55 f PLAINSONG

Reinventing Richard: The Songs Of Richard Fariña Fledg’ling FLED3098

Iain Matthews was a mem- ber of Fairport Convention in 1967, when that band start- ed performing Reno Nevada and for him, “the hook was baited.” Andy Roberts, meanwhile, became entranced by the Appalachi- an dulcimer (an instrument

he played on the first solo album by Matthew’s erstwhile bandmate Richard Thompson) after hearing Richard Fariña on the radio, via John Peel.

Plainsong, the group they formed formed in 1972, called it a day in 2012 (with an album entitled Fat Lady Singing) but the approaching 50th anniversary of Fariña’s death in a 1966 motorcycle accident prompt- ed this unexpected reunion.

A bouzouki-led instrumental version of The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (AKA the air to My Lagan Love) opens proceedings (per- haps they felt Sandy Denny had already got that one covered) before Pack Up Your Sor- rows reveals the full Plainsong-effect with those soaring, intertwined voices and chim- ing acoustic guitars to the fore. They har- monise in classic American folk-rock style on songs like The Falcon, Hard Loving Loser and Another Country (which features the voice and guitar of Clive Gregson) breaking into joyful doo-wop on One Way Ticket. Pick of the bunch, for this listener, is Sombre Winds – a previously unrecorded song (which borrows the melody of Come All Ye Tramps And Hawkers) – simply and beautifully sung.

Roberts’ mandolin is an enlivening musi- cal presence and his electric guitar is deployed with a satisfying country-rock twang, underpinned by Mark Griffiths’ inven- tive bass playing.

Reinventing Richard is an album that sounds better with every listen. Far from being a mere wallow in nostalgia, it docu- ments a much-loved band re-energised in cel- ebration of an inspirational artist.

www.fledglingrecords.co.uk Steve Hunt

KARDEŞ TÜRKÜLER Kerwanê / Best Of Network NW234044

Kardes¸ Türküler are a great (in both senses of the word) folk-rock band who com- bine abundant musicality with passion and cultural engagement (meaning they’re robustly egalitarian in their embrace of all the Anatolian cultures, and

when it’s time to stand up and be counted – like supporting the Gezi protests – they don’t hesitate). They’re my favourite Anato- lian band, and thus I write this review with pleasure and a little trepidation. It’s an hon- our to try to do them justice, while the trepi- dation comes from wondering if I’ll agree or not with the choice of tracks for this ‘Best Of’ (an off-putting tag for a band who’ve released five albums proper, including many splendid performances, plus two soundtrack albums). The packaging gets it a bit wrong I think; very much in the Network style but the live photos (they’re wonderful live) are not very good (like press shots for an evan- gelical musical) and not very relevant to a compilation of studio recordings. The sleevenotes (German, English and French) are interesting as they say something about what each piece is, though I’d have liked full translations of the lyrics.

But none of that matters compared to the music. Of the ten fabulous songs (shared between three lead singers and a host of musicians) in my KT ‘best of’, only three or four make it onto the fifteen song Kerwanê (Caravan) which means, I guess, that the com- pilers, Christian Scholze and Barlas¸ Beyaztas

¸,

have a somewhat different perspective on the band’s work than I do. Interesting. Any- way, I would have included about half the songs on this compilation and instead of the other half I would have made different choic- es. Which means for me this isn’t a definitive selection but certainly is a very good intro- duction to the band’s work (and there’s none other, so the first-stepping choice is to buy this album or one of the studio albums – I’d start with Do˘gu). Curiously, there’s only one track from the band’s last album – 2011’s Çoçuk Haklı – and it’s not, I think, the best track either. However, I’m more than happy to recommended this compilation.

www.networkmedien.de /

www.kardesturkuler.com Nick Hobbs

JOHN RENBOURN The Attic Tapes Riverboat TUGCD1089

The Attic Tapes is a superla- tive hour-long collection of previously unreleased recordings and early works by the late John Renbourn, one of the guitar world’s key innovators. In the words of the man himself, this collec- tion represents “what was

happening to me at the time and a reflection of the general scene,” – the relevant vintage being around 1963-64, two or three years before Renbourn’s first album for Transat- lantic, convincing early tryouts of a few of whose tunes appear here.

The back-story is that these recordings originate within a tape-box recently discov-

John Renbourn

ered by John’s old friend Mac MacLeod in his attic. MacLeod, we learn, was the man responsible for Renbourn’s first encounter with Davy Graham’s iconic Anji – although Renbourn states apocryphally in his booklet notes that Mac got it from Mick Softley who’d been in Paris at the same time as Davy. Whatever, Renbourn’s “unstable” (his word, not mine!) version of Anji (apparently dated 1962 on the box) is of considerable interest, as are the various self-penned instrumentals like the wonderful Celtic-baroque-folk- meets-Lead Belly opus Rosslyn.

And likewise the remainder of the items on this disc, a mixture of home tapes and live gig recordings. The former category contains a couple of tracks (Cocaine and It Hurts Me Too) featuring MacLeod, whereas in the lat- ter category, two (Picking Up The Sunshine and Come Back Baby) feature Beverley Mar- tyn (then Kuetner), while Spider John Koern- er appears on Blues Run The Game. In the vein of late-night cabaret-style finale, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out features Davy Graham on vocals. The live category also includes a Les Cousins run- through of I Know You Babe which is any- thing but routine, brilliantly exemplifying Renbourn’s natural mastery of the art of cre- ative and meaningful self-accompaniment.

Inevitably, the sound quality of several of the recordings might be judged a touch rudimentary, but the immense historical interest and the classy, unassumingly virtu- oso musicianship on display transcends any small deficiencies in these unexpectedly- well-turned-out masterings. The only minor drawback, perhaps, is the difficulty of identi- fying individual live recordings within the disc’s wide time-frame.

Sadly, John Renbourn died shortly after completing this project, but there can be no more fitting memorial, for it’s an outstand- ing collection all round, and yes, an essential purchase.

www.worldmusic.net David Kidman

Photo: Brian Shuel