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A while in creation, rumours of an acous- tic recording surfaced back in 2016, and they were no strangers to playing unplugged. Electricity is their natural clothing but with bookings in smaller venues, including folk clubs, an acoustic version rapidly took shape. As you might expect from a ‘people’s band’ playing back rooms in pubs and club venues, audiences were soon asking for product to reflect what they saw, hence Anthems To The Wind. Wisely, Merry Hell have lost none of their spontaneity in taking away the juicier elements, the album having been laid down in homespun venues such as Northwich’s Salt- works and Bunbury Village Hall. They kept things low key and local; pictures and videos on the net make the process look like a jam- boree and song swap! I’m sure it was much more serious.
Alexis Korner ALEXIS KORNER
Every Day I Have The Blues: The Sixties Anthology Grapefruit/ Cherry Red CRSEG- BOX048
Disclaimer. Alexis was responsible for me being in this music, and thus, indirectly, for this magazine you are holding (or squinting at on a screen somewhere whilst wishing you had a sexy paper one). He brought about the UK release and wrote the sleeve notes for the Muddy Waters EP that instantly changed the future direction of my life. He led bands and caused bands that radically altered the course of the UK music scene. Later – and I was very much not unique in this – he became my friend, mentor and inspiration. He left us in 1984 – 35 years ago! – and I still miss him.
There was a commonly held wisdom, which even I was guilty of holding, that whilst a wonderful man, organiser, activist, and catalyst for myriad bands that he either played in – surrounding himself with great musicians and singers or setting them flying free – Alexis wasn’t a particularly top-class player himself. One of the things this excep- tional 3-CD box ought to do is dispel that myth, though sleeve note writer David Wells hardly helps by kicking off in reinforcing that opinion. Consider then that the opening track, the celebrated 3/4 AD, has him holding his own alongside the great Davey Graham, laying the groundwork for all those Jansch/ Renbourn duets that it would spawn. You don’t do that if you’re a bit shit as a guitarist!
Tracks 3-11 of the first CD come from the
iconic R&B At The Marquee album with har- monica blower Cyril Davies that was a corner- stone for many beginning blues collections in the early ‘60s, not to mention kicking off the career of Long John Baldy and the whole British R&B boom from the Rolling Stones up and down.
And if Alexis himself didn’t think he was
a great singer, that would probably be simply because he couldn’t sound like his black American role models, not realising that in failing to achieve such a goal he’d created something else, uniquely Alexis. Mick Jagger
MERRY HELL Anthems To The Wind MHMCD00218
Merry Hell conjure rambunctious, melodic numbers with a conscience that offer alter- native takes on life whilst being prime fist- pumping stock. Their reputation as a live act is by now almost universally acknowledged, their calling cards being thought-provoking, never sloganeering or preaching; you listen and you make up your own mind. Which if I read things correctly is the motivation behind Anthems.
had the same failure, but was just more self- confident about the equally unique result! The spin-off from Alexis’ lack of vocal self- confidence was that he often worked with awesome singers like Duffy Power (featured on here in tracks from the rare 1965 Sky High LP), not to mention uncovering a certain R. Plant (beginning his recording career here on Operator and Steal Away)
It’s easy to get distracted by the cascade of famous names from the cream of ’60s UK rock, R&B and jazz who crop up. It would be less so if the booklet could have simply listed track personnel rather than requiring exam- ining the source album titles with a magnify- ing glass and then trying to locate them somewhere in the sleeve notes. A typographi- cal triumph it is not!
Rather, play out these 3 CDs of remark-
able variety, often originality, and bask in the soul, vision and, yes, musicality of one of 20th-century British music’s greats. There are rarities and oddities for sure – a version of Preachin’ The Blues on bottleneck bouzouki, anybody? – but what you’ll realise long before the end is that for all the people he mixed up with and ‘curated’ (horrible word) into bands, Alexis sounded like Alexis. And sounding recognisably like yourself is the best any musician should hope for.
Essential.
cherryred.co.uk Ian Anderson
The results, though, are striking, with the core values of the songs now clearer than ever and the live recording agenda totally justified. Opening with Drunken Serenade clothed in a traditional reel, the vibe is estab- lished from the off. Over The Border, This Time, The War Between Ourselves and Fear Of Falling all satisfy mightily on both melody and philosophy, and they’ve stomp’n’singa- long pedigree in spades. However, to just spotlight the good-time elements would be remiss as they are no slouches at writing introspection which hits you between the eyes; No Place Like Tomorrow, Leave A Light On and personal fave Lean On Me Love have poignancy and sympathy in equal measure. If you’ve got to nominate the person who… then the arrival of Neil McCartney (old acquaintance, ex of The Big Geraniums) on fiddle has the most noticeable impact as he weaves and bobs the melodies organically into folkist form. Overall he’s a meaningful addition to the ranks, not that the others are underemployed, with drummer Andy Jones moving to percussion and Lee Goulding play- ing a mean squeezebox.
Merry Hell are already a lot of things to a lot of people; they’re perfectly poised to rise even higher.
merryhell.co.uk Simon Jones CARR & ROSWALL
Time Flies Dalakollektivet DKCD007 / West- park WP 87376
The third track here, Cedervall, would fit neatly into a Bach concert, but actually it’s at heart a traditional tune, a polska from the repertoire of the Cedervall family of fiddlers from Sweden’s southernmost county Skåne, with a touch of another polska from another Skåne family. I say ‘at heart’, because Roswall and Carr’s rendition explores and expands its interesting rhythms, turns and pauses into the aforementioned Bach-ish opus.
But not in any pretentious aspirational way; these guys aren’t like that. They’re just finely attuned, immensely skilled musicians making works of natural accessibility, great sophistication and the sort of delight that comes from unfettered, music-stand-free con- versations evolved from their own and tradi- tional melodies.
It’s complete, luminous music from two blokes who’ve played together since soon after Carr moved to Sweden in 2001, both with, of course, great pedigrees.
Swede Niklas Roswall, playing nyckel- harpa and the simpler moraharpa, is one of his instrument’s band of pioneers, going back to, and beyond, the Till Eric group of the mid- 1990s, through line-ups including the Nyckel- harpa Orchestra, Ranarim, and Ahlberg, Ek & Roswall, the Swedish Folk and World Music Gala current Group of the Year, whose Till Dans album was reviewed in the last issue.
Photo: Keith Morris
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