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poignant Smile In Your Sleep the emphasis is very much on Scottish history and culture, the latter an emotive lullaby recalling the brutal and traumatic impact of the Highland Clear- ances that touches on the history of the Birichen settlement and Sutherland's own family history.
A beguiling blend of Scottish folk and American country, Hush sees Birichen announce their arrival in splendid form. A fine debut EP.
birichen.com Darren Johnson
JOE FILISKO & ERIC NODEN
Destination Unknown Own Label
A few months ago, these two accomplished Chicago bluesmen shut themselves in a studio with a National Resonator guitar, several har- monicas and a single microphone.
Iona Fyfe
IONA FYFE Dark Turn Of Mind Cairnie IF19DARK
HANNAH RARITY Neath The Gloaming Star HR085NEA
Some say it takes a lot of living first to really be a singer, particularly when it comes to tra- ditional songs. Certainly there are plenty with fine singing voices for whom the Incredible String Band’s Hedgehog Song is unfortunate- ly apposite (“you know all the words, and you sung all the notes, but you never quite learned the song”). So it’s a joy when one comes across younger singers who really do get the songs they sing, and when they do it’s no surprise they pick up awards.
Iona Fyfe has built up a much-deserved reputation as a fine singer and interpreter of traditional ballads and bothy songs from her native Aberdeenshire (mainly sung in the vernacular). As one might suspect from the title, her new EP Dark Turn Of Mind sees her spreading her wings musically (and linguisti- cally too, singing in English rather than Doric). Opening with some doomy piano chords, Iona stretches herself with an excel- lent cover of the Gillian Welch/David Rawl- ings classic before launching into the bounci- ly up-tempo Swing And Turn, a game-song from Jean Ritchie’s family. Ritchie’s influence is elsewhere too – the traditional ballads are ones found both in Appalachia and Aberdeenshire and include a great version of The Golden Vanity and a wonderful ‘love- gone-wrong’ ballad Let Him Sink. Aidan Moodie (guitar and admirable harmony vocals), Graham Rorie (mandolin) and Rory Matheson (piano) fill out the sound appro- priately, while leaving a forceful unaccompa- nied Little Musgrave to finish the album. With impeccable comprehensive source information that puts many others to shame, with just six tracks Dark Turn Of Mind might only run to just over 23 minutes, but surely packs in more good stuff than many albums twice as long or more. File under ‘short but perfectly formed’.
ionafyfe.com
Hannah Rarity has a just downright gor- geous voice of the type that one more often associates with female singers of the Irish or Gaelic persuasion (vaguely reminiscent of
Cara Dillon, maybe, with a little more depth and warmth, or even Muireann Nic Amh- laoibh). With classy musicians including Innes White (the ‘go-to’ guitarist these days) and producer Euan Burton on bass, she tackles songs as diverse as The Moon Shined On My Bed Last Night from Jeannie Robertson, Andy M. Stewart’s Where Are You (Tonight I Won- der) and Davy Steele’s Rose O’Summerlee with aplomb. There are highly thoughtful takes on Braw Sailin’ On The Sea and Violet Jacob’s Hallowe’en, and her own Wander Through This Land and Wasting Time both linger in the memory long after the album’s finished. It’s rare – if you’ll excuse the term in the circumstances – to come across a debut album that arrives so cohesively complete and fully formed, particularly when chock full of songs of love, loss and heart-wrenching longing sung with such emotional maturity. The album’s a joy – no wonder Hannah is in such demand.
hannahrarity.com Bob Walton
BIRICHEN Hush Birichen CLS786BIR
Birichen are Catriona Sutherland (vocals), Iain-Gordon Macfarlane (fiddle and guitar) and Robert McDonald (dobro slide guitar) and this five-track EP is their debut release. Named after the settlement in the Scottish highlands that serves as their base, the trio's music is steeped in the influences of Scottish folk but there are other influences at work, too, most notably Americana.
The EP opens with the sound of birdsong and running water, but regardless of whether it's Drumnadrochit or Montana it really does- n't matter. The opening song Holding On To Each Moment immediately transports the lis- tener to somewhere that is soothing, laid- back and breathtakingly beautiful. Macfar- lane's fiddle and McDonald's slide guitar serve to clearly lay out Birichen's musical mis- sion from the outset and both players provide the perfect accompaniment for Sutherland's clear voice and gentle, evocative delivery. The country influences come even more to the fore with a cover of Guy Clark's LA Freeway but on the jazzy Gonnae Get Good and the
The task they’d set themselves was to record 13 new songs in the style of pre-war pioneers like Sonny Boy Williamson and Blind Blake, with no overdubs and no messing. Noden played the guitar, Filisko looked after the harmonicas, and they both sang. The resulting album’s a bit of a corker.
We kick off with four of its best tracks in quick succession. First up is Anxious Blues, Noden driving the song along with fast, intri- cate finger picking and a choppy riff, while Filisko’s mouth organ dives and swoops around him. Shut It Down follows, taking its jolly style from the Memphis Jug Band and featuring a perky kazoo solo.
Filisko coaxes his harmonica into sound- ing like a Cajun accordeon for Louisiana Song (good to see a namecheck for my beloved Excello Records there), then it’s the chuga- long boogie of Path You Choose, with Noden conjuring John Lee Hooker and Filisko adding echoey, sleazy harmonica sounds.
There’s plenty more to enjoy later on the album too – the showcase slide guitar work on Can’t Take The Edge for a start – but I’m sure you get the idea. With their virtuoso playing and a shared grounding in this music’s deep history, Filisko and Noden make a fine musical marriage. Someone get them back in that studio soon.
rootsduo.com Paul Slade
CHRIS GREEN Switched-On Playford Blast BFTP012
There’s no doubt about it: Playford tunes are dark, weird, sexy distillations of joy. There have been innumerable reinterpretations since John P himself collected them for his 1651 manual The English Dancing Master, from the earnestly faithful to the jazzily deconstructed (remember 1651’s Cast A Bell, anyone?). Coventry-based musician and com- poser Chris Green’s attempt to do for Playford what Wendy Carlos did for Bach – i.e. synthing the hell out of him – could easily be just another angle. Except it’s bloody brilliant.
This is no mere ‘set old tunes to dance beats’ job. Green’s knowledge of and affec- tion for early music (his CV boasts Shake- speare’s Globe Theatre and Poldark), not to mention his virtuosity (he plays every instru- ment himself, with the exception of a sax by Paul James) deliver a witty and sophisticated blend of early music instruments, vintage synths, up-to-date electronics and snippets from films including If… and The Wicker Man. The crystalline exuberance of The Pick-
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