125 f GLENN JONES
The Giant Who Ate Himself Thrill Jockey Records THRILL468
Glenn Jones is rightly regarded as one of the most technically accomplished and articulate of American Primitive guitar players, so every new release is a cause for celebration in the land of twangheads. This one’s title track is a gently swooping slide tribute to his old friend John Fahey. Another fallen comrade – Jack Rose – is commemorated in From Frederick To Fredericksburg, which recalls an epic 2003 trek with Rose to visit 78 rpm records guru Joe Bussard. The Last Passenger Pigeon is a dense 12-string piece memorialising Martha, the last of her species who ‘lived her final years at the Cincinnati Zoo, dying in 1914’ – and an expression of Jones’ disgust at human- ity’s destruction.
The mark of Jones’ artistry is his ability to channel emotion through solo instrumental expression. The Was And The Is – composed whilst “sitting in front of the television, try- ing to the process the news” of the 2016 pres- idential election – provides a fine example. A Different Kind Of Christmas Carol is a reflec- tive, melancholy air, dedicated to one Audrey Leen. The story of why is almost worth the price of the CD alone. Recording engineer and collaborator Laura Baird provides the sleigh bells here, and field recordings on the following River In The Sky – an engrossing, concise sound collage for guitar and zither.
The CD booklet includes details of Jones’ guitar tunings (there’s a lot of C#s and Es) and trademark partial capo positions, while the rear cover carries the message “PLAY LOUD”. You’ll want to. And often, too.
glennjones.bandcamp.com Steve Hunt
DAOIRÍ FARRELL A Lifetime Of Happiness Daoiri CD002
With direct vocals of persuasive clarity, instru- mental arrangements of real verve, an appealing openness in his performance and a clear passion and understanding of a song’s narrative, Daoirí Farrell is refreshingly old school. It has been said before, but it’s diffi- cult not to evoke some of the great names of Irish music – Paul Brady, Andy Irvine, Christy Moore, and I’d even include Sean Cannon, whose singing he sometimes resembles – when discussing his work.
He plays with an ease that only surfaces from someone who has done the hard yards and with a powerful supporting cast involv- ing the likes of Pat Daly on fiddle, Peter Browne on accordeon, Mark Redmond and Sean Potts on uilleann pipes and Tara Finn on concertina, with no finer man than Donal Lunny at the control desk while chipping in with his trademark string rhythms (plus some harmonium), this is a fulfilling, feel-good album. Steeped in tradition, yet sounding vibrant and full-blooded. Farrell himself is no slouch instrumentally, either, driving the pace with some nifty bouzouki.
I’m not entirely sure of the wisdom of opening proceedings with the overly familiar (hackneyed?) Galway Shawl, as appealing as his sedate arrangement is, but elsewhere the song choices hit a potent medium between buoyant tales of derring-do (Valentine O’Hara), heartbreak (The Connerys), misad- venture (Rosie Reilly), jollity (A Pint Of Plain) and love (Sweet Portadown and the haunting- ly gorgeous Liam Weldon song Via Extasia).
But just as Creggan White Hare was the big song on his debut album First Turn in 2009 – and subsequently became the calling
Daorí Farrell
card for his burgeoning career – another song about a hare, The Hills Of Granemore, assumes a similarly significant role on this col- lection. Others have tackled this great song before – not least Dick Gaughan – but with zest, passion and a vigorously boisterous arrangement, Farrell firmly puts his own stamp on it.
Despite the apparent ease with which he seemingly delivers everything, Farrell is a real student of the music, as proven by the painstaking sleeve notes, which offer chap- ter and verse on the provenance of the cho- sen material and his evident pride in it all is well merited.
daoiri.com Colin Irwin
THE FIRE DOVES Falling Your Expressive Voice
A seasonal record. Fall as in Autumn. Autumn as a metaphor for dropping our burdens. The Fire Doves are singer- accordeonist Sebas- tiana Black and fiddler and recorder player Birgitta Campbell. The fiddling is richly tex- tured and delectable; very good indeed, in fact. The accordeon functions as the music’s steady base. And the singing sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. On Falling, Sailing Way and Symphony of Sky it sounds especially distinctive – like hearing Robin Williamson for the first time. I assume Black is Czech, and that gives her an accent when singing in English which is sometimes charm- ing, sometimes stilted. When it works, she reminds me of Dagmar Krause, both in the accent and the half-swallowed yelps as she moves up and down her range.
Two of the ten songs on the album are rather ill-judged covers (Edith Piaf and Leonard Cohen). The two traditional songs work better (one Moravian, one Mexican). But best of all are some of the Fire Doves’ own songs, with their fine arrangements and evocatively lovely lyrics full of sky, wind and water. A curate’s egg of an album but one with enough good things to be worth hearing.
yourexpressivevoice.co.uk Nick Hobbs SVESTAR
Kærligt Hilset Far Ingenmandsland Go’ Danish Folk Music GO0618
An intensely personal album, sparked by singer Anne Roed Refshauge’s discovery of letters to and from her great-grandfather on the Eastern Front in World War One. Very beautiful and certainly intense, it’s filled with the range of emotions, often dark and quite haunted, with the cello providing many of the colours. Sadly, there’s no translation of the lyrics, but that doesn’t diminish what a lis- tener takes from this. Musically, the album is at its best when the accompaniment is sparse, casting shadows around the words. Clarinet here and there brings a klezmer air, especially on the manic De Seks Brødre, a brief moment of joy among the aching and loneliness. Even without understanding the lyrics, it’s heart- breaking; this is Refshauge’s soul singing. It’s a time for Great War projects, and this stands as one of the very best of them.
svestar.dk Chris Nickson
Photo: Desmond Farrell
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