59 f


singing the part of Rod Stewart’s Maggie May, Naomi Bedford is Kris Kristofferson’s dream lover from Me & Bobby McGee or – almost surreally – Alasdair Roberts is Dino from Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back In Town. Rotheray’s imagination does, however, occa- sionally evoke some genuinely intriguing responses – Mary Coughlan gives us a won- derfully indignant justification for her appalling behaviour as Kenny Rogers’ heart- less Lucille and Dr Hook’s Sylvia’s Mother develops into a mini soap opera with Jackie Oates as an unrepentant Mrs Avery – much to the rebellious fury of her daughter emotion- ally and convincingly depicted by Bella Hardy.


For this alone it’s great fun and for Rotheray – who previously dipped his toe in the British folk maelstrom with the fascinat- ing, if flawed, The Life Of Birds – the saving grace is a succession of decent, ably construct- ed songs which mostly stand up in their own right, certainly in the hands of his chosen artists given pleasingly sympathetic arrange- ments. When you hear Lisa Knapp singing the beautiful opening track you really don’t need to know that she’s Billy Paul’s shamefaced adultress from Me & Mrs Jones or that Kris Drever is Elton John’s blinded Vietnam War veteran Daniel to appreciate these are both majestic tracks.


Time now maybe for some answers from some of the traditional ballad heroes – Long Lankin anyone? Lord Barnard? Fanny Blair? Definitely Fanny Blair…


www.davidrotheray.com Colin Irwin


RAJAB SULEIMAN & KITHARA Chungu Buda 860248


Oddly, Zanzibar and Oman were once one country, linked and separated by 2500 miles of Indian Ocean – and this helps explain the currents you can feel in this voluptuous, complex music. On one hand you have the grand dramatic sweep of an


Arab orchestra, and then you have softer, gentler African currents, easy-going vocals and relaxed drumbeats. Head office meets tropical outpost, and very engrossing it is. The subtleties are enormous – rhythm and melody, time signatures and organisation – nothing is obvious – and yet the mood remains kind and welcoming. Taarab is the name of this Zanzibarean music, and for a long time is was supplied by large music clubs. An ensemble might have half a dozen instruments and a dozen or more singers. But in recent times smaller bands could earn more, and line-ups shrank. Kithara are about the only ones left doing things the traditional way. It is not simply a matter of size. But you can’t fail to be impressed by the range of effects possible with double bass, lute, violin, Suleiman’s central qanun zither, bass guitar, accordeon, percussion – and upwards of half a dozen singers. Happy surprises abound. Sudden passages of hard- er rock rhythm make the point that this music is alive and living now. This album, number eight of Buda’s Zanzibara series, was recorded in late 2013.


www.budamusique.com Rick Sanders


ADAM SUTHERLAND Squall Errogie Records B00DM8FNWC


In researching my feature on the Treacherous Orchestra (page 49), I’ve listened to a lot of the members’ solo albums and side projects.


Squall is the debut ‘solo’ release from fiddler Adam Sutherland, and is the best of the lot. Sutherland, also known for his work with the Peatbog Faeries, Croft No 5 and Session A9, is joined by guitarist Marc Clement, bassist John Paul Spiers and drummer Iain Copeland.


With such a tight Glasgow scene, some of his compatriots’ efforts have sounded a bit samey, but despite the presence of both a current and former A9 collegue, Squall is an album of evocative and fresh music. It com- prises nine self-composed instrumentals recorded live in front of a small audience, but with most of the applause removed. Suther- land’s fiddling is effortlessly expressive, and the backing takes the recording in a jazz direction. While there are plenty of gentle, contemplative numbers, they are matched by the more vigorous outings. The live sound is beautifully captured and full of delicate little touches – hear Sutherland scraping out those last notes on the strings at the end of Rosie Shand Of Grantown for example.


It’s all very neatly packaged in a visually satisfying digipack by designer and photogra- pher Somhairle MacDonald, who seems to be the man of the moment in Scotland, with other credits including albums by Ross Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson, Salt House and Rachel Newton. All very appropriate for an exquisite release that deserves much more exposure than it’s had to date.


www.adamsutherland.co.uk Christopher Conder


SHANREN


Left Foot Dance Of The Yi Riverboat Records TUGCD 1075


Our astute editor, noting my enthusiasm for DaWang- Gang’s Wild Tune Stray Rhythm last year, opined that I’d probably enjoy this Chinese release too. He’s quite right (of course) but this is a very different kettle of folk-rock fish indeed,


with the progressive, folkadelic workouts of DWG eschewed in favour of short, snappy songs, all (but one) clocking in at under four minutes, and almost a quarter of them under two. Their material is traditional, sourced from their home territory in the mountainous Yunnan region of south-west- ern China, and performed on both tradition- al and modern instruments.


Shanren


Shanren (whose name translates as ‘mountain men’) began in the 1990s, “buzzing off red-hot western rock, heard on illegally imported cassettes”, and incorporat- ing the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Red Hot Chili Peppers into their indigenous traditional music. While these early western influences are still very much to the fore in the electric riffage of Happy New Year, this album is marked by a gleeful, bordering-on-the- bewildering eclecticism, constantly juxtapos- ing and contrasting ancient and modern and eastern and western sounds, right from the opening Wandering with its unaccompanied voices over a sonic backdrop of tribal field recordings and sampled street sounds.


You want some comparisons? OK, try these for size. The urgent drums, flute and chanted vocals of La Suo Mi bring Kíla to mind, while it really isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine the steady, insistent groove of Thirty Years as a Chinese cousin of Tamikrest. The sparse high, lonesome Left Foot Dance Of The Yi, meanwhile, suggests a strong kinship with the likes of (Appalachian musician) Roscoe Holcomb. There’s a whole academic thesis waiting to be written about “commonalities in mountain musics of the world” or somesuch by some cleverclogs.


For those of us who prefer to dance in the open air and be thought fools (rather than attempting to write theses, thus remov- ing all doubt), there’s plenty to shake our proverbial tail-feathers to, as Shanren have a crack at rap on Song Of The Wa and go reggae-lite with one-drop drums and squelchy wah-wahs on The Crab. It’s all splen- didly audacious stuff which still never (to this pair of western ears, at least) loses its core identity as traditional Chinese music. While some of the stylistic fusions may convince more than others on first hearing, it’s an indisputably impressive record, and one which fosters the conviction that this is a ‘must see’ live band at any festival they appear at, this summer.


Their success at Womad can be taken as a given, but I’d love to see these mountain folk on the Mountain Stage at Green Man Festival too. Why? Consider this. Here’s a band with danceable folk songs loaded with clanging- great pop hooks and anthemic chorus har- monies, who’ve come along just at the point where the Lumineers and Mumford & Sons audience are probably ready for something familiar, but different. Fingers crossed...


www.worldmusic.net Steve Hunt


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