f80
Olivia Chaney
OLIVIA CHANEY The Longest River Nonesuch CD400251
This has been a long time coming. I mean, it’s five years or so since we first inter- viewed her as one of the new upcoming young forces in British folk music. At a time when everyone is mak- ing CDs almost as soon as they’ve learned to play gui-
tar or written their first song, such a lengthy gestation is almost refreshing although it does, of course, allow the potential of antici- pation to boil over to such a degree that it has no hope of being matched by the reality of what ultimately surfaces.
This album survives that fate without quite hitting the great heights we might have hoped. Passing time has allowed her to eradi- cate the irritatingly prim vocal mannerisms that so often afflict the classically trained and her singing here is serenely impeccable throughout, from the faultless delivery of opening track False Bride to the tender vul- nerability of closing number Cassiopeia.
It’s understated and surprisingly minimal- ist. When accompanying herself on piano sounding reflective and stark, there’s some- thing of a nascent Laura Nyro or even Regina Spektor about her, which augurs well for a future that might well lie most productively with America. She paints from a commend- ably broad palette – Purcell’s There’s Not A Swain, Norwegian composer Sidsel Andresen’s Blessed Instant, a terrific treatment of Chilean Violeta Parra’s La Jardinera (gorgeous Spanish guitar) and a slightly awkward interpretation of Alasdair Roberts’ Waxwing.
What really marks her out as a special talent, though, is the sombre quality of her songwriting – Swimming In The Longest River and The King’s Horses (which carries an eerie reminiscence of Sandy Denny) have already
been accorded plenty of attention and Too Social and Loose Change, with a beautiful guitar arrangement, are right up there too. But it’s the promise of what she may have up her sleeve that really excites. A vivid cinemat- ic edge and sense of drama is embedded in Holiday, helped along by an irresistible cho- rus; and while stripping back most of the music here to its barest bones is highly com- mendable, the one time the production does let its hair down and goes for the throat on Blessed Instant, the results are spectacular and you realise how the whole thing might wield a great deal more muscle.
This is a very fine debut album offering plenty of evidence that she will become a major artist. At which point it will be seen merely as that… a promising debut.
www.oliviachaney.net Colin Irwin DERROLL ADAMS
Banjo Troubadour Starman Records SMR037
WIZZ JONES
A Life On The Road 1964 – 2014 Sunbeam Records SBRCD5103
Two legendary songsters for whom the term ‘on the road’ has always meant consider- ably more than just the title of a paperback book stuck in a duffel coat pocket.
With most albums by the late Derroll Adams, the wandering Zen banjo master
from Oregon, long out of print, this brand new twelve-inch vinyl release (CD included) is very welcome indeed. Recorded live for Bel- gian National Radio 1973-1980, the ten solo tracks here are mostly traditional songs – Dar-
Derroll Adams
ling Corey, Blue Ridge Mountain, Columbus Georgia, Wildwood Flower (heard on this issue’s fRoots 53 compilation) along with Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore, and his own The Sky.
It’s always thrilling to hear that wonder- fully rich, deep and strong singing voice, and that remarkable instrumental technique, but this live recording also offers the opportunity to hear Adams’ laconic introductions and gen- tle, often self-deprecating humour (“here’s a song we used to do together, 97 years ago – we were only 48 years old at the time…”)
Derroll Adams was the songwriter and singer that the others (Ralph McTell, Finbar Furey, Donovan, Wizz Jones and Allan Taylor among them) wrote and sang about. This record – lovingly packaged in a gatefold sleeve bearing a striking Dave Peabody photograph, reminds us why.
“Derroll Adams and Jack Elliott were my heroes…” declares Wizz Jones, in the highly entertaining sleevenotes of A Life On The Road. “…when they performed in London in the late ’50s I followed them around like a lit- tle dog.” Since then, of course, he’s inspired countless followers himself and this 23-track retrospective of a career spanning half a cen- tury should gain him a few more.
The best of his own songs – Night Ferry,
Burma Star, Happiness Was Free, and (the Bruce Springsteen-covered) When I Leave Berlin are here, alongside enduring repertoire staples like Corrine’s Blues, Shuckin’ Sugar and Glory Of Love. Long-term writing collaborator Alan Tunbridge is represented with Dazzling Stranger and National Seven, and there’s a song apiece from Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Ewan MacColl – the latter a duet with Martin Carthy on Moving On Song, previously only available on the Guitar Maestros DVD. Many of these tracks are rare recordings or alter- nate versions, making this both an essential purchase for long-time Wizz fans and a per- fect introduction for new ones.
Photo: Dave Peabody
Photo: © Judith Burrows
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108
