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shifting and jig-driven metamorphosis soon put those in the shade. Death & The Lady, similarly gothic and dark, gets into a neat guitar groove before the hapless heroine realises the Grim Reaper can’t be swayed.

But lest you conclude all these chaps are about is jamming round an old folk number, it’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the elegant Week Before Easter, a sympathetic setting with the percussion and understated guitar cradling Peter’s sad-eyed rendering, and Hard Times Of Old England which handily loses a lot of the bounce and boogie of its previous incarnation some 40 years back. The emphasis is all in the title, though, “I hope soon to have occasion to alter my song and sing oh the good times of old England,” – with the Tories don’t hold your breath! At least you can trust Gigspanner to deliver what they promise. Mad Tom Of Bedlam is another borrowing from Span stock. Knight’s kinship with Irish music is also celebrated by a lovely rendering of Sally Gardens.

However, just in case you were in any doubt as to this band’s potential, the opener Bows Of London, involves sister killing sister, bodily metamorphosis into musical instru- ments and voices from beyond, all delivered in ethno-ambient clothing.

Where to next? I’d personally like to see them expanding to include far more. There are keyboards, bass and moments of fuzz gui- tar here along with a healthy disregard for what’s conventional. There is as much hinted at here as delivered. Peter Knight’s ambition and drive is an untapped well. Raise your glass to potential, it’s here in spades.

www.gigspanner.com/ Simon Jones DREAMERS’ CIRCUS

Second Movement Go’ Danish Folk Music GO0315CD

Second Movement, but third album for Dan- ish trio Dreamers’ Circus, who are part of the European movement of folk-rooted instru- mental bands that began a couple of decades ago with Sweden’s Väsen, who offered some- thing radically different back then. With each release Dreamer’s Circus has made giant leaps, and this the biggest of all. It bristles with confidence, with nods to music as diverse as Danish folk and Erik Satie. Roman- ticism and impressionism figure heavily in the music, as with the raindrop piano notes on The Ballad Of Solitude Street. And to dispel the theory that folkies can’t play classical, Prelude To The Sun offers a dynamic rework- ing of Bach’s Violin Partita #3. The centre- piece, however, is Fragments Of Solbyn, an epic summation of the band, almost a small symphony in its ambition and performance.

The band’s first two releases showed the tremendous pace at which their music and compositions were growing. With Second Movement they’ve truly matured and become what they always promised to be – world class.

www.dreamerscircus.com Chris Nickson

FRED PIEK Ballads Ty Fred TF002

Once front man of excellent Dutch folk- rockers Fungus (reunion welcome anytime, chaps) whose musical adventures since have taken in all manner of styles, here Fred Piek delves once more into his initial enthusiasm, traditional song. Just him, a guitar and a stack of material which he fell in love with back in the day. The list documents songs from across the British Isles (what, no room for a Dutch trad or two?) familiar to anyone

with a trove of ’70s folk vinyl. The playing’s tender and chiming as befits a balladic collec- tion, especially on opener Young Edwin In The Lowlands and Jock O’ Hazeldean. Nor does Fred’s distinctly Dutch vocal detract in any way, quite the opposite as his concentra- tion adds to the atmosphere created by each track. His heart’s in the right place all through. The packaging is exemplary, replete with notes, sources, namechecks and lyrics as well as Colin Irwin’s happy memories of stum- bling across an earnest younger Piek at Loughborough festival. A genteel collection which is one to slip on to a decent deck with quality headphones. Very welcome.

www.fredpiek.nl Simon Jones

THE MOVING VIOLATIONS Elasticity Own Label 7 00261 39810 5

This trio of two fiddles, bass guitar and piano been long established on the eastern seaboard of the USA playing for the hugely popular contra-dancing circuit, You only have to listen to a few bars of their music to realise why their gig list is so full; this is lovely music for dancing.

They vary their instrumentation by a fid- dler doubling on mandolin from time to time and ther bassist switching to guitar or hand percussion. The role of the piano in dance bands can vary hugely and here Eric Eid-Rein- er changes his role from understated stop- time accompaniment, through harmonic accompaniment to times when he is taking a truly soaring lead role.

The repertoire of contra bands is often derived from European traditional sources which are then adapted for their own rhyth- mic needs. There are some Swedish and Irish tunes here but the majority are modern tunes and most of these are by three of the band members.

www.themovingviolations.com Vic Smith

GILL LANDRY Gill Landry ATO Records ATO0259

I’ve been saying for a while that Wagon Wheel is my generation’s version of American Pie. It’s the kind of song you sing around the campfire, lustily belting out a half-drunken, patriotic message of love to your country,

Gill Landry

slightly tinged with a bittersweet air of nostal- gia. For the band that wrote it (or kind of somewhat adapted it from Bob Dylan), it must seem like an albatross. It certainly obscures the real mission of Old Crow Medicine Show, a mission that’s in the name itself.

Far from a generic Americana act, OCMS have a burning mission to take American roots music back to the streets where it came from. Why else do they keep adding street perform- ers to their roster? Case in point, Mr Gill Landry, a prodigious busker of the old school, who joined in 2004 after meeting OMCS mem- bers busking on the streets of NewOrleans. Landry came out of underground Northwest jug band The Kitchen Syncopators (ex-band member Felix Hatfield is credited for songwrit- ing on Gill’s new album), and had a solo career of his own prior to OCMS, signing to large label Nettwerk for one of his solo albums.

Here on his new solo album on ATO Records, he seems a bit torn between his jug- band past and his Americana future. Songs like Take This Body (featuring Laura Marling) and Fennario (featuring Robert Ellis) hew the closest to his earlier solo material. They’ve got a kind of dapper Don Quixote vibe to them, world-weary on one hand but also tinged with an insatiable restlessness for adventure.

He used to turn his mind to old blues songs (his version of John Hurt’s Satisfied on the last Kitchen Syncopators album is deeply beautiful) and he retains some of the hurt earnestness of old country blues even in his own songwriting. These are the songs you’d expect a hitchiking, train-hopping adventurer to write, and that’s a key part of Landry’s music. But he’s also showcasing a larger, more mainstream sound, as in songs like Emily and Funeral In My Heart. Here the rough-and-tum- ble busker has been polished over by a kind of Tom Waits bohemian sound. It’s all done with a kind of ease that speaks of Gill’s roots as a street performer, where you had to earn your money through the force of your performance as well as the fact that he’s undoubtedly pol- ished his sound playing some of the biggest stages with Old Crow Medicine Show.

And throughout, his voice is the golden spike that unites all these different influences and ideas. Dusty and slightly gritty, worn by the road, his voice has held strong through- out his many different stages of work and continues to be his biggest strength. If you haven’t joined Landry on his travels yet, it’s about time to hop onboard.

www.gilllandrymusic.com Devon Leger