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ROBERT KIRBY When Day Is Done Ace Records CDTOP1517
It was Robert Kirby’s arranging which gave Nick Drake’s songs their brittle, haunting, almost autumnal finish and this, the first trib- ute to his orchestration, is long overdue. When I heard rumours about a compilation the thought did cross my mind that it’d be loaded with the familiar and predictable. Thankfully, however, compiler Bob Stanley is a magpie who has balanced the known with gems that required serious archaeology.
Taking inspiration from George Martin’s
treatment of She’s Leaving Home, Kirby’s work became de rigueur within the nascent folk-rock community on labels like Island/B&C, suiting the times perfectly. His innocence and fragility came to adorn the songs of Spirogyra, Steve Ashley, Vashti Bun- yan, Dana Gillespie, Shelagh McDonald and Keith Christmas whose Forest And The Shore is rediscovered here as an exemplary melding of acoustic guitar with baroque strings, chorals and cheesy Hammond organ fills. Elsewhere Tim Hart’s very essence of trad, Dancing At Whitsun has a maypole melody but Kirby’s counterpoint is a heartfelt score that wraps around a prancing guitar reflect- ing why only ladies go dancing and where all the men have gone.
The names come thick and fast, Sandy
Denny’s Silver Threads & Golden Needles has Sally Army brass transporting it from coun- try’n’western roots to the Yorkshire Dale. Vashti Bunyan’s Rainbow River is fairytale innocence with recorders splendidly evoking naivety, while the Shirley Collins/Steve Ashley duet Honour Bright, a late ’70s demo with rolling keyboard, perfectly captures the essence of both singers.
By the late ’70s the scope of Kirby’s work had stretched to Lyndsey De Paul, John Cale and Elton John, way beyond the majority of the work collected here. However there remains a diamond not yet hinted at, whose source is an obscure album on Decca by Cam- bridge folk rockers Spriguns, Time Will Pass (an original will set you back four hundred smackers). Kirby added strings and wood- wind to a few tracks under the watchful eye of Sandy Roberton. The selected cut here, White Witch, has singer and writer Mandy Morton’s superb voice cloaked snugly in a magnificent setting which lifts the track to another level entirely. Sadly when the ’70s became the ’80s Robert Kirby gave up orches- trating and got an office job, though as he passed in 2009 he was plotting with Vashti Bunyan once more. When Day Is Done hope- fully won’t be the last collection of his labours, but until there are further volumes this is both enchanting and vital.
acerecords.co.uk Simon Jones
GAITEIROS DE LISBOA A História Uguru UGURU026
Portugal’s Gaiteiros de Lisboa’s 1995 debut Invasões Bárbaras is still on my ‘play to peo- ple’ shelf. Wonderful gutsy, resonant male group vocals, with a very distinctive, wide- ranging instrumental armoury of reed, flute, brass and percussion instruments, with deep skin-headed drums and ingenious invented instruments made from plumbing tubing and the like. It’s full of the grain and character of the non-fado traditional musics of Portugal, particularly those of Alentejo in the south and Trás-os-Montes in the north-east.
As the band name suggests, they do use bagpipes, and indeed co-founder Paulo Mar- inho has become much involved in the bag- pipe world, and I reviewed his excellent solo multi-bagpipe album in the March issue of
fRoots, but the name was initially partly an observation that Lisbon was notably devoid of the instrument, the gaita de foles being an instrument of Portugal’s north.
There have been five more releases since then, and very recent substantial and rejuve- nating line-up changes to the sextet includ- ing the departure of original members José Manuel David and Rui Vaz, the arrival of Car- los Ferreira, Miguel Quitério and Sebastião Antunes, and return of Paulo Charneca, and so I guess a new album is likely, but this com- pilation of 20 splendid, varied tracks from all the CDs, plus one unreleased 2017 track and a storming live closer Lenga Lenga, is an excel- lent, well-flowing condensation of the band’s ongoing essence. The source material of many tracks is traditional, while quite a few are compositions in like vein, mostly by the band’s other remaining co-founder Carlos Guerreiro.
uguru.net Andrew Cronshaw
THE SHERMAN HOLMES PROJECT
The Richmond SessionsMC MC 0082
The Holmes Brothers were a great trio who always performed and recorded their bluesy gospel music with commitment and passion. Sadly drummer Popsy Dixon and guitarist Wendell Holmes both passed away in 2015 leaving only Wendell’s elder brother, bassist and keyboard player, Sherman to carry the torch, and on The Richmond Sessions the torch burns very brightly indeed. In the trio Wendell usually sang the lead vocals with, at times, Popsy letting loose with his astonishing falsetto with Sherman taking something of a back seat vocally. But here he is, front and centre, delivering the goods with just as much vocal power and panache as his late brother. As you would expect, many of the items have a gospel/religious slant with Rock Of Ages, I Want Jesus and Home- less Child all getting a good airing but Sher- man also braces up to such soul standards as Breaking Up Some- body’s Home and Dark End Of The Street. The real surprise element of this set is the inclu- sion of some country oriented material with Vince Gill’s Liza Jane, Jim Lauderdale’s Lone- some Pines and Carter Stanley’s White Dove slotting seamlessly into the mix helped along by a stellar cast of musicians that includes master dobro player Rob Ickes, Jarod Pool (mandolin, Tele- caster guitar), Sammy Shelor (banjo), and David Van Deventer (fiddle). There’s also strong backing vocals from a female trio called The Ingram- ettes. Produced under the auspices of the Vir- ginia Folklife Pro- gram/Virginia Foun- dation for the Human- ities, Sherman Holmes
Ebo Taylor
has stepped up to the plate and hit on a win- ning formula that does his home state and the memory of The Holmes Brothers proud.
mc-records.com Dave Peabody
EBO TAYLOR Yen Ara Mr Bongo MRBCD155
Now 81, the veteran Ghanaian singer, gui- tarist, arranger and bandleader Ebo Taylor has a career spanning more than six decades and could be forgiven for coasting as the years take their toll. Well, not a bit of it. This latest album since his career renaissance of a few years ago, bristles with energy, righteous anger and the pure joy of making music.
Producer Justin Adams has done a fine job here in marshalling Taylor and his Salt- pond City Band through this nine-track set of highlife, Afrobeat, funk and other related West African dance rhythms. It’s that rare thing in this day and age, an album that main- tains a high standard throughout. I’m current- ly particularly enjoying the ferocious, Afrobeat-tinged Mumudey Mumudey and the rattling Ghanaian funk of Mind Your Own Business. Taylor’s in fine voice throughout and delivers some lovely melodic guitar solos.
When I saw Taylor with this band a few years ago at East London’s sadly now defunct New Empowering Church, his steaming hot late-night set felt like the final celebration of a long, long career. But based on the evi- dence here, I wouldn’t put it past him to come back over to the UK soon and deliver this material with just as much age-defying energy. Well, here’s hoping…
facebook.com/EboTaylorGhana/ Jamie Renton
Photo: © Judith Burrows
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