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Vanslow was recorded at an event at a school in Sussex (by chance I was there that day). He is both the least known and most interesting of the musicians here playing both fiddle and melodeon. In his hands the button box is less strident than it usually is but there is an enor- mous lift and danceability in his playing and his technique shows originality


As always with MT releases the booklet (32 pages A5 sized) is of high quality and this time we have to thank Phil Heath-Coleman for this. If this were a release of important recordings of traditional performers from some of the other countries represented on these review pages, then the booklet would carry the logos of the various public arts bod- ies that had been pleased to offer financial support to the project – but this is English so it does not.


www.mtrecords.co.uk Vic Smith ROBB JOHNSON


Songs From The Last Seven Years Irregular IRR108


Habadekuk


HABADEKUK Mollevit Go’Danish Folk Music GO0617


Hard to believe that Habadekuk, Denmark’s sixteen-armed folk big band, has been around for a whole decade. Time flies, but the party continues. They do a great job of updating Danish folk music into a glorious knockabout party, giving it a modern makeover that never loses the folk core of the music, even when they sheer from jazz to slapstick (as with the opening of A.P.s Otte- mandsdans, which could have come from a Benny Hill soundtrack). It all works because they happen to be very inventive musicians who come up with some fiery charts. This was intended as dance music and resolutely remains that way. It’s folk music for people who don’t know they like folk music. Even on the more delicate pieces, like Femskaft Fra Møn with its lovely fiddle (courtesy of the ubiquitous Kristian Bugge), the brass glows, and there’s always a glorious, slightly ragged sense to things; the lack of obvious polish makes it all the more appealing. There’s plen- ty of jazz to leaven the folk and some superb playing, not only from the horns, but key- board player Theis Juul Langlands has a vital supporting role in the rhythm section, as well as stepping out for a couple of adventurous solos. A big band that functions well as a band, bridging the gap between styles and updating the past with a smile on its face.


www.habadekuk.dk Chris Nickson


FEAST OF FIDDLES Sleight Of Elbow Feast Of Fiddles FOFCD007


With Dave Mattacks' assured production dabs all over it, Sleight Of Elbow sees what began as a one off beano at Nettlebed folk club, sailing confidently on some two decades later. Featuring a roll call stacked full of expe- rience, more than a touch of star quality, add a dash of the cavalier and a huge desire to let the good times roll, could it really fail?


Previous intentions to move away from straightjacket electric reeling to a more open repertoire continue with a nose dive in trad. ar.r and significantly more of their own cred- its. In fact the one folk adaptation, Horses' Brawl, is perplexingly ordinary whereas the lift of McBrides from the stock of Moving Hearts is a funk jig-ridden delight, alternat- ing meandering passages with beserker Celtic improvisation.


The title track is a breeze of an opener from guitarist Martin Vincent, great, wiry gui- tar solo swooping in, whilst his later Paper- chase gets a huge thumbs up, mixing impres- sive dance runs with improvisation and a throaty sax, all counterpointed against DM's mighty thunder and Dave Harding's kicking bass lines. Adaptations of unlikely bedfellows match Richard Rodgers with Led Zeppelin on Siamese Kashmir and what shouldn't work works, especially with Chris Leslie’s lighter voice providing a knowing foil in the arrange- ment against all the heavy artillery. Equally impressive, Mission Impossible – yes, that one – crackles along like a lit fuse, whilst saxo- phonist Alan Whetton's Butterfly's Wing is a thoughtful dose of social realism wrapped in another fitting Leslie vocal.


Furnished with a tongue in cheek cover and wrap round details of the magnificent dozen, Sleight Of Elbow is substantial, craft- ed listening. That it brings a smile to your face is perhaps inevitable.


www.feastoffiddles.com Simon Jones VARIOUS ARTISTS


Boshamengro: English Gypsy Musicians Musical Traditions MTCD373


Here are 45 tracks of mainly short field recordings of Traveller musicians recorded between 1910 and 2006. The repertoire is mainly traditional dance tunes of English, Scots and Irish origins: hornpipes, jigs and waltzes in the main, whose function was largely for step dancing. Alongside this are some tunes of music hall and popular songs of yesteryear; the sort that everyone would have known for a good old sing-song in a pub or around the fire. It is heady stuff; very different from the ways tunes are played in folk revival dance bands or in sessions and the recording quality is far from perfect, but for fans of authentic English style this is the real stuff. Few of the tracks have been widely available before.


Eighty percent of the recordings are of three musicians. Harry Lee’s fiddle was recorded “as far as we can tell” by Paul Carter, and Gwilym Davies recorded both Lemmy Brazil and Vanslow Smith and there is a great deal to learn from each of them. The recordings of Lemmy are different from the ones of her on Topic. Her playing manages to sound pretty sprightly despite the fact that she was 91 when the last of them was made.


The indefatigable Robb Johnson continues to provide a necessary voice of protest and rea- soned comment in these uncertain times. Robb’s latest collection, the prosaically yet accurately titled Songs From The Last Seven Years, was originally to be called Summer Time Is Coming. That is, until the Grenfell Tower disaster happened and subsumed all else as choice of topic for the keynote song, written “in respect and tribute to the people whose lives have been fed to the flames due to the political ideology that clad greed and spite in the word ‘austerity’”.


This new set hoovers up fifteen recently- penned songs that, in Robb’s own words, “reflect the last ghastly seven years of toff misrule, of government for the rich, by the rich, of government not fit for purpose”. None of the songs has hitherto appeared on any official Irregular release, although just over half of them – including the powerful Tottenham Burned, concerning the 2011 riots – have cropped up on one or other of Robb’s privately-issued Bah! Humbug editions or on Facebook.


Robb’s folksongs-for-today exemplify


Everyman’s right to stand up and be counted, and to tell it like it is. Using direct, forthright and accessible language, they follow familiar patterns, using the trusty rhythms and chord structures that have long been part of the RJ armoury. All human life is here, of course; and life persists in providing easy targets – Tory cabals (The Bullingdon Circus), the National Curriculum (Glue Factory Strike), Brexit (Hats), unsuitable candidates (The Wrong Monkey) and, inevitably, Trumpery (Who’s Holding Hands With Hitler?). But Robb’s not lacking in affection or compassion – there’s Ballad Of The NHS, for example, and The Spitfire Migrants, an emblematic anti- UKIP piece which celebrates the Polish airmen who came to England to fight the Nazis. For even the most obvious things still need say- ing, and reiterating.


It’s clear, of course, where Robb’s politi-


cal affiliations lie, and the album’s dedica- tion – “absolute respect: Jeremy Corbyn” – leaves us in no doubt, as does the inclusion, on Stand For The Many, of a sample of a crowd chant recorded at Wirral Music Festival (where ‘Jezza’ made an appearance), as well as the chummy singalong I’m Voting Labour Next Thursday.


As Robb himself admits, though, “these songs are just one version of the story of the last seven years” – but it’s a version that res- onates deeply.


www.robbjohnson.co.uk David Kidman


Photo: © Judith Burrows


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