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and performed for the big-audience TV Lucia celebration, Ljus I Mörkrets Tid (Light In Times of Darkness), is here, a beautiful, serene secu- lar paean to warmth between people in this time of cold and hate.


Onward, through a tune for Estonian fid- dler friend Johanna-Adele Jussi, a solo tradi- tional slångpolska, the title track which is a calmly floating, reflective wordless song in which the instrumentation arcs to and from the might of the full ensemble, and more including a stately polska on four nyckel- harpas, all played by Emilia, that shows how well the instrument covers the whole range of a string quartet.


For those so equipped, it’s a surround- sound CD. Sounds fine in plain stereo though.


bis.se Andrew Cronshaw


OWEN WOODS In Any Weather Talking Cat TCCD1602


Back in those early days, it was nearly all guitars, mostly not played very skilfully. Then Davy Graham et al emerged as role models and as interest in British as well as American traditions began to emerge, other instruments gradually


became commonplace, fiddles, concertinas, hammer dulcimers… and melodeons. There was a dichotomy about learning melodeon; it offered the beginner a lot of encourage- ment in mastering tunes easily but progress towards skilled and distinctive playing proved elusive. Fortunately role models developed here as well, most notably John Kirkpatrick and young players who wanted to take the instruments way beyond the basics started to emerge. Here is a good example of the latest batch.


Owen Woods is heard playing a range of


solo, mainly D/G melodeons. The originality of his approach is best heard on well-known morris tunes such as Flowers Of Edinburgh, Bonny Green and Cuckoo’s Nest where he often shifts the usual melodic emphasis and produces interesting variations on the effects the basic bass buttons can produce.


Unlike many players of this instrument, he is at his best playing slowly rather than in dance rhythm and the standout tracks are Vaughan Williams’ Linden Lea, a composi- tion by Edvard Grieg and more particularly his own inventive piece, Citalopram, where his his practice of holding on to his bass chords is most effective. Then he ups the tempo again and is clearly enjoying himself on the final track Liberty Bell… or at least the last-named track for there is a ‘hidden’ jokey deliberately mis-played Country Gar- dens at the end; unacknowledged – proba- bly just as well!


melodeonmusic.com Vic Smith KEITH CHRISTMAS


Crazy Dancing Days Keith Christmas BECN004


Keith Christmas first gained recognition for his guitar playing on several songs (including Letter To Hermione) on David Bowie’s 1969 Space Oddity album, and for his own debut Stimu- lus, released the same year. This album’s title track – a


companion piece to fellow-traveller Steve Tilston’s The Road When I Was Young, casts an eye back to those heady times, when: “Les


Keith Christmas


Cousins, Soho, was the place to be…” This album, however, is far from an exercise in misty-eyed nostalgia. Inspired to start writing again in 2015, Christmas delivers a dozen new, politically-charged songs which are fully in the present.


Cross The Water is an impassioned plea for the acceptance of refugees. When The New Man Comes To Power chants a litany of current societal ills – wealthy tax avoiders, food banks, zero hours contracts, etc, and If The Young Don’t March asserts the right to clean air and water.


Talking To The Dead Again evokes the structures and dexterous acoustic picking of Michael Chapman, while Christmas’s strident vocals on songs like Flow Through Me recall the grit and growl of Free’s Paul Rogers. A true solo record (just one voice and guitar throughout) this is nonetheless a varied album which ranges from the urgent bottle- neck boogie of Cover It Up, to the gently melodic closer Small Brass Box. A powerful and impassioned album by a ’60s survivor with a bellyful of righteous fire.


keithchristmas.com Steve Hunt


MOUSSU T E LEI JOVENTS Navega!World Village 479122


For those fRoots readers who have inexplicably missed them before, Moussu T e lei Jovents are a group based somewhere between Mar- seilles, La Ciotat and Recife in Brazil and the lavishly pack- aged Navega! is their ninth release. Marseilles is a melt-


ing pot and Moussu T’s music reflects this with its sultry mix of blues, Brazilian music and much more.


The opening track, the aptly named Cos-


mopolida, is a rocksteady mix of Tuareg gui- tar riffs and blues, while other tracks such as Liseron and Aquo Mi Fa Mau reveal a pre- occupation with French chanson and the songs of earlier Marseilles-based songwriters such as Vincent Scotto and Victor Gelu. This is also reflected in the subject matter of the


MARTHA MAVROIDI Thread And Needle Violins 01-16


A departure for Greece’s Mavroidi – an entirely vocal album. She’s joined by the Yase- mi vocal quartet, of which she’s a member, and a large cast of other female and male singers, mostly Greek but including Bulgaria’s Eva Quartet, as well as multi-tracking herself, in songs mostly from Greek tradition or her own writings or settings.


From melismatic Greek and wider-Balkan polyphonic soaring and soft seductive har- monising through Indian-style ‘taka-tum’ tabla-vocalising, wordless Swingles-ishness, Aka Pygmy hocketting, to perky pom-tiddle vocal accompaniment, while it’s essentially Greek music the range of styles and influ- ences is wide.


That, and the variety and individuality of the vocal textures and Martha’s own versatili- ty in leading or blending with them, makes the whole thing a good through-listen with- out any sense of a lack of instrumental contri- bution.


marthamavroidi.com Andrew Cronshaw


songs: fishing, old French movie stars, the steel cranes of Marseilles, the sea (always the sea) and, of course, love and sex.


The lyrics are printed in French and English which is a nice bonus if your French is limited. The band sound is directed by the vocals of Tatou and the guitar and banjo playing of Blu. It is a potent mix, unmistak- ably French yet distinctly blues too. I love Blu’s banjo playing, which is his own, no hill- billy or bluegrass picking here, more a riffing banjo which really make tracks such Louise B stand out. I also like his guitar and slide play- ing but could do without the distortion on a couple of the denser tracks. I know lots of people will love it but it is the sort of distor- tion I dislike: turn that damn thing down and use the natural distortion of a good old valve amp! That aside, an otherwise excellent release and a band that cries out to be booked on main stages, Saturday night, at festivals across the world.


moussuteleijovents.com Mark T


Photo: © Judith Burrows


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