f124
out just the right arrangements and har- monies for each song, which has certainly paid off. There is a delicate frailty about Passingham’s voice, which suits the lyrical content perfectly. Song titles like Dust, Bleary Eyed and Weary Soul give you something of an idea about what to expect, yet the beauti- ful melodies and beguiling acoustic guitar add contrast and texture to the mix, as do the deliciously warm choral-inspired har- monies. It is the latter where the Fleet Foxes comparisons are most evident.
Already making an impact on the festival
circuit, Young Waters have delivered an impressive debut here.
young-waters.com Darren Johnson
a’NISH Way Of The Gull Purt Sheearan PSRCD003
The seagull wheeling in a clear blue sky on the cover of a’Nish’s second album is apt. Much like that gull, the band’s music tran- scends oceans and landscapes, drawing inspi- ration from Irish, Scottish, Manx and Scandi- navian traditions. With a name meaning “now” in Gaelic, this five-piece met at univer- sity a decade ago and their friendly ease and good humour is palpable in their music’s relaxed swing. Flute and whistle are warmly met by deft guitar and mandolin, sonorous double bass, elegant violin and a bodhran so versatile it even imitates a tabla on Niall Kenny’s tune Trip To Pakistan. Instrumental compositions dominate, interwoven with delightful mouth music from Manx musician Ruth Keggin and violin player Anna Camilla Goldbeck-Wood. The latter’s soaring vocals give wings to the album’s only standalone song, Mal Waldron’s The Seagulls Of Kristian- sund. A band with diverse backgrounds, a’Nish’s varied yet seamless sound floats like a gull on the wing.
anishmusic.com Clare Button Buddy Guy BUDDY GUY
The Blues Is Alive And Well Silvertone/ RCA 19075-81247-2
At only 82 years old, Buddy Guy is very alive and very well and in his hands, so is the blues!! Much of his new album is quite aston- ishing in the visceral energy he exudes both vocally and with his phenomenal guitar play- ing. Solo after solo soars with stunning virtu- osity while Buddy’s singing has never been better. There’s a good batch of songs for him to get his teeth into, written by producer/drummer/songwriter Tom Ham- bridge, mostly co-written with Richard Flem- ing. The only cover, Sonny Boy Williamson classic Nine Below Zero, fits neatly among the new songs. Not that Buddy Guy needs any help but he lets a few friends in on the party; Jeff Beck makes his guitar presence felt on Cognac, Sir Michael Philip Jagger gets to play his harmonica on You Did The Crime, and lurking somewhere in the studio depths is that bandito, Mr. Keith Richards.
The only youngster allowed on the premises is vocalist/guitarist James Bay, who gets to duet with Buddy on Blue No More. One song on the album, End Of The Line, says it all with such lines as “… but time been good to me, I’m as young as an old man can be, well I’m way past seventy-one, but I can still get this damn job done!” Right on Buddy!
Checking his website shows that Buddy, to promote this album, has 42 gigs lined up during the rest of this year right across the USA into Canada and on to Denmark and France. Where does this man get his energy?
buddyguy.com Dave Peabody
YOUNG WATERS Young Waters Young Waters YW001
Not a duo – no Young and, indeed, no Waters – Young Waters are actually a young five-piece folk band led by songwriter, vocal- ist and guitarist Theo Passingham. The band won Bath Folk Festival’s ‘New Shoots’ com- petition in 2016 and this led to a recording session at Peter Gabriel’s renowned Real World studios. Indeed, six of the eight tracks on the album were recorded in a single day at that session.
Frequently described as ‘neo-folk’, com- parisons have been made with everyone from Fleet Foxes to Fairport Convention. Com- posers Philip Glass, John Taverner and Esto- nia’s Arvo Pärt are cited as inspirations, too.
Although the album includes a tradi- tional song as well as another cover, the remaining tracks are all written by Passing- ham. We are told, however, there is a heavily collaborative approach in terms of seeking
THE SOOTHSAYERS TraditionWah Wah 45s WAHCD034
IDRIS ACKAMOOR & THE
PYRAMIDS An Angel Fell Strut STRUT164
The Soothsayers have been around on the UK scene for twenty years now, mixing Afrobeat, jazz, reggae and other Afrocentric influences. I make this their sixth album (seven if you count their 2013 collaboration with Jamaican reggae royalty Cornell Campbell), their first for the London-based Wah Wah 45s label and perhaps their most assured to date.
There’s political fire in their collective bellies, with tracks such as Dis And Dat and Sleepwalking (Black Man’s Cry) pointing the finger where it needs pointing. The latter, an Afrobeat-flavoured tune has a guest appear- ance from former Fela Kuti keyboards man Dele Sosimi. Goodnight Rico pays tribute to recently departed Jamaican trombonist Rico Rodriquez in suitably easy-skanking style, while the dubby Take Me High features guest vocals from the aforementioned Cornell Campbell. Best of all is the closing spiritual Afro jazz reinterpretation of Bob Marley’s Natural Mystic.
soothsayers.net
Saxophonist Idris Ackamoor and his band The Pyramids play from a similar range of influences but with a greater emphasis on edgy US jazz and the ‘space is the place’ Afro experimentation of the late Sun Ra. Original- ly formed in Ohio in the early 1970s, the six-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
