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that last one). Lead instrument is frequently the (nowadays) little-used banjo-mandolin, which fair zings in the hands of Belvie Free- man and Charlie Simmons, to rock-solid gui- tar backing from Barney Pritchard and Mar- vin Head.
Originally cut for Okeh Records and edit- ed and produced for Arhoolie by Chris Strach- witz, these vintage recordings have scrubbed up remarkably well, resulting in one of the downright jolliest records you could wish to hear in glorious mono. Seriously, how could any sane person fail to love a record with lyrics like: “my ukulele, played the Manua Loa gaily” (My Own Iona), or with titles like: Car- bolic Rag, Stone Mountain Wobble and Coughdrop Blues?
www.arhoolie.com Steve Hunt
ESTONIAN FOLK ORCHESTRA
Imemaa – Wonderland Estonian Folk Orchestra EFO001
Lynched
WE BANJO 3 Gather The Good Own label WB3CD002
LYNCHED Cold Old Fire Own label
Two excellent new independent releases from Ireland.
When Four Men & A Dog’s Barking Mad topped our Critics’ Poll back in 1991 few could have foreseen that its innovative blend of Irish traditional folk and American Blue- grass and Country was about to spawn a cul- tural behemoth, as the Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 and the first Transat- lantic Sessions episode was produced in 1995.
We Banjo 3 – David and Martin Howley, and Feargal and Enda Scahill (of Enda Scahill’s Irish Banjo Tutor renown) are two pairs of brothers from Galway (they obviously share their predecessor’s fondness for numerically- challenging band names) and are among the very hottest exponents of the ‘Celtgrass’ style right now. Proclaimed on the CD cover as “outrageously good!” by Gino Lupari, a fur- ther Four Men connection is found in the pres- ence of guest bassist James Blannerhassett.
Shove The Pig’s Foot A Little Further In
The Fire opens proceedings in fine style as the band, wielding fiddle, guitar, mandolin and tenor banjo(s) swing and swagger on the tune sets – a typical example being the pair- ing of The Bunch Of Green Rushes with Salt Creek (the former sourced from Frankie Gavin, the latter from Bill Monroe). The songs – Prettiest Little Girl In The County, Eric Bibb’s Get Onboard, The Long Black Veil and Down The River Uncle Joe are all American, and all well-executed, but it’s the virtuoso banjo pyrotechnics of Pressed For Time which will undoubtedly compel the sweaty hordes of happy summer festival punters to queue for a copy of this CD, post-gig.
www.webanjo3.com
Lynched are also (partial- ly) a band of brothers. Ian and Daragh Lynch started out as a folk-punk duo before their interest in traditional music drew them into the trad ses- sion scene, where they encountered Cormac Mac Diarmada and Radie Peat.
While the vocal style of We Banjo 3 veers towards the mid-Atlantic, the voice of Lynched is entirely Dublin. While you might detect echoes of Dominic Behan, Ciarán
Bourke, Philip Chevron or (especially to these ears) Johnny Moynihan, it’s entirely their own, too. Between them they play guitar, uil- leann pipes, fiddle, concertina and whistles, on songs sourced from traveller singers Mary Delaney & Mary Kate McDonagh, Frankie Armstrong, Frank Harte and (song and set- dance guru) Jerry O’Reilly (among others) along with a couple of terrific originals, a Robin Williamson cover and one with lyrics by HP Lovecraft.
Whether tackling serious balladry in What Put The Blood?, darkly-humorous material like Father Had A Knife and Salonika or the music-hall of Daffodil Mulligan, Lynched never over-play anything. Rather, their musicianship is unerringly deployed – via the captivating harmonies (of Radie & Daragh) and fiddle-drone of Tri-Coloured House, the unexpected upwards gear-shift in Henry My Son or the old-time fiddle tunes that sustain the extraordinary atmosphere of The Old Man From Over The Sea – to navigate the listener directly to the guts of whatever song they’re performing.
If all revival folk music records are an attempt to create something original from a synthesis of the academic and instinctive, then few performers ever realise the trick as fully as Lynched have on this passionate, utterly engrossing album. Recorded at the Irish Traditional Music Archive with the assis- tance of an Arts Council 2013 Des Recording Award, this comes with some serious creden- tials and is, without any doubt, my favourite Irish record in many years.
www.lynchedmusic.com Steve Hunt SCOTTDALE STRING BAND
Old Folks Better Go To Bed Arhoolie Records CD 7054
Being a firm believer in the interconnected- ness-of-all-folk musics theory, the first thing that popped in to my head whilst listening to this archetypal 1920s American string band was how much they reminded me of those greatest living Englishmen, The Dartmoor Pixie Band.
There’s that same easy, irresistible swing to these breakdowns, rags and waltzes, punc- tuated with occasional exhortations to “promenade around!”, “swing your part- ner!” and “black bottom, do your stuff!” (though I can’t recall Bob Cann ever using
MAGIC SAM Live At The Avant Garde Delmark DE-833
Sam Maghett made a handful of studio recordings for the small labels Cobra and Chief plus a couple of classic albums for Del- mark before his early death, aged 32, robbed the world of a great blues artist. Since then there have been several posthumous releases of live recordings.
This blistering set dates from June 22 1968 at a gig at the small Avant Garde club, Milwaulkee, recorded by an 18-year-old high school student who somehow caught all of Sam’s guitar and vocal brilliance on his Roberts 455 tape deck. Sixteen tracks packed into 67 minutes of pure Magic!!
www.delmark.com Dave Peabody
This is a surprise, the joyous bursting-out that Estonian music has been waiting for. It’s also a splendidly energising antithesis to the twee and limp.
Massed female and male voices open, to be suddenly joined by a wild, crashing instru- mental cacophony that morphs into a tense, pulse propelling the same regilaul, about a white rabbit killed and eaten by a hunter who returns its bones to the forest, where they become a rabbit once more. Sustainability!
Muscular accompaniments from the large ensemble on fiddles, Estonian bagpipes, kannels, cow horn, flutes, jew’s-harps, saxes, accordeons, cello, guitars, harp, bass, percus- sion and more, intensify the winding, repeat- ing-but-changing patterns of Estonian tradi- tional songs.
Tuulikki Bartosik’s idea for a folk big- band formed from her students at the Estoni- an Academy of Music and Theatre and the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy has come to vari-textured, not at all academ- ic-sounding fruition, with the arranging and playing help of Jonas Knutsson (top Swedish saxist and frequent collaborator with Ale Möller, Lena Willemark et al).
There are parallels, in concept, musical power and exuberance, with the now well- established Galician big band Sondeseu put together by Rodrigo Romaní.
Full of strengths and innovations, it will undoubtedly be a landmark for the Estonian revival at home and abroad, not just in itself but with ideas and experiences for its musi- cians that will spawn and spread.
www.facebook.com/estonianfolkorchestra
Andrew Cronshaw
Photo: Irene Siragusa
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