129 f YR HWNTWS
Y Tribanwr – 70 o Dribannau Traddodi- adol Sain SAIN SCD2797
Since their first (vinyl!) album in 1982, Yr Hwntws have been researching old Welsh manuscripts and songbooks to collect and perform the traditional Triban Morgannwg verses, songs and tunes of Glamorgan and Gwent. These catchy but ancient triban songs preserve the old folk culture of South Wales, and they are sung in the archaic Welsh dialect of Gwent: ‘Gwenhwysig’. These witty, sung verses carry stories of village life, folk humour and folk wisdom, all infused with a touch of bardic poetry. The old poets and singers used the tribannau as a means of conveying stories about ordinary people; so these songs are alternately funny, poetic, sad, irreverent and punchy. (The accompanying booklet contains the full lyrics, English translations, and fasci- nating scholarly notes on the songs.)
This, Yr Hwntws’ third album, is a collec- tion of over seventy tribannau, arranged to tra- ditional tunes by Nia Lynn and Bernie KilBride, and performed with rustic gusto by the current Yr Hwntws line-up of Gregg Lynn (vocals, gui- tar), Nia Lynn (vocals, percussion), Bernie Kil- Bride (fiddle), Imogen O’Rourke (vocals, flute, whistle), Dan B. James (guitar, mandocello) and Dean Ryan (double bass, bass guitar).
Some of these songs are very old indeed.
For example, Di-ofal Yw’r Aderyn (Carefree Is The Bird) echoes the bird poems of Dafydd Ap Gwilym and the religious teachings of the medieval Welsh friars: “Consider the birds of the air. They neither sow, nor reap, nor gath- er into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
sainwales.com Paul Matheson
BOB & GILL BERRY Echoes Of Alfred Wildgoose WGS 427 CD
If the English folk scene were a skeleton then the vertebrae would be those people, often couples, who take it on themselves to become the organising activists within their own area; who carry out the tasks of mounting festivals, running clubs, promoting dances, trying to take the music out of its ghetto into the com- munity and generally generating enthusiasm in their locality. A prime example would be Bob and Gill in Wiltshire. They deserve praise and thanks for all their achievements alone but we have to add to that the fact that they are engaging performers live and that they produce enjoyable albums.
This is their second on the Wildgoose label and the emphasis is on material from their own area of the Upper Thames. This makes their obvious major source the great work of Alfred Williams. Not discouraged by the fact that he only noted the words, they have borrowed, reconstructed or made the melodies to carry the traditional words with consistently pleasing results. This makes their songs sound slightly different from the stan- dard versions and it is these differences that enable the listener to appreciate the songs with fresh ears.
They have some talented musicians among their guest musicians, including Gill Redmond and Lewis Wood, but accompani- ments are kept straightforward and unobtru- sive; they are also joined on some choruses by other members of their long-running band, Tinkers' Bag.
www.wildgoose.co.uk Vic Smith
SIROJIDDIN JUARAEV Sirojiddin Juraev Aga Khan Music Initiative
Sirojiddin Juraev plays long-necked lute (2- stringed dutar stringed with silk), tanbur and sato, and is an ethnic Uzbek from Tajikistan. And as the very informative sleeve notes (in English, Russian and Tajik) say, Juraev is from the Ferghana Valley, the home of a culture which long predates the division of the land into states. Still, there’s an ethnic division – Uzbeks are a Turkic people, and Tajiks are Persian – two unrelated language groups (albeit with many an admixture); however, when it comes to music, especially instrumen- tal music as with Juraev, it makes more sense to talk of geography rather than ethnicity.
The album is well-recorded in a studio which gives it fidelity but also a lack of sonic context. I neither imagine the audience nor the place. It’s a consistent work with no low points yet also a certain flatness – the longest of the nineteen pieces is six minutes long. The pieces arrive, do their thing, then end. The music is beautiful and varied, and Juraev’s vir- tuosity seems there to serve the music rather than show off. Though I do wish for a higher dose of drama in the recordings, the kind which might result from a less respectful approach, a producer who annoys the musi- cian, and a musician who plays an f.u. version as a result. Most of the pieces are solos, some- times there’s a supporting musician. The com- positions are a mixture of Juraev’s and tradi- tional pieces reworked by him. He is deeply within the tradition yet integrates influences from India and the West, both in his playing technique and in some of the melodies. The result is fresh, alive and lovely.
akdn.org/akmi Nick Hobbs
ALULA DOWN Homespun Alula Down
Best-known to readers of this esteemed organ as members of Sproatly Smith, Mark Waters and Kate Gathercole recorded this duo album “at home – when time allowed, over a period of about six months as winter 2017 became spring 2018.” Described by the pair as “an experiment in folk song and mini- malism,” Alula Down utilise fingerpicked ukulele, double bass, shrutti, violin, bodhran and prepared guitar in a variety of wonder- fully atmospheric combinations.
The Bevvy Sisters Five of the songs are original composi-
tions – tales of Tall Trees in Hereford gardens, where everything’s as it should be, but noth- ing’s quite as it seems: “We walked off the edge / Fell into the sun / And down we went my darling / Down we went my lovely one…”
The two traditional tracks – Polly Vaugh-
an and Master Kilby are both familiar songs made subtly new. The latter’s wonky melody, in particular, initially repels yet quickly delights – the aural equivalent of olives and cigarette smoke. Hymn Fifth (from an 1845 collection of Chartist hymns) is reimagined in an arrangement the polar opposite of the one familiar from the Faustus version, yet no less effective.
This is a quintessentially Weirdshire (semi- mythical area located in the Anglo-Welsh bor- derlands) album on which the instruments enchant and Gathercole’s voice beguiles. As gorgeous a slice of gently euphoric pastoral psychedelia as has been heard in many’s the long year. Light me a nag champa joss stick and pass the cucumber sandwiches.
aluladown.bandcamp.com Steve Hunt
THE BEVVY SISTERS This Moment Interupto IM007
Edinburgh’s Bevvy Sisters celebrate their first decade with a third album chock full of wit, swing and delightful harmonies. Having pro- vided backing vocals for various folkie big shots (Eliza Carthy, Dick Gaughan, Peggy Seeger…) the Bevvys, in their current incarna- tion of original members Heather MacLeod and Gina Rae, plus Louise Murphy and hon- orary ‘sister’ David Donnelly, are at the top of their game on this nine-track set (eight origi- nals plus a haunting cover of Melody Gardot’s Love Me Like A River).
Everything’s tight and light with backing from Donnelly (the instrumentalist Bevvy), plus a range of guest friends providing a bit of sax here, some cello or organ there. But the focus is, as it should be, on those vocal harmonies. There’s protest provided by the finger-snappin’ Get Go, a right charmer cele- brating the healing power of the waterside, and some lovely a cappella business (with help from Soundhouse Choir) on the closing title track. All delivered with just the right combination of sugar and sass.
www.bevvysisters.co.uk Jamie Renton
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