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RODRIGO ROMANÍ TRIO Fios De Ouro No Ár Altafonte ALTIB0190


SONDESEU Beiralúa Fundación SonDeSeu VG-302-2018


Rodrigo Romaní was a pioneer in bringing back the harp to Galician music, as a founder member of Milladoiro and, since leaving that many years ago, with his solo and ensemble work and teaching including forming and leading the folk orchestra SonDeSeu.


His fourth album is with his trio, in


which he’s joined by fellow harpist Beatriz Martínez and percussionist Xulia Feixoo, plus a string quartet. There are touches of singing too, from Romaní himself and guests Inés Lorenzo and Guillerme Ignacio Costa.


The material, from the traditional gaita repertoire and of his own composition, moves between lively, light muiñeiras and flowing lyrical melodies, all articulated by the delicacy of the two plucked harps with the occasional exuberantly sweeping rasqueado and some nifty note-bending, with Romaní also contributing double bass and other instruments, underpinned by the click, boom and pandeireta (a kind of tambourine) tish of finely judged percussion.


rodrigoromani.pro, distributed by alta- fonte.com


More harps, seven of them, in SonDeSeu, the folk orchestra conducted by Romaní, formed seventeen years ago at ETRAD, the Municipal School of Folk and Traditional Music that he founded in Vigo.


Oh, and nine hurdy-gurdies, eight gaitas (bagpipes), eight violins, four bouzoukis, four flutes, five percussionists, three double bassists and fifteen singers, plus leading soloists including singer Rosa Cedrón, percus- sionist Xosé Lois Romero, gaiteira Susana Seivane, soprano saxist Pedro Lamas with a brass ensemble, hurdy-gurdist Anxo Pintos, violinist Begoña Riobó and the group Treixadura. The material is both traditional and composed by Quico Comesaña, Pedro Lamas, Anxo Pintos, Xosé Lois Romero, Luís Emilio Batallán, Baldomero Iglesias and Amancio Prada.


It’s huge, glorious and heart-lifting, full of rich, memorable melodies, beautiful arrangements and spot-on singing and play- ing, and despite the numbers, it never seems cluttered or over-dense. As I hope was clear


Cinder Well


from the big feature I wrote in fR 401 before the last Santiago WOMEX in 2016, in Galicia traditional music is hugely popular and par- ticipant; this is a prime example, and a classic, great Galician album.


Distributed by altafonte.com Andrew Cronshaw


PAUL & LIZ DAVENPORT


Shadows In The Mist Hallamshire Tradi- tions HATRCD12


Paul and Liz’s fifth album revisits the spirit of their second, Songbooks (2008) – that of sim- ply sharing songs both traditional and newly composed.


Although there’s no specific theme, sev- eral of the songs demonstrate a potent understanding of the relationship between history and the spirit of place. Paul’s own superb compositions (here there are four) are particularly strong in this regard. The CD’s title song references the “liminal” land of Saddleworth Moor in commenting on our tendency to make sense of unexplainable experiences, while the powerful This Is The Price stems from Paul’s family’s experience of police heavy-handedness during the Miners’ Strike. Paul’s remaining two songs concern the impact of the fishing industry on its com- munities; the unaccompanied Come Daylight is especially impressive. Paul also provided the tune for This Barren Shore, son Gav’s evo- cation of a strangely “lived-in yet deserted” former fishing village in Angus.


Further disc highlights include the (supe- rior) “other version” of The Leaving Of Liver- pool (done solo by Paul) and the too-good- to-be-just-for-Christmas Canterbury Bells by Doncaster’s David Howes. The disc is topped up with a couple of rarities from the Gatty manuscripts and three well-known favourites: Liz’s impassioned solo rendition of John Conolly’s poignant tribute to trawler- men’s wives, The Widowmaker, Mimi Fariña’s setting of Bread And Roses, and that wonder- ful song of eternal hope Row On, Row On.


Paul and Liz’s robust and committed singing – mostly a cappella, sometimes with just a concertina backing, is ably captured by Brian Bedford’s production. Another triumph for the couple.


hallamtrads.co.uk David Kidman


STEVE DAWSON Lucky Hand Blackhen Music BHCD0088)


The spirit of Leo Kottke imbues every inch of this all-instrumental album. Like Kottke, Dawson is a master 12-string guitarist, but he also wraps his fingers around a regular 6- string, a Weissenborn, a National Tricone gui- tar and a ukulele. His fast fingering is daz- zling, his slide technique is awesome, his musical ideas are mellifluent, but the album’s overall balance could have benefited from a couple of slower items. However, the tracks augmented by the string ensemble of two violins, viola and cello are all brilliantly arranged and realised with wonderful inter- play between the ensemble and Dawson’s guitar. Some other tracks feature the addi- tion of trombone, French horn and clarinet. On one track there is a mandolin that nicely counterpoints the guitar and, for another track, harmonica maestro Charlie McCoy is brought in for a guest appearance.


Titles like The Circuit Rider Of Pigeon


Forge and Bugscuffle sound as if they might have been lifted straight from Kottke, or John Fahey, but all ten tracks on this CD are written by Steve Dawson. Steve also pro- duced the album, which was recorded in a studio in Vancouver, British Columbia. The sounds of all the instruments are superbly captured and mixed and, coupled with the vibrancy of the music, makes Lucky Hand a rather impressive album.


blackhenmusic.com Dave Peabody


CINDER WELL The Unconscious Echo Cinder Well


Cinder Well are the brainchild of singer and multi-instrumentalist Amelia Baker – a mem- ber of fun-loving Californian eco-anarchist punk-folkers Blackbird Raum. Joined by a group of American and Norwegian folk and punk musicians, her songwriting here is a divining rod to the spectral stream that flows in undercurrent through American music from the Delta, Appalachia and the Sacred Harp, through Cordelia’s Dad and House Land to SubRosa and Earth.


Harmony vocals, resonator and electric guitars, viola, fiddle, upright bass, pump organ and shruti box drones all feature, tellingly, yet this, as titles including Insulation Of The Silence and The Unconscious Echo sug- gest, is a record somehow built on the absence of sound as much as its presence. Songs often begin on sustained chords or the sparsest of guitar and fiddle accompani- ments, supporting but never intruding on Baker’s heart-wrenching singing.


When the drums, distorted electric gui- tars and keening fiddles do kick in, they enhance, rather than detract from the perva- sive atmosphere of staring into a dark well of memory. This is a folk record that’s heavy in all the right ways.


cinderwell.bandcamp.com Steve Hunt


NARAGONIA QUARTET Mira Home 4446195


Following a personal rule of not reading the booklet notes before listening, the third album of this Belgian band suggests a close- ness to the area of repertoire and the approach shown by the English band, Blowz- abella. After the first playing, looking through the track listing the eye lights on a waltz called Driving to Halsway. Wait a minute! Doesn't Paul James of Blowzabella have a strong association with Halsway


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