difference here of having him joined in voice by Rolling Home, a 38 strong male chorus from Sneek in Friesland. They also join him for Allan Taylor’s Roll On The Day.
But the standout number on the album for me, is his version of that oft-forgotten traditional song When This Old Hat Was New.
Not for nothing is it the opening track: it sets down a massively authoritative marker (alas one that I am not sure that the rest of the album can quite match). The sheer integrity and authority of that vocal strikes you from the get-go: and the accompaniment from Steven Lawrence, Fraser Speirs (spelt wrongly on the liner notes) and Wendy Weatherby, really add to the pleasure.
That said, I still have not answered my own question. Would this CD provide evidence of the truly unique quality that John Wright had? And thus it might seem that enjoyable though the album is, I had somewhat drawn a blank.
But no, worry not. Track #7, provides the “eureka” moment!
It features John singing Don’t Go. It is a song written by the Australian C&W artiste Kasey Chambers, which she released about 12 years ago. In itself, it is a perfectly ordinary, even clichéd song, bordering on the forgettable. A song with just a couple of rather good internal rhymes to mark it out from the mass.
But helped by some fi ne piano from Angus Lyon, John helps make this song SOAR. He applies all his usual formidable artistry, and - something I have not mentioned – his extraordinary intelligence with a lyric. And this was his hallmark: he could extract maximum meaning from a song that often exhibited fairly minimal skills from its lyricist.
All John Wright fans will want to buy this album.
Correction: such is their devotion, they’ll have already bought it on the day of release! Dai Woosnam
designfolk Designfolk
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ANNIE GRACE The Bell
Gracie Records GRACIECD010
which Annie co-wrote with American singer- songwriter Aimee Bobruk at the celebrated Burnsong Songhouse last year: coming third in the album’s running order, it sports a delicate yet gently incandescent string arrangement featuring Jonny Hardie. Other musicians helping Annie out during the course of the album comprise Aaron Jones and Aly Macrae (both of whom had also appeared on Take Me Out Drinking Tonight), with special guests Kevin McGuire (double bass) and Nigel Hitchcock (alto sax).
In the past, Annie’s name has tended to be most associated with Iron Horse, the band she’d fronted for over ten years during the 1990s as vocalist and pipes/whistles supremo. Around the same time as Iron Horse brought out their 2004 reunion album The Wind Shall Blow For Ever More, Annie released a solo record on Greentrax, Take Me Out Drinking Tonight, which proved a most charming prospect; although it was at times a touch idiosyncratic in its often quite daringly jazzy treatments of some well-loved traditional material, Annie’s choice of contemporary covers was both thoughtful and well-managed.
Annie’s follow-up album has been a long time in coming, but it’s indicative that The Bell is if anything even more varied musically, yet with the jazzy element altogether less pronounced. For this time round, only two tracks display that insouciant swing: a quirkily scored cover of Kirsty McGee’s Sandman and the disc’s cheery closing exhortation Don’t Go – and interestingly these also seem the least satisfying or memorable cuts, at least by direct comparison with the remainder, although their place in the scheme of things is clear enough. The CD is titled after the compelling peace chanson
The opening track sets out Annie’s personal stall of self-fulfi lment with a lovely rendition of Sandy Denny’s Solo, with an arrangement replete with rippling guitars and fulsome vocal harmonies. Another rather special moment comes with Aly’s contemporary “muckle sang” High The Laverock Sings. Elsewhere, Annie turns in a feisty and confi dent version of One Morning In May, managing to showcase her skill on the small pipes both here and on a nifty little set of tunes that’s strategically placed at the midway point of the disc.
However, it’s Annie’s own composition Little Bird, a moving message of love, loss and loyalty written for her daughter Kirsty, which arguably provides the disc’s emotional core, lovingly sung and intimately recorded here with just Aly’s piano for company. It then proves an inspired move for Annie to follow Little Bird with an uplifting fi ddle-and-banjo-accompanied performance of Harvey Reid’s Show Me The Road. A tender rendition of The Exile’s Song (by early 19th
century writer Robert Gilfi llan) also suits Annie’s gently emotive delivery well.
In all honesty I think The Bell is on balance an even fi ner collection than Annie’s earlier CD, partly due to a more satisfying choice of material and Annie’s expert accommodation of different styles and modes of expression, and partly due to the even warmer sense of companionship which Annie and her musical friends communicate to the listener. Thanks for sharing your music, Annie.
www.anniegracemusic.com
David Kidman
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The Living Tradition - Page 47
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