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Holmes on Burns’ Silver Tassie. Her voice has mellowed a tad over the years, and is now well suited to darker material like Fine Floo- ers as well.
With a band comprised of producer Mike
Vass, Anna Massie, Euan Burton, and Phil Hague (most of whom sing as well) Pendulum is a tasty and highly tasteful showcase for Gillian’s playing and singing – no OTT fire- works, just great music all the way. And if the recently composed title tune is inspired by the line in The Echo Mocks The Corncrake “As constant as the pendulum”, let’s hope there’s lots more to come from Gillian Frame & Co.
www.gillianframe.com Moving slightly further south to the bor-
derlands, Both Sides The Tweed was obvious- ly going to be a difficult exercise for Moira Craig and Carolyn Robson, given Sarah Mor- gan’s untimely and much lamented passing. As it is, two tracks (Rowan Tree and Sair Fyel’d Hinny) were recorded with Sarah shortly beforehand, while the rest of the songs are more than up to the standard of excellence that we’ve come to expect. Whether singing alone, together in unison or in the difficult arena of effective two-part harmony or coun- terpoint, Moira and Carolyn blend beautifully and just nail it.
Mixing contemporary songs such as Robin Williamson’s Cold Days Of February, Maggie Holland’s A Proper Sort of Gardener and Graeme Miles’ Creekwaterside with the likes of The Dowie Dens Of Yarrow and a con- trasting treatment of Silver Tassie to that of Gillian Frame, the album is a masterful demonstration that you don’t necessarily need complicated instrumental wizardry to hold the attention. A joy to listen to, and in its way, a fitting tribute to an absent friend.
www.carolynrobson.com Bob Walton
VICKI SWAN & JONNY DYER Paper Of PinsWetFoot Music WFM160630
This charismatic partnership moves on with album number seven, where to some extent more of the same is the order of the day – but when this means musical excellence and stylish performances coupled with a refresh-
Goitse
ing and enterprising approach to repertoire, then there can be no cause for complaint.
The number of instruments Vicki and Jonny play between them – and enviably well too – seems to increase exponentially with each new release (OK, I exaggerate!) – it’s rather like being let loose in a musical toyshop. Similarly with the musical influences on which they draw – English, Scottish and Swedish folk, classical and baroque and a smidgen of music-hall. Not only do they arrange traditional songs and tunes with an abundance of flair and good taste, but they also write their own material within a compa- rable range of musical disciplines.
Paper Of Pins, then, plays to the duo’s strengths, setting out its stall in quintessential, unmistakable Swan-Dyer fashion, drawing the listener in with upfront bonhomie and seemingly effortless expertise on an enthusi- astically driving treatment of The Golden Glove. This is followed by a heartfelt account of The Blantyre Explosion (to a new tune by Jonny) which features the glorious ‘cello in a church’ sound of the octave nyckelharpa.
Just as fresh-minted, it turns out, are the vital new melodies composed by Jonny for The Bold Fisherman and Daddy Fox, and for good measure each song ingeniously inter- sperses a rollicking tune (hornpipe and reel respectively) along the way. The disc’s title song is a further demonstration of how the couple breathes new life into a time-worn sit- uation (the proposal song), while the closing three-part Wedding Suite is a marvellous mar- riage of traditional folk with period music, wending its course from a Swedish proces- sional and a solemn Adagio to a setting of Robert Herrick, finally dancing out to Speed The Plough. Then, for the wedding present itself, a gorgeous set of tunes played on cow- horn then bagpipes. And special mention for a late-baroque-styled seven-piece Canon whose invention and orchestration knows no bounds! Other contrasting self-penned num- bers comprise a touchingly simple assessment of the nature of friendship and a spirited account of a news story from Braintree.
Paper Of Pins, superb value at 65 min- utes, represents another well-rounded artistic statement of complete creative integrity from the accomplished Swan & Dyer team.
www.swan-dyer.co.uk David Kidman
JALI FILY CISSOKHO Diatakendiya Kaira-Arts1994CD
Now based in England, this kora-playing master jali is the brother of Solo Cissokho and the uncle of Seckou Keita and a remarkable singer/musician in his own right, Like many modern jalis, he has spent time between playing Mand- ing music the way it always
used to be played as well as in a more modern band sound. Certainly on this long 79-minute album there is a high proportion of the more traditional sounds.
He has been releasing an album a year for the last four years. All are good but this one edges itself towards being the best. Many of the tracks here are common to the repertoire of many kora-playing jalis includ- ing Kelefaa Baa, Allah La Ke and the ubiqui- tous Kaira, every griot’s cry for peace. It is always fascinating to hear how each jali always puts their own particular individual interpretation on these items which are part of their common repertoire. Again, like other kora jalis, Fily creates songs within the well- worn structures of Manding praise songs.
The thing that impresses most on the first playing is the quality of his voice, or perhaps one should say his voices because as well as sounding what he is, a jali from a
GOITSE Inspired By Chance Goitse GSECD4
In the last ten years, Goitse have developed from an enthusiastic college band to a powerful tour de force. They are also on to album number four – Inspired By Chance –and have kept the line-up intact since meeting up in the University of Limer-
ick at the Irish World Music Centre, now the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Their mix of backgrounds from Dundalk, Laois, Waterford and Philadelphia has provid- ed a bedrock for their different local styles and nuances to coalesce.
Inspired By Chance finds them among the hottest new tickets on the block and a fully charged festival and concert band. A solemn, almost ambient, strain kicks off the opening set, Odds, moving from a throaty march to ferocious jig times proclaiming their intent, followed by Banjoman Button with banjo player James Harvey well to the fore. The musical mix of fiddle, banjo and piano accordeon is forceful yet almost elastic in its intensity while Conal O’Kane’s guitar and Colm Phelan’s bodhran keep everything locked in overdrive.
A plentiful supply of original tunes among the traditional also indicates their increased compositional brio. Singer Aine McGeeney’s vocal style, originally modelled on Kate Rusby, now sounds more person- alised and direct, with a neat line in unusual song material including the traditional gems Ireland’s Green Shore and An Bonnan Bui, while Finbar McGhee’s The Hills of Sweet Lislea offers a poignant WWI letters home scenario.
Goitse’s musical richness and their increasing confidence has yielded a locked- tight solidity that makes their progress as assured as it is wondrous. Inspired By Chance must be their best album yet.
Hear a track on this issue’s fRoots 60
compilation.
www.goitse.ie
John O’Regan
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