f56 POLICE DOG HOGAN


Wild By The Side Of The Road Major Tom Records MTCD005


Just how many dogs are there? Ferocious Dog, Mad Dog Mcrea, Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs… running round barking everywhere… snapping at your heels. The pack needs a leader, timely then the arrival of the next offering from Police Dog Hogan. Wild By The Side Of The Road it transpires shades the decent side of excellent.


Adept at day jobs of significance, Police


Dog’s casual beginnings belie their careful construction and certainly a more serious pro- file hike in 2016, including much festival action and tours to locations of musical meaning such as Nashville, where one Bob Harris duly spotlighted them with session slots. Easily assimilating roots influence both from the West and west of the Severn, identi- ty is only a problem for those who think too deeply. The rest of us should be too busy dancing, contemplating, sympathising or appreciating… respond as appropriate.


Opener Tyburn Jig sets out with march- ing rhythms before exploding in good time fireworks around a chorus. Bizarre yet addic- tive, the lyric shuffles the dreams of a Jack- the-lad condemned to face the drop. Dixie is a chooglin’ piece of melodic joyousness, all regret and maybe, a British shot of E Street Band. Devon Brigade is the reflection of an honest soul deep in the trenches of World War I, wishing he was elsewhere, dreading what’s coming; the minimal arrangement accentuates the bittersweet elements.


Yesterdays’ men were once Tomorrow’s


Boys, a backwoods stomper with clucking banjo leading into In The Country, smiling barroom honkytonk with zip, vim and romance. Vocalist James Studholme’s lived-in, roadhouse voice leads everyone towards a hootenanny before the track closes, leaving you breathless and only a third a way through the CD!


So it goes friends. There isn’t a weak track here and I don’t have the space to wit- ter on, just know that Our Lady Of The Snows is one of the most bleak yet effective songs you’ll hear in many a year. If Leonard Cohen had written it they’d be knocking the word


Police Dog Hogan


‘genius’ around. Closing out Fare You Well is the sort of song they’ll be sending fans home with for years to come: the party’s over, it’s time to go but let’s do it all again the next time we’re passing.


You need to see them live to experience the promise liberally scattered here. They’re touring through the first part of the year and hopefully well beyond and into the summer. Could one of the albums of the year be with us so early? Looks that way. Scintillating music.


policedoghogan.com Simon Jones VARIOUS ARTISTS


Como Un Lunar: Boleros De La Costa Chica Discos Corasón COE 193


LAS HERMANAS GARCÍA Que Sepan Todos Discos Corasón COE 192


It’s doubtful that listeners abroad would know the classic sounds of southern Mexico without the efforts of ethnomusicologist Eduardo Llerenas, who began recording the country’s roots music in 1971. Llerenas co- founded Discos Corasón in 1992 with Mary Farquharson, herself co-founder of the World Circuit label with Anne Hunt. Discos Corasón’s dedication to Mexican and Caribbean tradi- tions brought Eliades Ochoa to World Circuit’s attention and among other projects informed the massively popular Buena Vista Social Club.


Two new Discos Corasón releases – see more from page 40 – feature boleros of the Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, the Pacific littoral known as La Costa Chica. If the English translation of Como Un Lunar, the compilation title track, does not do justice to its romantic connotation, ‘like a mole’ expresses an existential acceptance that all humans are flawed beings, but nonetheless deserving of love and compassion, capturing the tragic spirit of the traditional repertoire.


Como Un Lunar presents five artists:


singer-guitarist Pedro Torres, accompanied on requinto by Alberto Urbán, grandnephew of renowned Oaxacan Afro-mestizo compos- er Álvaro Carrillo (1921–1969), whose boleros dominate the recording; singer Fidela Peláez, whose father Higinio was a compadre of Car-


rillo and a performer-composer in his own right; Afro-Mexican singer-composer Chogo Prudente; Los Tres Amuzgos, an indigenous Amuzgo trio reunited for this session; and Las Hermanas García, fifteen- and sixteen-year- old sisters Celia and Laura. These are not pol- ished artists but musicians rooted in the com- munities where they have honed their craft, before audiences well versed in the original style. The illustrated digipak includes notes in Spanish, and lyric transcriptions in Spanish and Amuzgo.


The repertoire reflects the influence of trío romántico style originators Los Panchos, Los Tres Reyes and Los Tres Ases, whose bril- liant vocal harmonies, lyrical heartbreak and affecting guitar-requinto melodies captivat- ed the Spanish-speaking world via radio, recordings and Mexican cinema. In different ways that legacy has inspired popular artists from Ritchie Valens to Eydie Gormé, Lola Bel- trán, Daniel Santos, Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Lila Downs, Gaby Moreno and so many others.


Of Amuzgo decent, from Guerrero, Las Hermanas García are Celia (lead vocals) and Laura (the older sister, on guitar and second voice), accompanied by César Adrián Reyna (bajo) and the girls’ father Mariano (requinto, arrangements; their mother also is a compos- er). Como Un Lunar presents the sisters’ rendi- tion of the title track and other Carrillo classics, including his best-known bolero Sabor A Mí.


The recording debut of Las Hermanas


García, Que Sepan Todos, appears simultane- ously, featuring four additional Carrillo boleros and several by his Guerrero understudy Indalecio Ramírez (1927-2015), including the title track. Recalling the heyday of Las Her- manas Águila, Las Hermanas Núñez and Las Padilla, who defined the popular female duo format of the 1950s and 1960s, the García sis- ters have been hailed as avatars of the new generation of bolero costeño interpreters, reinvigorating an archetypal repertoire some - times thought to be in decline, in a universal yet local lyrical expression of personal tragedy, unrequited affection, betrayal, and love lost.


corason.com Michael Stone


DEBASHISH BHATTACHARYA


Hawaii To Calcutta: A Tribute To Tau Moe Riverboat Records TUGCD1100


The history of Hawaiian lap steel in Indian film and classical and pop music is pretty unique in that it is one of the few musics whose origins can actually be traced back, to the story of Tau Moe and his family residing in India prior to and during the Second World War. Unable to leave after ending up there during a tour of the Far East and Asia, they remained and Tau gave lessons, as well as (so the story goes) going to see all the musical films of the day and, while sitting in the dark with pencil and paper, transcribing the soundtracks so that the family could learn the tunes and be constantly up to date with their repertoire.


One of Tau Moe’s students was Garney Nyss who went on to form a Hawaiian music group The Aloha Boys. Via Nyss, Rajat Nandi (Debashish’s first guitar teacher) and then the great Brij Bushan Kabra, Debashish has formed a style of his own as well as creating his own versions of the instrument. This CD, recorded and mixed in Hawaii, is his tribute to his teachers and in particular to the ‘font’ Tau Moe. The tunes are covers of some Hawaiian classics, such as Aloha Oe and E Ku’u Morning Dew, some originals and some versions of Hawaiian pieces, such as O Ku’u Aloha No ’Oe and Aloha Alaap (Hawaiian Sunrise). Produced by the great Jay Junker, sleevenotes writer for nearly all of the Danc-


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