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With their second release, singing their all- original material in English, Matuto has pol- ished an unlikely melding of musical currents, offering a plaintive contemporaneous social commentary, as on the somber, halting cho- rus of The Devil’s Hand: “Some people ask for favours / Some people make demands / Some people act like angels / Then they slap you with the devil’s hand.”


Contrast that with the fingerpicking gui-


tar, lively fiddle, accordeon and Brazilian hand percussion of Horse Eat Corn, an instru- mental that any bluegrass fan could appreci- ate; the menacing berimbau-accordeon testi- fying of Drag Me Down, a defiant rejection of Satan’s quotidian temptations; the forro lilt of Demon Chopper; and the hoedown swing of Chicken Teeth. Behold, music for rootless cosmopolitans.


motema.com Michael Stone BERNADETTE MORRIS


All The Ways You Wander Own Label no cat no


Originally from Lisgallon, Co Tyrone, now based in Belfast, Bernadette Morris has packed some experience into her 23 years. From singing at Feiseanna to performing at American Irish festivals and also working as a TV producer where she has rubbed shoulders with Paul Brady, Manus Lunny et al, the young singer and fiddler has learned and absorbed technique and ability. Her first album, All the Ways You Wander, highlights a promising talent. The Cara Dillon vocal influ- ence is obvious in the distinctive twang and childlike purity but there is a more rugged elemental feel to her vocal passages best found on Once I Loved and Lord Donegal and A Roving On A Winter’s Night where she assimilates Dervish’s Cathy Jordan vocally. The song choice, while bent on a Northern axis, also includes more generic material from Ire- land and Newfoundland, the latter repre- sented on Sweet Forget Me Not and John Spillane’s plaintive title track. She is also a tasty fiddler on a set of jigs, Fraher’s Jig, with Ciaran Hanna’s concertina. While the talent is still raw and unvarnished, the evidence on All The Ways You Wander suggests that some- thing intriguing is afoot. Bernadette Morris reveals herself as another interesting rough diamond from the Ulster canon.


www.bernadettemorris.com John O’Regan


CAZ FORBES & STE MONCRIEFF


The Green Lady Haul Away Recordings HAR 103


Carolyn Forbes and Stephen Moncrieff teamed up a few years ago when both were performing on the London folk scene. Calling themselves The Raven, they released a taster EP, followed by the self-recorded full-length- er Black Is The Colour, which was acclaimed by cognoscenti of pensive dark-folk.


The Green Lady is a fully-fledged Doug Bailey-produced studio set which further demonstrates – and, for the most part, amply justifies – their spacious and considered way with traditional song. On items like Lowlands Away and Geordie, this gambit really pays div- idends, making compelling weather of com- pelling tales, while The Leaving Of Liverpool sheds its usual (and to my mind inappropriate) sailors’-tavern seadog-singalong garb and reveals its true tragic essence. A drawback, however, can be that, although consistent as an indicator of the level of care and delibera- tion informing each interpretation, this can seem a touch unrelieved over the course of a


whole album. Furthermore, the decision to slow down may place the singer in danger of over-emoting (Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy being a case in point, some mannered aspi- rants and forced delivery making the tale lose rather than gain immediacy in the telling). Having said that, although one particular strength of this duo lies in their creative, and often chilling, vocal harmonising, Caz’s solo singing embodies both serious beauty and understatement, while Ste makes both an ide- ally expressive foil for Caz (as on the a cappel- la Young Edwin In The Lowlands) and a keenly contrasted voice when taking the lead.


A central feature of Caz and Ste’s appeal is their ability to focus the listener’s attention on the songs’ narratives through a deliberate paring-down of instrumental backing to (usu- ally) just a gently picked guitar, with occa- sional concertina or flute embellishment (oh, and some gorgeous cello from Gill Redmond on several tracks). But such is the duo’s skill that, contrarily perhaps, you almost don’t notice the backdrops, except maybe on the CD’s few uptempo moments like the compar- atively jaunty Riding Down To Portsmouth and the indignant Maggie May (where Caz’s Australian accent percolates to the surface!).


Generally though, Caz and Ste’s is an intimate, involving and strangely comforting approach, notwithstanding the discomfort- ing nature of much of their storytelling, as so potently defined by The Green Lady itself (a singularly unnerving folk tale drawn from Ruth L Tongue’s book The Chime Child); it’s therefore fitting that their final gesture here is to lull us to sleep with The Little Fish. A very persuasive record indeed.


www.forbesmoncrieff.co.uk David Kidman


PIERRE BENSUSAN Encore DADGAD Music DM1013


For someone with a performing career going back over 40 years, Pierre Bensusan has been rather under-recorded live: the earliest solo guitar tracks on this three-CD set only go as far back as 1998, and most date from 2002 on. Not that we’re complaining, mark you: there’s enough here to satisfy the most demanding fan, and each track is a little mas- terpiece. From his days as a teenage award- winning guitar prodigy in France, Bensusan has taken Davy Graham’s DADGAD tuning and brought influences of his Algerian, Span- ish, Sephardic and Persian background into an extraordinary mix that infuses all his tunes with a soulful expressiveness; add to this his


Pierre Bensusan


VARIOUS ARTISTS Trac – 10 Mewn Bws Sain SCD2696


Released last year, this is an intriguing experi- mental compilation project from Wales’ folk music advocacy agency, trac, enabled by Lot- tery and Arts Council Funding and lauded from Welsh rooftops for much of last year. Things move fast in Welsh folk these days, but I am told the CD is still selling well and has been well received and praised national- ly, coming as it does at a time when all things Cymric-folk are burgeoning, and develop- mental paths being boldly forged anew…


Once upon a time, folk-pickers, back in 2013, fiddler Angharad Jenkins of tunes bands Calan and DNA, and project director of trac, set herself the challenge of assembling a bunch of unrelated Welsh musicians – not all


discovery of Irish and Breton musics, here dis- played in a breathtaking Celtic Medley, and you have a true one-man exponent of world music.


And although he is best known for his solo work, touring incessantly, Bensusan has always been open to collaborations and experiments: the five tracks recorded in 1975 with Bill Keith’s band (with Jim Rooney and Leon Francioli) show him as a terrific blue- grass/ newgrass mandolin player, who could have made a career out of that instrument. On these CDs there are also a few excursions with keyboard player Jordan Rudess which, though straying a bit too far towards Euro- pomp-rock for this reviewer’s taste, show empathy and awareness between the musi- cians. What’s most interesting are the con- trasts between Bensusan solo and unadorned, and solo and with a battery of effects (this has become almost commonplace (and in passing, when done well is great – see KT Tunstall – and when done badly is execrable – no names, no pack drill), but Bensusan was a pioneer in this field and is among the most intelligent players to lug all this hardware around with him, always subordinating the technology to the musicality.


This is on the monumental side to take in at one sitting, with over three hours of gui- tars and Bensusan’s high, scatting vocals, but take it one CD at a time and it’s a masterclass in composition and virtuoso playing (my fin- gers can’t even reach the position of his left hand on the front cover, let alone hold it down) – a must for all guitarists and lovers of high-end guitar music.


www.pierrebensusan.com Ian Kearey


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