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Bellowhead
Smoky Babe
BELLOWHEAD Revival Island LC01846
The theory is if Bellowhead can coax 10,000 people into a crazed maelstrom of dance and song, then why not 100,000 or more? Bellow- head’s ambitions know no bounds. They’ve taken on the English folk flagship role with determined relish and certainly shouldn’t be pilloried for that. The tricky puzzle, however, has always been how to take the extraordi- nary impact of Bellowhead, the all-conquer- ing stage act, into the studio and convert it into something capable of blowing the head off the unsuspecting Coldplay, Lana Del Rey or Ed Sheeran fan sitting quietly at home drinking a cup of tea doing the crossword.
John Leckie went some way towards it with his production of Hedonism and Broad- side and now they try a different tack, sign- ing to Island, engaging Rupert Christie as knob twiddler, recording instrumental parts separately and treating Revival as an album born and bred in studio conditions rather than an extension of their live act.
In that sense it works, too. Christie has indeed captured a sound quality that in places lifts you off your seat – Roll Alabama is an anthemic blaze of colour and musical complexity that allows you to hear the inci- dental subtleties in a way they’ve never achieved before; the horns on Rosemary Lane sound like a particularly aggressive herd of marauding cattle; Jon Boden’s vocals are clear and urgent (really hitting the heights on Fine Sally); and the leering mis- chief of Gosport Nancy – huge choral chorus and all – is almost palpable.
No instrument is ever knowingly under- used and their whole canvas sounds some-
how broader, even while the material occu- pies a narrower path. There’s none of the quirky idiosyncracy or liberal bouts of dark- ness which marked some of their earlier work (Matachin remains my favourite Bellowhead album for that reason) but their targets clear- ly now extend beyond the folk firmament and they must be accorded much credit for beckoning the mainstream without compro- mising their firm English traditional focus. That’s what you get from a band built around the artistic expertise, moral fibre and commit- ment to the cause of the likes of Jon Boden, John Spiers and Paul Sartin.
The brass section is certainly now firing on all cylinders, adding even more to their always formidable charge to counterpoint the more lyrical excursions of the string section and the ever-imaginative drumming of Pete Flood. The rhythmic emphasis they employ here – particu- larly on tracks like Greenwood Tree and Let Union Be – even conjure up scattered images of old school folk-rock underlined by a rare assault outside of the tradition, doffing their caps to their new Island home with a funky version of the Richard & Linda Thompson ‘hit’ I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. The joy of the song is somewhat lost down the line and the beauty of another sacred cow of the tradition Seeds Of Love, is obliterated amid the overloaded drama of the arrangement, but the upside is that they could be in line for the next Bond movie song if Moon Kittens is anything to go by.
Not my favourite Bellowhead album but when they really start motoring they are an irresistible force. Question is: are the great unwashed ready to embrace them?
www.bellowhead.co.uk Colin Irwin
SMOKY BABE Way Back In The Country Blues Arhoolie
We’re used to country blues artists who made a few rare 78s back in the late 1920s being biographical mysteries and thus cult figures, but we don’t expect it of those who were recorded in 1960 at the age of 33. But in that very fact probably lie the seeds of
the mystery of Smoky Babe. At that point in time, blueshounds were mainly interested in old performers, those who’d made records in the late 1920s rather than being born in 1927.
We know that Smoky Babe was born Robert Brown in Itta Bena, Mississippi and lived in Alabama before settling in Louisiana where he was recorded by Dr. Harry Oster. Oster released a trio of albums on his tiny independent Folk-Lyric label, but they went relatively unnoticed. At that time the folk blues world was getting very excited about the rediscovery of older artists like Son House, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Sleepy John Estes, and these would be the performers invited up north for gigs in New York, Cambridge and the Newport Folk Festival. Very few ‘new’ names – Fred McDowell was an exception – got a look in.
Oster eventually sold his label to Arhoolie, but it was only after his death that the unissued tapes which make up this new album came to light. And what absolute gems they are. You can hear clear echoes of the gui- tar styles of John Lee Hooker, Bukka White, Big Joe Williams, the school of Fred McDowell (who, it must be remembered, was virtually
Photo: Elly Lucas
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