Mandala). Don’t be afraid of the long titles, the accompanying booklet has short descriptions of each song with titles in roman characters and English translations.
Matia Mou (San Pas Sta Kséna) was sung in the past by Domna Samiou, Glykeria and Chronis Aidonidis, and now Kranidas gives his extraordinary interpretation. The final track Thalassáki Mou is one of the most beautiful ballads on this album, with Tsiridou again showing her vocal range and powers.
Round Trip is by musicians that live and breathe rebetika and who have chosen less well-known songs. Beautifully arranged, with the voices of Tsiridou, Papatragiannis and Kranidas yet again capturing that authentic sound of rebetika and Greek blues to the soul and bone. Wonderful percussions by Ulas Aksunger too.
www.kompania.gr Elisavet Sotiriadou
JULIE FOWLIS Gach Sgeul : Every Story Machair Records
Like a warm summer breeze, the voice of La Fowlis is a reassuring presence in any sound- track to life. This fourth studio album has been a long time coming (four and a half years to be precise since Uam) but the pattern is familiar. Every track in Gaelic, tastefully arranged with a posse of top-notch musi- cians, including Duncan Chisholm, Tony Byrne, Mike McGoldrick, Donald Shaw, Rant, Ewan Vernal, Karen Matheson, Tom Doorley and hubbie Eamon Doorley offering tender, sensitive accompaniments. And when, with the Rant fiddle ladies gliding mellifluously behind her, she sings a heartfelt song like Do Challum with such grace and elegance, all barriers of language, culture and musical prejudice fall away.
Mixing work songs with mouth music, lullabies and love songs, this is a specifically Hebridean collection that can only add to her already considerable reputation for raising the profile of the Gaelic tradition, while her resolute determination to stick with Gaelic song at the exclusion of all else – even when the lure of the mainstream must have tempt- ed her to compromise – remains admirable.
Whether singing the pants off An Roghainn Dain Do Eimhir, getting mystical on An Ròn, sounding grand and majestic on Òran Fir Heisgeir or being jaunty and mis- chievous trading rapid-fire vocals with fiddles and pipes on Puirt-à-Beul, she carves through all the normal boundaries in which people love to imprison music.
Her own feeling that if categorisation must occur hers should be considered world rather than folk music is perfectly valid, borne out here by a selection of material that strongly evokes the heart of close-knit com- munities rather than any studied, artificial revival of tradition. This is the core value which makes Gach Sgeal such an inviting, engaging, seductive and charming work and it would be a hard-bitten cynic who failed to glean some measure of joy from its pure beauty.
www.juliefowlis.com Colin Irwin GAVIN MARWICK
The Long Road And The Far Horizons Journeyman, JYM004
Gavin Marwick is a fiddle player and compos- er from Edinburgh. He has performed at hun- dreds of festivals and concerts all over the world, in numerous bands including Bellevue Rendezvous, Iron Horse, the Unusual Sus- pects, Ceilidh Minogue and the Yiddish Song Project. A prolific composer, he has been greatly inspired by the musicians and cultures encountered on his travels.
This is his first solo album: a double CD with over two hours of original music per- formed by a thirteen-piece band. It is an astonishing debut because of the sheer vari- ety of musical style and texture. The rich, satis- fying and ever-changing sound-palette draws on a wide range of different instruments (fid- dle, nyckelharpa, cittern, saxophone, cajón, accordeon, piano, low whistle, flute, bass, kaval, bouzouki, pipes, percussion, guitar). Gavin’s compositions are influenced by folk styles and idioms from all over Europe. The Bulgarian-sounding Balkan Red has exhilarat- ing saxophone from Fraser Fifield, and Mino- taur/Scented Grove has a Breton flavour. You
Julie Fowlis
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