73 f


1 The Whiskey Brothers Bottle Up And Go (Big Bear Records BEAR CD54). The man- dolin of Richard Heath and piano of Gerry Smith makes for a nice sound. Though no great shakes instrumentally, Heath has a diverting voice that makes this Birmingham, UK, duo’s romp through eighteen well-worn bluesy standards rather entertaining. www.bigbearmusic.com


2 Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne With The Blue Blazes Never No More Blues (Ripple Recordings 011). A wonderful selection of vaudeville blues, early jazz, ragtime, and early country music delivered with panache by vocalist/guitarist Jane Voss and pianist/ guitarist/vocalist Hoyle Osborne backed by the the Blue Blazes quartet featuring fiddler Suzy Thompson and partner Eric Thompson, who help retrieve and revive these oft-for- gotten musical treasures. www.janevoss.com


The albums – good (2), adequate (1) and bad (@) – which didn’t get the full-length treatment, contributed individually by a selection of our various reviewers cowering under the cloak of collective anonymity.


2 Various Artists Folk Awards 2016 (Proper PROPERFOLK17). Annual signature double-CD presenting selected tracks from BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards nominees – mixing usual suspects and newer names in a more stimulat- ing collection than previous years. Four bonus tracks present artists nominated for the Young Folk Award. www.propermusic.com


2 Various Artists The Quietened Village (A Year In The Country ATA #2). Electronica, found sounds, twangy things and ambience- a-go-go as folks like Rowan Amber Mill, Sproatly Smith, Straw Bear Band, bits of Unit- ed Bible Studies and lots of other people with improbable names pay largely instrumental tribute to vanished hamlets and Midwich Cuckoldry. Limited edition, so move fast. ayearinthecountry.bandcamp.com


@ Moken Chapters Of My Life (Bantu Records 888295398749). It would seem that one person’s “wonderfully idiosyncratic, pan- African pop” is the next person’s alarmingly Larry The Lamb-voiced meaningless pan-cul- tural mush. www.banturecords.com


2 The Furrow Collective Wild Hog In The Woods (Furrow Records FURR0011). New sin- gle from the Anglo-Scots fantastic four, joined by Alex Neilson and Stevie Jones for a gleeful, old-time, freak-folk stomper of an A- side, with a beguilingly atmospheric slice of English trad on the flip. Flipping marvellous. www.thefurrowcollective.co.uk


1 Josh Gray Josh Gray (EP) (Own Label, no cat no). Adept young Maryland-based singer-songwriter inspired by classic Ameri- cana story telling – tales of love, mortality and social justice – with a dash of punk (a Dead Milkmen cover). Earthy delivery, roughly straddling the Townes Van Zandt/Dylan/ Cash/Guthrie axis. File under confident and promising. www.joshgraymusic.com


1 John Somerville & Robbie MacLeod The Voyage Of The Hector (Fèis Rois, Feis- Rois003). Commissioned by Fèis Rois, accordeonist John Somerville has composed original, uplifting music, combining string section with traditional Scottish instruments and Gaelic vocals, to evoke the dramatic voy- age of a ship that carried 207 passengers from Ullapool to Canada in 1773. www.feisrois.org


1 Shari Kane & Dave Steele Feels Like Home (Big Bones Music no cat no). What hus- band and wife team Kane (Mudcat & Kane) and Steele (Big Dave & The Ultrasonics) lack in verve and swing, they make up for with the finesse of their twin guitar interplay and understated vocals on a range of covers. They could have been playing to each other on their back porch. Nice acoustic music with a small n. www.shariandaveblues.com


1 Afrika Mamas Afrika Mamas (ARC Music EUCD 2630). High-quality a cappella harmonies from South African ladies’ choir. Hardly novel, but no less stirring for that. www.arcmusic.co.uk


1 Joe Filisko & Eric Noden On The Move (no cat no). Filisko on harmonica and vocals with Noden on guitar, banjo guitar, harmoni- ca, and vocals, masters of their trade, deliver a fine-tuned, spirited (mostly acoustic) fourth album together, playing twelve nifty original blues and ragtime songs and instrumentals, recorded in a Chicago studio with Beau Sam- ple’s upright bass adding extra drive on some tracks. www.RootsDuo.com


2 Will Pound & Eddy Jay Ignite (Own label, no cat no). This teaming of young virtu- osi playing harmonica and piano accordeon (latest entry in the potentially-unlikely-bed- fellows stakes!) delivers a predictably breath- taking display sourcing tunes from every- where imaginable and brewing them up into a whirlwind 27-minute mini-album tour-de- force. www.poundandjay.co.uk


1 Flats And Sharps King Of My Mind (Move Your Hands MYHCD02). From Corn- wall, bluegrass line-up playing songs which are structured towards popular music. Only once do they display their bluegrass chops and their singing and songs come from another place. www.flatsandsharps.co.uk


@ Buika Vivir Sin Miedo (Warner Music Spain 825646–070459). Sad to hear a rare tal- ent subjected to London-Miami Beach sound machine processing. This insipid, narcissistic title (original material sung in English and Spanish) marks Buika’s unqualified makeover as a wholly unremarkable international pop singer. Eject. warnermusic.es


1 Hamish Napier The River (Strathspey Records SRCD01). Studio recording of flautist/ keyboardist’s recent Celtic Connections ‘New Voices’ commission: a musical portrait of the river Spey. Composed for flutes, whistles, piano, keyboards, double-bass, percussion, this is mellow, reflective music of repeated themes: like Ludovico Einaudi with a Scottish accent. www.hamishnapier.com


1 Burning Bridget Cleary These Are the Days (Own label, no cat no). Fifth album from these Philadelphia-based Celtic folk- sters. It’s a consistent set high on reel jigging flights and quirkily essaying jazz and Ameri- cana-like song idioms. Eclectic to disparity but rescued by a canny sense of musical know- how. www.burningbridgetcleary.com


1 Anders Røine Kristine Valdresdatter (ta:lik TA133). New soundtrack to 1930 Nor- wegian silent film about an orphan singer and her fiddle-playing lover. The package contains both CD and DVD. No subtitles, but a treat for devotees of fjords, mountains, goats and prolonged prog-folk guitar solos. www.talik.no


1 Various Artists The Rough Guide To A World Of Psychedelia (World Music Net- work RGNET910CD). WMN have already released compilations of psychedelic sounds from particular regions (Cambodia, Africa, Brazil) and genres (cumbia, Bollywood, salsa). This collection offers seventeen impressive selections drawn from these earlier sets. www.worldmusic.net/psychedelic


1 Henry Sparks Latest Waxing (Own label, BUXX0016). Bootfare songwriter’s modest five-track EP of distinctively English, pastoral folk-pop, with its heart in the right place. Standout track While We Were Build- ing Jerusalem features the guitar and voice of Oysterband’s Alan Prosser, and Catriona Bryce on cello. www.henrysparksmusic.co.uk


1 The Lowland And Border Pipers’ Soci- ety Reclaimed – Pipe Music and Song from the Scottish Borders (Greentrax CDTRAX390). The Border pipes/smallpipes tradition was dead until the Lowland And Border Pipers’ Society revived it in the 1980s. This fascinating album explores the tradition- al repertoire, performed by a variety of con- temporary Scottish pipers, singers and folk musicians. www.greentrax.com


1 Various Artists Africantunz Presents Undiscovered Africa (Africantunz, no cat no). Out of Africa, via Bristol, an anthology of what the continent’s musical youth is getting up to. Bit of reggae, bit of hip-hop and house, all sorts. Trance, dance, positive warmth. www.africantunz.com


1 Various Artists Scotia Nova – Songs For The Early Days Of A Better Nation (Greentrax CDTRAX 387). Paralleling similarly titled poetry book but – crucially – post-refer- endum, eighteen new songs from a variety of singer-songwriters, both well and lesser known. Worthy, sometimes a bit dour, with an air of downhearted despondency, but Brian McNeill and Mairi Campbell shine. www.greentrax.com


2 Cortijo 1969 –1971 The Ansonia Years (Vampisoul VAMPA CD166). This superb assemblage presents timbalero Rafael Cortijo Verdejo (1928–1982), who brought bomba and plena to New York and lent an Afro- Puerto Rican percussive intensity to the musi- cal mashup that became salsa, working with partner percussionist Francisco ‘Kako’ Bastar and singers Rafael ‘Chivirico’ Dávila, Ismael Rivera, and Johnny Vega. Classic! munster-records.com/en/label/vampisoul


1 Arum Arum (Own label, no cat no). Arum is a new Irish outfit including ex-Young Folk fiddler Karen Hickey and new flute won- derkid Conor Crimmins in tow. A good schlep of original tunes lifts this from the morass as does its melodic and unexpected improvisa- tional twists. www.arumireland.com


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