65 f LEFTY FRIZZELL


The One And Only And Listen To Lefty Hoo Doo 26352


A compilation from one of the most influen- tial country music singers of all time who pro- vided a straight line from Jimmie Rodgers to Merle Haggard and even Willie Nelson. Lefty Frizzell had his hits in the 1950s with songs like If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got The Time, Always Late, I Want To Be With You Always, Mom And Dad’s Waltz and a long list of others, most of which were number one in the country charts. His vocal delivery was his trademark as he stretched his vowels into many syllables. Lefty could almost make a song out of the word Always. This compila- tion features two early Frizzell albums and serves to show how country music began its steady decline after the death of Hank Willams, with whom Frizzell toured. The recordings of the rare album Listen To Lefty were made 1950/2 and were as raw as could be. The Frizzell voice is recorded pure and straight with great accompaniment including some hot electric guitar solos. By the time of the second album in 1957/8 the voice was joined by a chorus of backing vocals and the whole package given a much sweeter sound. Hot guitar no longer needed.


Many of the hit songs were re-recorded in a (failed) attempt to breathe new commer- cial life into his early 1950s hits. Two Jimmie Rodgers covers stand out, but the early ver- sions of the songs are so much better. As bonus there are a further ten cuts from vari- ous singles – mostly failed attempts to make Frizzell a commercial hit again that have remained just about anonymous from the time they were recorded. Despite Columbia’s efforts to bring Frizzell’s music up to date, further commercial success never came his way other than one 1964 surprise hit. His per- sonal life never helped and his excessive drinking brought an early death in 1975 when he was just 47 years old.


I welcome this budget release not only as a generous introduction to the music of Lefty Frizzell but also an insight into the decline in quality of country music from Nashville in a very short space of time.


http://hoodoo-records.com John Atkins LEON ROSSELSON


Where Are The Barricades? Fuse Records CFCD 999


A magnificent four-disc Rosselson box-set The World Turned Upside Down appeared three years ago. It provided an exhaustive distillation of the work of one of the finest and most respected of England’s master songwriters. Leon’s remained so active since, however, that surely that retrospective couldn’t possibly be the final summing-up of his illustrious career?


Well, evidently not. For here’s an impeccably-packaged new release, which Leon unequivocally declares to be his final recording. In which case, we might now rea- sonably take this as a swansong. Although the album contains expectedly characterful cameos from Roy Bailey, Janet Russell, Robb Johnson, John Kirkpatrick and Fiz Shapur, it’s essentially a concentration of prime Rossel- son, covering all the usual bases. Every selec- tion’s a sparkling example of definitively liter- ate wordsmithery, right-on social, political and philosophical commentary, polemic and invective, waspish wit, humour and irony, passion and compassion in equal measure.


The disc’s first half revisits two songs from earlier LPs (Full Marks For Charlie and Let’s Give Thanks) to bookend five quintessential Rosselsongs written between


Te Vaka


the 2007 financial crash and last year’s Tory election victory, these covering bankers, loot- ers and archetypal lifestyle tales of everyday folk. After which, Rejoice, Leon’s powerful and pertinent commentary on the Falklands War and its aftermath, is reprised from its 1983 LP premiere.


The focus then shifts, via an extract from


Marital Diaries, to delightfully wry and pithy social observations (marriage – where Fair’s Fair – followed by the delectable patter of Active Ageing) and Leon’s “attempt at an English French-style chanson” (Paris In The Rain) and finally to the disc’s closing sequence, which comprises Gaza-wars- themed Ballad Of Rivka And Mohammed, the intensely evocative environmental lament Four Degrees Celsius and At Dawn, Leon’s contribution to the WWI centenary.


The latter, despite its ostensibly upbeat tone, rather reinforces the dictum that what goes around, comes around (time and again) – and after all, what has changed? For “at 81, after some 60 years of songwriting, trying to find the story, to avoid the obvious, to shun the predictable…”, Leon’s back to writing the kind of songs he was writing at the start of his career. Which should emphatically not be taken to imply a lack of artistic development or progression in his writing – far from it, for it’s a measure of his stature as a songwriter of the age, his perennially uncompromising integrity, that he’s still writing songs for all the right reasons, and still making us stop and think. Even as he humbly but pointedly signs off this last-will-and-testament: “And that’s it… Thanks for listening.” And thank you, Leon. www.leonrosselson.co.uk


David Kidman


TE VAKA Amataga Spirit of Play WMCD1010


Aue! One shouldn’t take groups too much for granted. Despite the title, Amataga (The Beginning) is the eighth release by this New Zealand-based Pacific island group; but even if you’re at all familiar with their style, this album will still probably surprise. Te Vaka have clearly progressed greatly since their early days and the album shows unexpected depth, poise and maturity.


For although Amataga is still based around a well-produced mix of the expect- ed – ‘island’ flava and pan-Pacific percussion work outs – it’s the songwriting that was the biggest revelation. The group’s leader, gui- tarist, songwriter and producer, Opetaia Foa’i, is of solidly Pacific stock (Tokelau and Tuvalu) and has been described as “one of New Zealand’s finest songwriters”. On Amataga we can see why. Foa’i’s songs not only celebrate Pacific culture (Majestic Dance and the possibly tongue-in-cheek Par- adise) but are also by turn thoughtful (Big As You Are and a rueful My Sunny Days), heart- felt and topical. There’s a song about the MH370 air disaster, and another highlighting the under-reported struggle for freedom in Indonesian-occupied West Papua with the chanted refrain: “West Papua/ With you now/ Freedom/ Freedom now”.


Foa’i has dedicated this album to those trying to do something about injustice and the state of the planet; and with Amataga, Te Vaka show they have the music to back it up.


www.tevaka.com Phil Wilson


TARTINE DE CLOUS Sans Folklore Saintonge Records STR005


A vinyl-only release arrives and the immediate suspicion is of a piece of hipster chic… but no, not in this case; there is something different going on here. The retro-style cover drawing shows three blokes sitting around a café table singing. One is playing a shruti box. Hmm. Let’s listen to them… this is straightforward harmony or unison singing with a strong com- mitment to the tradition; it sounds like one of the better trios that abounded in the ’60s and ’70s in Britain and France.


Geoffroy, Guillaume and Thomas came together in Poitiers. The album title refers to the fact that grew up without any back- ground in folk music; as singers and musicians they say that they were influenced by a wide range of iconic ’60s figures from the Beatles to Brassens. It was a late-flowering interest in folk song that brought them together and in particular they name the excellent Mélusine – not that they need to; listening to a couple of tracks makes this obvious.


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