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The Crooked Jades THE CROOKED JADES


Empathy Moves The Water Jade Note Music CJ010


Ah, here they are again! I’d wondered if California’s splendid inhabitants of the outer atmosphere of planet old-time music were still a thing, as it has been more than a decade since their last ‘proper’ album Shining Dark- ness, which we loved to


death. Well, here they are and here they aren’t, because only leader Jeff Kazor is still extant from the line-up which produced that beloved artefact.


Does that matter? Well, as it turns out, hardly at all, considering it has been such a big change. Maybe it was a slow and organic one over that timescale? To be sure, they no longer have the lovely vocals of the blessed Leah Abramson, but they do have the vision of Kazor and the consistency of producer (and guest player) Bruce Kaplan stitching it all together. And they do still add to the


‘standard’ bluesy old-timey palette with all sorts of fringe instrumental textures, with what they call ‘minstrel banjo’ played by Erik Pearson centring a lot of it: it somehow puts across the characteristic non-clanky sound of fretless banjo, though the one pictured in the package looks conventional enough. Lisa Berman’s slide guitar/ dobro and voice fill the Abramson-shaped hole – you can hear her on Down By The River, inspired by Fred McDow- ell, on this issue’s fRoots 72 compilation. And the three women’s voices in the line-up – Berman, Megan Adie and Emily Mann – blend together in full goosepimple-erecting mode on a version of Long Time Travelling, a song that long-time-listening UK readers will trea- sure from that Peter Bellamy recording with the Watersons.


Mix as before then, even though they’re not as before. Skewed, ear-caressing versions of old roots standards warped into new shapes – try the pulsing Pretty Little Shoes with fiddle, ukes, banjo, bamboo flute and dulcimer – and original songs that fit into the crooked mould. Can I think of anybody else who has extended their vision over a ten-year gap and then come up with another master-


piece to rank with its predecessor? Well – that’d only be Snakefarm then, can’t think of anybody else. And that is mega-praise.


(PS: continuing past practice, the triple gatefold Digipak and booklet is a beauty, this one’s front art by veteran Blue Note designer Bob Ciano. Such things are important too.)


crookedjades.com Ian Anderson


THOM ASHWORTH Head Canon Thom Ashworth


Following two acclaimed EPs, here’s Tom’s debut full- lengther, which amply con- firms the earlier assessment of ‘voice-to-watch’. Head Canon is an assured collec- tion delivering bold reimag- inings of six traditional songs, four originals and an


unusual Ewan MacColl cover (a striking a cap- pella performance of Exile Song from the Radio Ballad Song Of A Road).


Photo: Snap Jackson


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