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DOUG EUNSON & SARAH MATTHEWS
Song And Laughter Coth Recordings COTHCD010
Doug and Sarah have at long last taken time out from their numerous other projects on their native Derbyshire folk scene (including Cupola) to make another duo album – only the third since they began playing together twenty years ago. As with the album’s prede- cessors, Song And Laughter is characterised by a care and expertise both in terms of choice of material and its performance, combined with a welcome sense of understatement.
Happily, understatement does not beto- ken any lack of enthusiasm or commitment, for the duo clearly rejoice in their accomplish- ment, which at times seems enviably effort- less. By virtue of their keenly developed arranging skills, Doug and Sarah make the most of what might on paper seem a restrict- ed palette (Doug’s melodeons and Sarah’s fid- dle and viola, with occasional percussion); the two contrasting instrumental tracks provide persuasive evidence of this, as does an impressive and ingenious diversity of texture on the accompaniments to the vocal items. Even so, the sparser solo-fiddle backing to the broadside Good Ale For My Money proves a perfect foil to Sarah’s lead and Doug’s chorus harmonies, which show just the right degree of relaxed good humour. Their convivial, entertaining presence extends well from their stage act into this recording (although perhaps, just perhaps, I detect a measure of unduly cautious restraint on the disc’s cur- tain-raiser In Praise Of Alcohol).
Both Sarah and Doug are respected, ele-
gant and eloquent singers, and particular successes here include Sarah’s keen take on Lily Gilders (written by John Tams for the 2006 Radio Ballad Swings And Round- abouts), the modern working-day ballad High Flyers (written in praise of Rolls-Royce in Derby), and Doug’s stirring account of The Ordeal Of Andrew Rose. They also negotiate the tricky corners of Leon Rosselson’s fable The Ant And The Grasshopperwith aplomb. And a subject clearly dear to Sarah’s ‘mills and chimneys’ heart is portrayed in Shelley Posen’s opus Windmill At Heage, for here she’s set his original poem to music that’s both vibrant and evocative.
All in all, then, a disc of unpretentious excellence, replete with well-crafted inter- pretations and refreshing performances.
www.dougandsarahduo@
wordpress.com David Kidman THE OUTSIDE TRACK
Light Up The Dark Lorimer Records, LORRCD06
This is the fourth studio album from a talent- ed young five-piece band (fiddle, accordeon, harp, guitar, whistle, vocal) that plays tradi- tional and contemporary music and song from Scotland, Ireland and Canada. The instrumental sets have energy, precision, rich texture and restless movement as they glide seamlessly from one tune to the next. The Wrong House tune-set has some terrific gristy, percussive fiddle-playing from Mairi Rankin. And Ailie Robertson’s harp-playing is as plangent and crystalline as ever.
The band’s song choices are refreshing
and engaging. Get Me Through December is a moving arrangement of a Sampson/Lavery song about bereaved love, set to the tune of Neil’s Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Wife. On the traditional ballad Canadee-I-O, Teresa Horgan’s impeccably-controlled vocal is a master-class in grace-note ornamentation. And in the band’s delightful (and totally dif- ferent!) jazz version of the traditional Irish
Robb Johnson
song Do You Love An Apple? it’s hard to believe that we’re still hearing the same vocalist: Teresa Horgan’s creamy, sexy, night- club vocal is a revelation.
The band bring out all the melodic beau-
ty of Nanci Griffith’s song Trouble In The Fields, which they performed on a shared tour with the Paul McKenna Band. I’d love to hear it sung as a duet with Paul McKenna who, I am sure, would bring out some of the hurt and the anger that’s also in the song (“I know that we’ve got trouble in the fields/ When the bankers swarm like locusts out there turning away our yield/ They leave our pockets full of nothing”).
Also good to hear a cover of the much- admired Nomos song Set You Free, and Out- side Track’s version is a polished and exuber- ant paean to optimism. For those who don’t know it, the original version had a darker, political edge that seems to allude to the British occupation of Ireland. (To see what I mean, listen to John Spillane and Nomos per- forming it live on YouTube).
www.theoutsidetrack.com Paul Matheson ROBB JOHNSON
A Reasonable History Of Impossible Demands PM Press PMA 020-2/Free Dirt Records DIRT-CD-076
Subtitled The Damage To Date, this stonking five-disc retrospective charts the development of one of this country’s most important song- writers (no argument!). This self-compiled career retrospective differs ends (not all that arbitrarily) at 2013: basically because, as Robb reasonably says, “it takes at least a couple of years before you get any perspective on the relative merits of what you’ve written”.
Each disc’s songs, while ostensibly grouped to illustrate one strand of Robb’s writing, also display a degree of overlap. Disc 1, titled Nothing Happens Overnight, covers Robb’s “early stuff” up to 1994, and steers us from the abrasive delivery and Bragg-like stance of Upstairs-Downstairs (from 1987’s Songs For The New Jerusalem cassette) through to the ‘folk-friendly’ duo work with Pip Collings, producing songs that have indelibly outlasted their era. Fact is, most of us would’ve been mighty chuffed to have written even a small number of these (say I Close My Eyes, Evergreen, Winter Turns To Spring and Rosa’s Lovely Daughters).
Disc 2, headed Protest And Survive, encompasses the whole 27-year span, from the protest of A Bird Is Singing, The Herald Of Free Enterprise, Vic Williams and Inexcusable to Undefeated, Alice Annie Wheeldon and Punk Rock Jubilee. Disc 3 explores Robb’s English chansons: quality in abundance there, ’nuff said. Disc 4 delivers a batch of songs largely in celebration of “enduring if irregu- lar” causes, mostly given in ‘band’ recordings, while Disc 5 (Same Sh**, Different Day) shows Robb’s perennial exposition of the 21st Cen- tury ‘plus ça change’ principle.
Robb’s great gift as a songwriter is that
while he’s strong on the no-nonsense, straight-up political commentaries, there’s so much more than agit-prop here – take almost any one of his chansons, or the heartbreaking You Don’t Have To Say Goodbye, for instance, and you’ll find a powerfully literate emotion- al sensitivity at work. For while encouraging us to actively seek change for the better, Robb is also encouraging us to appreciate what we have.
Presentation is exemplary, Robb’s insightful, right-on introductory essay giving way to commentary on every one of the 92 (count ’em!) songs, with the essential back- story and the discographical niceties. A dozen or so tracks are (quite legitimately) duplicat- ed from Robb’s epic 2009 Thatch box-set, while there are also ten previously unre- leased cuts (and a further half-dozen hitherto not officially released), and several choice or long-deleted rarities.
Those who are still wondering what all the fuss is about really can’t afford to bury their heads in the sand any longer. This is one real essential purchase, for 2016 or any other year.
www.robbjohnson.co.uk
David Kidman
MACIEJ RYCHŁY, ELISABETH SEITZ, MATEUSZ RYCHŁY Released Sounds NRA NRA006
Quite a few paintings over the last few cen- turies include pages or scraps of music, usual- ly just a fragment of a melody, painted in such detail that they’re readable. It would be interesting to play them, and that’s what Maciej Rychły has done – released them, wings fluttering, from the paintings into the audio ether.
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