up better. It has an unusual combination of a somewhat unblinking and forensic gaze on the harsh realities of life, coupled with a tender romanticism.


Other songs that stand out here are songs I had largely forgotten. His darkly comic Stand Firm on the absurdity of Britain’s so-called “independent nuclear deterrent” still comes up fresh after nearly half a century; and Across the Hills made me recall my days as a member of The Jug ‘O Punch club in Digbeth, where the Ian Campbell Folk Group used to regularly feature it in their residency.


The 2nd


CD, the one covering the Seventies, was the one I perhaps enjoyed the most. It was clearly the time when Leon bestrode the UK scene, without any obvious peer. The great Ewan MacColl was approaching the end of his creative life, and Rosselson had picked up the torch, and was producing his best work.


This CD is perhaps the most varied in content: it truly runs the gamut. That sublimely witty song which became a feminist anthem, Don’t Get Married Girls, gets the only delivery I know that does not make me pine for Sean Cannon’s. And the extraordinarily underrated Stand Up For Judas, shows itself to be as profound an attempt at free thinking as you will encounter in a month of Sundays.


On Her Silver Jubilee is a song that becomes hugely topical this year, with it being Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee. I am sure that it never won him any fans at Buck House, and a few generations back there’d have been calls for him to be imprisoned in The Tower!


But


strangely, the Elizabeth ll he portrays, comes across as a not unsympathetic creation.


But the standout cuts on this CD are his most famous song The World Turned Upside Down, and his glorious chorus song that goes by the title of Plan.


All of us can remember parties where we were all zonked out of our heads singing along with the sound system on maximum volume and blending our voices - with that truly stupendous delivery of Roy Bailey’s - in the Plan mantra “That’s not the way it’s got to be … PEOPLE before property”, all of us hoping that this sensational heady-brew-of-a-chorus, was never going to end.


(“All of us” that is, apart from the neighbours, who were now banging on the dividing wall, and shouting that it was “two in the morning!” The next day we’d blame Roy: they had no idea that his voice was coming from the record player!)


Mentioning Roy Bailey there, was perhaps inevitable, even though I had asked myself to not pick out individuals, (on the grounds that it would be invidious of me, since all had done their bit to make this collection the delight it clearly is). But having now slipped-up and mentioned one person, I had better quickly compound the error and mention a second! Ha!


And that 2nd


name is that of Fiz Shapur. It really says something when he almost steals the


The Living Tradition - Page 50


In his early twenties, this fiddler from County Monaghan is set to be one of the best Ulster musicians of his generation. He doesn’t quite have the sweetness of Peoples or Tourish, nor the florid style of Maguire, but my goodness he’s not far away: I’d say it might not be long before McCague is snapping at their heels. Listen to the precision and variation on the five-part jig O’Neill’s. Dónal has the confidence to tackle the big old tunes, and to take the bow off the strings, leaving space for the notes to have maximum impact. The Oak Tree and Farrell O’Gara’s are similarly impressive, meaty


whole collection, with his inspired keyboard playing. His arrangements are so simpatico with Leon’s vocals: it is as though they are joined at the hip.


The song I like best on this third CD, is a kids’ song called Skin. It is a classic that will be sung by seven year olds for generations to come. And God help me, I must be regressing somewhat, for I have been singing it around the house all day today!


But it is the final CD that has my favourite song of the whole package, and a brand new song to boot (written since the arrival of our coalition government here in the UK). Talking Democracy Blues tells it like it is about our thieving chancers who call themselves MPs and who brazenly renege on their manifesto commitments, like as though nobody expected them to keep them anyway!


This is a tremendously powerful hatchet-job on the whole shower at Westminster, and Leon was never in better voice. His guitar work too is top notch on this number, and his vocals roll back the years. The rhymes hit home relentlessly: the song is a true knockout.


How wonderful to lay down a track like this, half a century after you’d started out. To have the wit and the drive to write it, and then perform it with such brio, marks out Leon Rosselson, not so much as a survivor, but as a national blooming miracle!


I salute you sir. Dai Woosnam


DÓNAL MCCAGUE


Bits ‘n’ Pieces Private Label


fare given zest and flavour by this phenomenal young fiddler. Not afraid to experiment, McCague takes a few liberties with keys - he seems to have a preference for the old Scots high A/E tunings rather than the more usual Irish G/D, and also throws in a couple of tunes in flats just to show his versatility.


There’s no shortage of variety on this recording. As well as plenty of familiar jigs and reels there are polkas, hornpipes, an aching Tommy Peoples slow air, barndances and slip-jigs. Vincent Broderick’s Barndance is a melodic highlight, as is the hornpipe version of The Spey In Spate and a couple of fine compositions by Tipperary fiddler Seán Ryan, but I think my favourite is the cracking barndance-tempo version of The Holly Reel. Accompaniment from Michael McCague, Brian McGrath and Ringo McDonagh is spot on. The recording quality is great from Dave Sheridan, the mix is just right (raising the fiddle nicely), the artwork is both attractive and striking, and there are reasonable notes on the tunes. In short, it’s all good. Bits ‘n’ Pieces definitely earns a place in my 2011 top ten. Dónal’s website www.bitsnpieces2011.com has sample tracks, a gig diary, and much more: go explore.


Alex Monaghan STEELEYE SPAN


Now We Are Six Again Park Records PRKCD113


Released in 1974 by new sextet format Steeleye Span, Now We Are Six was an important formative stage in their recording history and evolution. For the Spring 2011 tour, the present gang of six (including three from the earlier incarnation) revivified and performed live all 10 tracks from the original in order. This is the result, offered with a (presently, perhaps, rather riskily worded!) ‘bonus’ second CD of 11 other live tour tracks – “classics, rarities and audience favourites” (and yes, the Latin imperative to rejoice and green be-willowed hat are there) taken from their 21 studio recordings although mining mainly from the 1970s and quite recent releases.


Lyrics to the songs on the first CD are given in full and rich with wonderful mythopoetic content - nature, magic and murder involving cuckoos’ nests, milking maidens, tossed petticoats, plentiful elves, lunar matters and shapeshifting. Proper folk terrain then, and some fascinating socio-cultural and historical insights to be had, and not just to the Band’s history!


Recorded near to studio quality (with marginal audience intervention), the musicianship is excellent. Tight as the proverbial drum, the outstanding rhythm section of Liam Genockey (drums/percussion) and Rick Kemp (bass guitar) provide oodles of rhythmic detail and interesting dynamic range. That characteristically complex, progressive and jazz rock intricacy and interest is a mainstay and remains a thoroughly engaging backdrop behind Maddy Prior’s enduringly unique and charming voice and the embroidery of Peter Knight’s exquisite legato and classically precise fiddle work. Multi-instrumentalist Pete Zorn


Sponsored by BIrnam CD


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