PROPERGANDA

Paul Heaton / Fay Hield / Joan Armatrading / Real World Gold / Imagined Village

Shouting about specialist music issue 23 jul/aug 2012

Exclusive
Bellowhead
Karine Polwart Free!
In the studio

65 Album
reviews
Paul Brady, Kathryn Roberts
& Sean Lakeman
Sonny Landreth
PLus!
Win Festival Tickets,
CDs & More

THE POET
OF SOUND
“The North, nature-song
and mystery.” Jan Garbarek
 RHYTHM FESTIVALS 2012RHYTHM FESTIVAL • RHYTHM FOLK • RHYTHM & BLUES
AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND – FRIDAY 24 to SUNDAY 26
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3 Great Festivals For The Price of One !
FRIDAY
HAWKWIND | THE SLACKERS | THE BEAT
EDDIE & THE HOT RODS • THREE BONZOS & A PIANO • THE MEN THEY COULDN'T HANG
SWANS IN FLIGHT • THE WHYBIRDS • SPECIAL GUESTS AND SURPRISE ACTS EVERY DAY
SATURDAY
BOOKER T | THE DAMNED | ARDAL O'HANLON
DENNIS ALCAPONE | KING MOB
HANK WANGFORD & LOST COWBOYS • CAPTAIN SENSIBLE BAND • THE GROUNDHOGS • HERE & NOW
THE MAGIC TOMBOLINOS • MICK THOMAS & SQUEEZEBOX WALLY • VIRGIL & THE ACCELERATORS
LEATHERAT • STEFAN CUSH & THE FERAL FAMILY • THE BARKER BAND • PEARL HANDLED REVOLVER
SUNDAY
KEN BOOTHE | JOHN COOPER CLARKE
CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN | DAVID RODIGAN
BOOMTOWN RATS • JOHN OTWAY BIG BAND • DELROY WILLIAMS & THE JUNCTION BAND
KING HAMMOND • MACAVITY’S CAT • ATILLA THE STOCKBROKER & BARNSTORMER • JOANovARC
MYSTERY JUICE • INTENSIFIED • BIG 10 • JOSEPHINE REINHART • JENNY CASH & THE SONS OF SUE
ALL FESTIVALS WEEKEND PASS: £119 (includes one child/ youth 5-16 years free when ordered at the same time).
Extra kids £60 each. CAMPING (any festival): £36 per tent, £50 per campervan/ caravan.

FRIDAY FRIDAY
ACOUSTIC STRAWBS WILKO JOHNSON
JIM MORAY & HIS BAND GENO WASHINGTON

RHYTHM & BLUES

JAMIE SMITH’S MABON • LUCY WARD BUICK 6 • MITCH LADDIE BAND
RHYTHM FOLK

SATURDAY JERRY TREMAINE & THE RISING SUNS

PEATBOG FAERIES SATURDAY
THE BLUES BAND
DAVID KNOPFLER • THE TRAVELLING BAND
IAN MCMILLAN ORCHESTRA
RICHARD DIGANCE • WISHING WELL
BIG BOY BLOATER
DAVE KELLY (solo) • CHANTEL McGREGOR
FAERIES WEAR BOOTS ROADHOUSE • LUCY ZIRINS • JAY TAMKIN
SUNDAY SUNDAY
SHOW OF HANDS OLI BROWN BAND
featuring MIRANDA SYKES
HAT FITZ & CARA
LAU | SCOTT MATTHEWS MICHAEL MESSER & THE 2nd MIND BAND
CROSSTOWN LIGHTNIN • CHERRY LEE
MOULETTES • KATRIONA GILMORE & JAMIE
ROBERTS • DAMH THE BARD • THE FOLK MEWIS • BARE BONES BOOGIE BAND
FOLK (only) WEEKEND TICKETS: RHYTHM & BLUES (only) WEEKEND TICKETS:
£80 (includes one child/ youth 5-16 years free when ordered £80 (includes one child/ youth 5-16 years free when ordered
at the same time). Extra kids £35 each. Plus camping. at the same time). Extra kids £35 each. Plus camping.

3 festivals offering 3 days of great entertainment on 6 stages plus “fringe” events. Comedy. Theatre.
Madam Miaow’s Culture Lounge. Children’s Entertainment, including Panic Circus, Organised Football & Junior Olympics.
Hemlock Morris. Groovy Movie Picture House. DJ Wheelie-Bag. Real Ales & Ciders. A Wide Choice of Superior Food plus
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www.rhythmfestival.com
Book online or by phone: 01767 626 262
Credit Card Hotline operates during office hours. 5% booking fee will be added to all telephone orders. No booking fee charged on website sales.

Tickets available to personal callers at Bedford Tourist Information Centre, St Paul's Square, MK40 1SJ
 C o n t e n t s
Properganda ◆ issue 23 ◆ july/august 2012

21
Features
14 Royal Southern Brotherhood
Texan blues man Mike Zito has set off a chain reaction
to bring two of the South’s legendary family names
together, as Devon Allman and Cyril Neville put the
blues blood into the Royal Southern Brotherhood.

18 Kathryn Roberts
& Sean Lakeman
Making their first record in some years, Kath and Sean
have created something truly marvellous. Read the
editor’s thoughts over the page.

21 Cover Feature
Jan Garbarek is undoubtedly the uncrowned king
of European jazz, a man with an enviable catalogue
as a leader, but as a sideman he’s contributed to a
vast wealth of music. He was part of Keith Jarrett’s
legendary European Quartet and is the fifth voice of
the million-selling Officium.

26 The Old Dance School

WIN!
FESTIVAL
Using some of the most striking images we’ve seen,
The Old Dance School are also producing some
tickets excellent music that lives up to the cinematic billing.
AND MORE...
see page 12
30 Fay Hield
Bringing together a stellar crew with The Hurricane
Party, Fay Hield proves she has the voice to match and
much more besides for her second album for Topic
Records. Orfeo is another triumph.

Also In This issue

26
07 Coming Your Way...
37 In the studio with Bellowhead & Karine Polwart

08 Shortcuts
Introducing Ewan McLennan, Laurence Jones, Sam
Lee, Weirdlore, Mawkin and Darrell Scott

13 This Is Proper Folk Too!!

So it is

17 Paul Heaton
Paul hits 50 and celebrates with his most complex
work to date

29 Real World Gold

The spirits of pioneers

33 ECM

30 The summer round-up of ECM releases

34 Sonny Landreth
Sonny’s guitar masterclass

FEATURED WRITERS
35 Ola Onabulé
The voice, the soul, jazz, funk and more
All photos provided by artists and labels.

Stuart Nicholson Helen M Jerome Colin Irwin

Award-winning author and
journalist Stuart Nicholson
has written six books on jazz
that have been translated
into 13 languages and has written on jazz for
publications around the world. He is also a
regular contributor to the UK’s Jazzwise.
Helen M Jerome is a
journalist and life-long
music fan who has recently
become a Twitter addict –
find her @helenjerome
A music journalist for over
30 years, Colin spent 13
37 Properbox
years on the Melody Maker, The latest round-up of the invaluable Properbox
becoming Assistant Editor. series
He’s presented several BBC radio series and has
written books, including In Search Of The Craic
and Sing When You’re Winning.
39 Reviews, reviews, reviews

PROPERGANDA 3
 S i m o n
S a y s… On The Office Stereo
Bella Hardy – The Dark Peak And The White
(Noe Records)
Nils Petter Molvaer – Solid Ether (ECM)
Hat Fitz & Cara – Wiley Ways (GLP Records)
Keith Jarrett – Koln Concert (ECM)
Wolf People – Steeple (Jagjaguwar)
Tab Benoit – Legacy: The Best Of (Telarc)

W
Hush Arbors/ Arbouretum – Aureola
hen, not long into a new job your MD (Thrill Jockey)
Lower Dens – Nootropics (Ribbon Music)
enquires, “What are you doing Sunday night?”, the wise answer Robert Palmer – Pressure Drop (Island)
is “Nothing Steve”. So it was that I found myself on a dank Malawi Mouse Boys – He Is # 1 (IRL)
evening’s unplanned trip to Twickenham for Twick-Folk. Actress – RIP (Honest Jon’s)
Yngve & The Innocent – The Sadness Of
I’ll confess it was my first visit to a folk club and I carried with me a heavy Remembering (Posttone Records)
scepticism for the prospect of the evening’s entertainment. Roxy Music – S/T (EMI)
Brian Eno – Taking Tiger Mountain
Consoled to some extent with a decent choice of ales at the Cabbage Patch, (By Strategy) (Virgin)
I was introduced by Steve to the wiry, young Stu Hanna from Megson, who
seemed a likeable enough fella. But then it was down to the business in hand as
we made our way into the back room to join the regulars, who seemed to be
universally my age or older. I wasn’t quite prepared for the customary floor-
singers spot that got us underway, as a bloke shambled to the front, guitar in
hand and proudly announced, “My mum always told me to start with something
everyone will know, so I’m going to do Wild Rover.” Stood at the back, I turned
to Steve who could barely suppress his delight as I whispered under my breath Fay Hield’s Current
“Beam me up Scotty”. The audience naturally enough joined the chorus, with Top 5 Playlist
gusto if not perfect pitch and all Sam Sweeney & Hannah James –
State & Ancientry (Rootbeat)
the dreaded clichés seemed to line
“My mum always up like dominoes.
Martin Simpson – Purpose & Grace (Topic)
Spiro – Kaleidophonica (Real World)

told me to start As Kathryn Roberts and Sean

Dolly Parton – The Grass Is Blue (Sugar Hill)
Lucy Farrell & Jonny Kearney –

with something
Kite (RabbleRouser)
Lakeman set up, I remained at the
back feeling thoroughly out of
everyone will place, when they started, however,
the reason we were there suddenly
know, so I’m going became clear. Kathryn’s gorgeous
Proper Music Distribution
The New Powerhouse

to do Wild Rover”
voice and keyboards and Sean’s Gateway Business Centre
Kangley Bridge Rd
clever, understated guitar London SE26 5AN
transported me to another realm
entirely. I was transfixed; my Contributors
goose-bumps had goose-bumps. Their set mixed traditional songs with their Peter Bacon, Orlando Bird, Garth Cartwright,
own and also songs by Lowell George, Tom Waits and Peter Holsapple (Peter Ray Comiskey, Joan Crump, Pete Feenstra,
Michael Hingston, Drew Hobbs, Simon Holland,
Holsapple!! I could not believe my ears). It was magical and the evening finished
Ken Hunt, Colin Irwin, Helen M Jerome, Simon
with me full of wide-eyed appreciation being introduced to the duo by Steve. Jones, David Kidman, Jon Lusk, Howard Male,
Kath and Sean politely accepted my gushing enthusiasm and, to crown it all, Phil Meadley, Sofi Mogensen, Tony Morley,
Stuart Nicholson, Chris Nickson, Clive Pownceby,
Stu offered Steve and I a lift home. And the moral, well… Clichés are for people Peter Quinn, Andy Robson, Alan ‘Chester’
who can’t think past them. Open your mind, open your ears, open your heart. Robinson, Ken Smith, Cliff White.

Kath and Sean were brilliant and this was the first, but wouldn’t be the last time PROPERGANDA
I’d make a trip to a pub well off my radar to see them (or to attend a folk club – The Properganda Team
Simon Holland and Sofi Mogensen
singing along and all). The new album Hidden People is special too and I’ll A Dog & Duck Production for
confess to getting rather over emotional while listening to it. As you might guess Proper Music Distribution.
it comes with unequivocal recommendation and you can read all about it in Design
Phil Meadley’s interview on page 18, one of many delights in this issue. Speak Media
7 Links Yard, Spelman Street, London E1 5LX
www.speakmedia.co.uk
Simon Holland Print
Editor Polestar Colchester
2 Wyncolls Road, Severalls Business Park,
Colchester, CO4 9PB
Telephone +44 (0)1206 849 500
4 PROPERGANDA www.polestar-group.com
Paloma Faith
Amadou & Mariam
Jools Holland & Roland Gift
Roots Manuva
Levellers
Fatoumata Diawara
Tim Minchin
Imagined Village
Caravan Palace
Raghu Dixit
Akala
Dub Pistols
Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends
plus 70 more bands
11th-15thJuly 2012
Wilts/Dorset border
“Alittle step out
of reality…”
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Info 01725 552300
larmertreefestival.co.uk
 SJM Concerts by arrangement with DMF presents

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 Bellowhead documentaries in the TV room when
an evening session was happening.
Jon Boden feels the spirit of Also, it’s in the middle of the beautiful
Freddie Mercury at Rockfield Monmouth countryside so going for
Studios. a walk was much more appealing
than in, say, St John’s Wood.

“I
’m sure it’s not to my
credit that I was almost as
excited about recording in the
studio where Bohemian Rhapsody
was recorded as I was about
recording at Abbey Road. Rockfield
Studios was not a name I had heard
of before last year, but when you start
looking into all the people who have
recorded there – Queen, Robert Plant,
Oasis, Coldplay…. well, let’s just say
it’s quite a long list.
“Rockfield is a residential studio,
which is great. A lot of the recording
experience is about sitting around
doing nothing getting cabin fever,
particularly in Bellowhead where
there are ten other people needing to
redo parts or record overdubs. At
Rockfield we were able to hang out in
our rooms when not needed, or
engage in some communal exercise
sessions in the main lounge
(fortunately no documentary
evidence of this exists, but I can
assure you it happened) and sit
around watching Howling Wolf
“I don’t know whether it’s just
coincidence but one of the marked
differences of the new album is that
we’ve started using a lot more backing
vocals. This was a feature of the new
arrangements long before Rockfield
was decided upon, but somehow,
standing in that room, layering up
massive vocal sections, often with very
high male falsetto, I couldn’t help
feeling that Freddie Mercury might
have been looking on approvingly.”
John Leckie: “I’m in the studio mixing
the new album at the moment and
it’s all really exciting. We approached
this recording differently from the
Abbey Rd sessions where the whole
band played live, and the whole
sound is much more forward and
direct – the playing is highly sensitive
but still packs an incredible punch.
The band have really excelled
themselves this time!”
■ Bellowhead’s new album Broadside is due
in late autumn with a big supporting tour.

c o m i n g y o u r w a y ...
Bellowhead and Karine Polwart in the studio

Karine 5. It’s impossible to get permission to

Polwart
Karine Polwart tells us about
some of the things she’s
learned whilst making her
forthcoming album Traces.
1. How to swing a hairy mallet.
Not as rude as it sounds (and a lot of
fun). I play a belly-wobbling
orchestral bass drum on the record.
Interlocking percussion layers,
including a rake of floor toms, bullet-
like snare, tambourine and the backs
of three garden chairs (sounds
magic) are a feature of many
arrangements on this record.
2. When you disassemble a
vibraphone it looks remarkably like a
set of GIGANTIC panpipes. Cue the
chorus from El Condor Pasa and a daft
photo on Facebook.
3. Occasionally, even your own songs
can catch you unawares. I found the
final track of my album – Half A Mile
– quite harrowing to sing. Perhaps I
should write happier songs eh?
4. Sometimes a wee bit more is
irresistible. My core band of Steven
Polwart and Inge Thomson are a
marvel. But we’re joined on record
by a three-piece horn section,
clarinet and flute, as well as piano,
organ and marimba.
play an old celeste in Scotland unless
you play in an orchestra. Folk singers
need to make do with samples (just
don’t tell anyone).
Iain Cook: “Ahead of working with
Karine and the band, I expected that I
would feel a bit like a fish out of water.
I am normally used to working with
big drums and electric guitars and the
notion of having all that stripped away
was a little daunting. But when Karine
and I first met, I immediately had a
sense that we were on the same page.
We talked about music and musicians
that we love and it became pretty
apparent that her vision for the album
was something I could completely
align myself with.
“This feeling was further
cemented when we started working
on an arrangement for the song Half A
Mile. To my surprise, all the synths,
drums, piano, atmospherics,
woodwind and brass ideas that we
were throwing around all seemed to
fit into place… It seemed that we had
arrived at a mood for the project and
defined the sound palette for the
whole album.”
■ Karine Polwart launches her new album
Traces at this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival,
also touring this autumn.

PROPERGANDA 7
 S hort C uts
Introducing first timers, old timers
and reminders…

Ewan
McLennan
Who? BBC Horizon Folk Award winner,
songwriter, singer of traditional songs and
classically-trained guitarist.
What? Bringing old-school depth and
passion and a totally unique voice to folk song.
Why? McLennan flies the flag for the
songsmith tradition of Gaughan, MacColl et
al. For an artist still in his mid-20s, he will
knock you out with the sheer sophistication
of his vocals and arrangements.

Taking the stage at

Whitby Folk Week a couple of
years ago as a guest of Jackie
Oates, he presented a fairly
unassuming figure. By the end
of his few songs, though, the
whole audience was riveted
by this absurdly young
Scottish musician and singer,
who seemed to be channelling the
voice of someone a generation
older. The richness and depth of his
smoky vocals, intense delivery and
glistening guitar were utterly
unique; even the hardened traddies
were in the palm of his hand.
McLennan has since attracted
serious attention. His debut album,
Rags And Robes, saw him pick up
the Horizon Folk Award in 2011.
If you want a sense of how well
he’s rated amongst those-who-
know on the folk scene, just check
out the guest artists on his second
album, The Last Bird To Sing:
Martin Simpson (slide guitar),
John McCusker (fiddle) and
Karine Polwart (backing vocals).
It’s a supporting cast that many
more established artists might find
awesome and intimidating in equal
measure: McLennan takes it all in
his musical stride.
The Last Bird To Sing
combines traditional songs with
McLennan’s originals, that grow
ever stronger in skill and
confidence. His passionate
delivery is as at home on a self-
written anti-war song such as the
heartbreaking Joe Glenton as it is
on traditional songs like Butcher’s
Boy or Lichtbob’s Lassie. There are
some astute song choices, such as
Banks Of Marble, with its firm
political edge and beautiful tune,
marrying perfectly McLennan’s
intensity and musicality.
Very occasionally, you hear a
relatively new artist and know
you’re still going to be buying their
albums in 20 years’ time. Give this
a listen, and start queuing up your
playlist for summer 2032. JC
Ewan McLennan – The Last Bird To Sing
Fellside FECD250

Laurence Jones demographics of middle-aged radio, but who

Who? The youngest and freshest guitarist of the Brit-
blues-rock boom.
What? Taking classic rock influences, Jones’ power trio
play the blues with their own stylish twist.
Why? Along with Oli Brown, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Dani
Wilde and Virgil McMahon, there’s something of a young
blues-rock-guitar talent explosion.
“I m a classically trained
guitarist and I got into rock blues through my
dad’s record collection and Hendrix of course.
But I was also influenced by bands like The
Cure, The Guess Who, Rory Gallagher and
especially Tony McPhee.
Laurence Jones is an unassuming 18-year-
old rock blues guitarist from Stratford Upon
Avon whose impressive debut album Thunder
In The Sky, has already projected him on to
daytime Radio 2. And therein lies a conundrum
– rock blues is being reinvigorated by a new
generation of artists who don’t easily fit into the
are intent on blowing away the cobwebs and
reinventing the genre in their own terms.
“It’s difficult finding people our own age
who are into rock blues,” says Laurence, “but
I’ve got a great band now and we are trying to
bring it back in our own way.”
Thunder In The Sky is an album that
draws on the past but looks to a
brighter future. It’s a successful
meeting of tightly structured songs
and unfettered passion channelled into
well crafted arrangements. In many
respects Laurence mirrors the younger
Winwood in his Spencer
Davis days, a natural
talent blossoming in a
bluesy environment but with his own songs.
The key to the album’s success is the
seamless shift of the power trio’s live set from
the stage to the studio. The opening rat-tat-
tat drum break projects us into the tension-
building Bad Girl and the band barely look
back, exploring a poppy chorus on I’m Not
Sticking Around and offering a funky tip
of the hat to Oli Brown on Too Good.
Laurence’s keen sense of dynamics
infuses the tightly wrapped guitar
work on Gotta Get Back Up which
cleverly evokes the self-affirming lyrics.
Best of all is the smouldering title track,
on which he fuses the deft
touch of the younger Peter
Green with Bonamassa-style
vocals. It’s an impressive
calling card. PF
Laurence Jones – Thunder In The Sky
Proper Records PROCD001

8 PROPERGANDA

Weirdlore
Who? A disparate bunch of mavericks
taking folk for a ramble on the wild side.
What? Luckily the Folk Police are on hand
to sort it all out and have the best of it
‘banged up’ on one handy CD introduction.
Why? Since the late 60s the fringe scenes
have often produced some of the most
compelling music as people push the
constraints of the genre.
Time was when your
local record shop deletion section
contained mysterious albums by
Comus, Fresh Maggots, Forest or
samplers like Club
Folk. Such discs held a
variety of music from
18-certificate doom to
innocent trippy idylls;
navel-gazing guitarists
like Keith Christmas,
eccentrics such as
Canterbury roots
collective Spirogyra, baffling
acoustics from Synanthesia to the
truly talented Shelagh McDonald.
Names don’t really matter, here
was an enticing window on
home-grown music that wasn’t
rock or folk. Who cared what you
called it or that it sold in risible
amounts?
In 2012 acoustic music’s hip
again, enter Manchester’s Folk
Police Recordings, who’d noticed a
growing trend amongst unplugged
players reviving the spirit of acid
folk. Add Jeanette Leech
publishing the ultimate
encyclopedia for psych folk and
there could be something stirring
in the shires and village greens.
Pamela Wyn
Shannon
Thus Weirdlore: Notes From The
Folk Underground, a handsomely
packaged sampler of some sane,
some less sane and some totally out
there acts who could be said to
drink from a deeper well.
Listen carefully and you can
hear faint comebacks of The
Incredible String Band, pysch folk
Sam Lee revival singer
Ray Fisher
granddads who wore garish clothes who went to
Who? A far from callow folk singer finally
and played exotic instruments with learn from
makes his overdue solo recording debut.
abandon, especially Alasdair What? A style and stylishness that the Scots ballad queen, Jeannie
Roberts who could be Robin combines age-old folk traditions and Robertson, Sam Lee went to
Williamson with Haruspex Of modern-day sensibilities, sensitivities and learn from Jeannie’s nephew,
Paradox, or The Witches on Come sonorities, that is flat-out original, Stanley Robertson – likewise a
With Me. Listen again, darker experimental and inspired. repository of Traveller traditional
echoes crop up as Why? He punches a little harder ballad, folk song, tale and lore.
Rapunzel & Sedayne’s than most. Sam Lee is someone that
trad The Innocent Hare finagles the delicate balancing act
is gothic and northern. Sam was born in 1980 of being both within and apart
Strange too, the just off London’s Tottenham from today’s folk scene. He sings
chanted track by Court Road and grew up in and collects folk songs. He is the
Pamela Wyn Shannon Kentish Town, in North London, promoter of the Nest Collective
from an unreleased a pretty cosmopolitan part of the – the once Magpie’s Nest whose
collection of plant capital, with a good-sized stamping ground, the Old
mantras. In similar territory, Telling London Irish and Irish Queen’s Head in Islington, North
The Bees sing of tree worship, community. Sam Lee’s London, landed the BBC Folk
whilst pagan airs and chorus crowd background, however, was Jewish. Club of 2010 Award. Other far
Katie Rose’s Witches’ Reel. To leapfrog through his story, from marginal activities include
If that’s not odd enough, The aside from his Jewish ancestry, he doing some radio, TV and a bit of
False Beards serve up twisted blues went searching for, as Patti Smith teaching. “The Nest Collective,”
whilst Starless & Bible Black offer says, ‘chosen ancestors’ of his own he explains, “is still working under
a warped lullaby, yet the most and found Stanley Robertson. the mantra of ‘New Folk, Old
appealing is perhaps the most His epiphany was latching on Folk, No Folk’ and as a platform
straightforward. Molecatcher by to Scots Traveller culture – a for folk music in London.”
Harp And A Monkey may have people sometimes wrongly As Professor Karl-Friedrich
taken liberties with the lyric of conflated with Gypsies or Roma Boerne once so eloquently put it,
Bernard Wrigley’s original, but it – and that spirit imbues Ground “Tradition isn’t tending the ashes,
remains the most amusing piece, a Of Its Own. Lee’s was also a it’s handing on the matches...”
tale of bed-hopping and mole return to the old approach of That is Sam Lee in a nutshell. KH
traps! Ouch! SJ studying with a master – ‘mentor’
is probably today’s buzzier word. Sam Lee – Ground Of Its Own
Various Artists – Weirdlore: Notes From The Folk Like the magnificent Scots folk The Nest Collective TNCR001CD
Underground Folk Police Recordings FPR008
PROPERGANDA 9
 S ho rt
C uts

Mawkin direction,” says James Delarre,

Who? Incorrigible, inventive and energetic
young Essex band formed in 2002 by
brothers James (fiddle) and Dave (guitar)
Delarre with Danny Crump (bass guitar);
after various line-up changes, they return
with Nick Cooke (melodeon) and Lee
Richardson (drums).
What? Following a two year lull, they’re
back in the fray big time with festival
appearances and a hot new album, Crow,
with guest vocals by Eliza Carthy, Steve
Knightley and Jim Causley.
Why? In their previous incarnation as
Mawkin:Causley, they ruffled a few feathers
appearing naked on the cover of fRoots
magazine, marking the release of their
Awkward Recruit album in 2009. Now
they’ve adopted a more diverse sound
incorporating jazz, rock and world music.
One thing you can
always guarantee with Mawkin –
life will never be dull. Since they
first exploded on the scene bursting
with energy, virtuosity, devil-may-
care fearlessness and some cracking
tunes, it was clear that, while always
well versed in the strange and
wondrous ways of Brit folk, their
potential wandered way beyond it.
After all, while James and Dave
Delarre were playing ceilidh music
from an early age, bassist Danny
Crump was an out-and-out rock
kid and one of their first gigs was as
an Iron Maiden tribute band.
Their exuberant instrumental
debut album, The Fair Essex in
2007, put them firmly on the map,
though it was their transfiguration
into Mawkin:Causley after a
chance meeting with Devon singer
Jim Causley at
Dartmoor Festival that accelerated
their reputation as Brit folk’s
favourite boy band, initially with
the six-track Cold Ruin, followed in
2009 by The Awkward Recruit,
which acquired an avalanche of
plaudits and rave reviews.
This band subsequently fell
apart, but Mawkin have regrouped
in style, and Crow is the
triumphant result. “We wanted to
take the music in a slightly different
blaming the two-year gestation of
Crow on brother Dave’s
disappearance to entertain on a
cruise ship. “We’d always talked
about changing the sound and
making it more contemporary so
we decided to bring in more jazz
and world
influences and give
it more of a
European flavour.
We’re more than
happy with the way
it has turned out.”
Dave Delarre
even takes lead vocals
on the raucous, bluesy Kinks cover
Harry Rag, while old friends Eliza
Carthy, Steve Knightley (of Show
Of Hands) and Jim Causley add
ever more variety with vocals
respectively on Bad Girls Lament,
It’s All Quiet and The Bellringers.
“We definitely don’t want to lose
touch with the folk scene but we
love branching out…” CI
Mawkin – Crow Good Form MKN003

Darrell Scott
Who? His songs have been recorded by top country acts,
such as The Dixie Chicks and Brad Paisley, and he has
collaborated with the likes of Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris
and is a member of Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy.
What? Darrell Scott’s new solo album, Long Ride Home, is
a rare step into the limelight and a great chance to really
appreciate one of country music’s best-kept secrets.
Why? A fine opportunity to hear Scott’s rich, sonorous
voice, his song writing skills and his prowess on pedal steel
and guitar, supported by a stellar roster of musicians.

The album was recorded at

Scott’s home in an informal manner with
a bunch of his friends, but what talented
pals he has! The rhythm section is
composed of some of Nashville’s
finest session players: legendary
pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins,
upright bassist Dennis Crouch and
drummer Kenny Malone. Scott’s
other friends add instrumental
touches and backing vocals and
happen to be some of country
music’s finest instrumentalists and singer/
songwriters: Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell,
Patty Griffin, Tim O’Brien, Charlie McCoy,
Mickey Raphael, John Cowan, Kathy
Chiavola and Jonell Mosser.
The songs on Long Ride Home were
written or cowritten by Darrell Scott over the
last 30 years. Country Boy and
You’re Everything I Wanted Love
To Be were composed with his
father Wayne Scott (who also
appears on the album) when
Darrell was just 16!
There’s a generous 16 songs on the album,
all written with skill and precision on a variety
of subjects (even Scott’s love of fishing on
Pay Lake and Still Got A Ways To Go). The
quality of the songs and performances are so
high it’s hard to pick out highlights, but if I
was forced to choose then standouts include
the delightfully detailed lyric of Out In The
Parking Lot (written and sung with Guy
Clark), the wonderfully epic feel of Dance In
The Darkness, the noble tale of unrequited love
in Candle For A Cowboy and the intimate feel
of You’ll Be With Me All The Way.
Long Ride Home is a collection of eloquent
and beautifully performed tales of love, hope,
heartbreak and fishing. MH
Darrell Scott – Long Ride Home Full Light 432840

PROPERGANDA 11
 c o m p e t i t i o n

Win!
Take our reader survey for the
Family pack of tickets to
Fairport’s Cropredy
Convention...
chance to win festival tickets
or any 5 cds featured in this issue!

W e value your
opinions greatly and have
set up a reader survey so you can
have your say about Properganda.
The online survey takes just a few
minutes to complete and will help
us to make a better magazine in
the future. We’ve also got some
great prizes on offer to encourage
you to fill in the survey:
First Prize: a family pack of
tickets to Fairport’s Cropredy
Convention (9th-11th August
2012). Includes a pair of three-
day adult tickets, plus up to three
under-12 years child tickets with
camping.
3 Runner-Up Prizes: your
choice of five CDs featured in the
pages of the current issue.
Go to: http://blog.propermusic.
com/properganda-reader-survey/
and complete the survey. You’ll be
given details of how to enter the
competition* at the end.
Entry Deadline: Monday 23rd
July 2012

Last Shop Standing is a journey

around UK record shops interviewing
the characters who run them and
their battle to survive. It includes lots
of great anecdotes and many comic
moments as well as delving into the
murky side of the music industry,
featuring contributions from Paul
Weller, Johnny Marr, Norman
Cook, Richard Hawley, Nerina
Pallot and Billy Bragg.
We have 3 pairs of tickets to
give away to the premiere to be held
at the Ritzy in Brixton, London on
5th September 2012. Not only that,
the winners and their guests will be
invited to the after show party.
To enter the competition*,
please email your answer to

Last Shop Standing

the question below, along with
your name and postal address, to
competition@propermusic.com
including ‘Last Shop Standing’ in
The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the
Independent Record Store Win!
Tickets to
the subject line.

Entry Deadline:
premiere Wednesday 22nd August 2012

“Y ou are never going to

discover Captain Beefheart, 13th Floor
Elevators or the Velvet Underground in Tesco.”
(Richard Hawley)
Last Shop Standing is a feature film,
produced by Blue Hippo Media, based on the
successful book of the same name written by
Graham Jones. Released on 10th September
2012, it’s a celebration of the
unique spirit of comradeship and
entrepreneurial ingenuity that has enabled
so many shops to keep operating successfully
against the backdrop of massive changes in
the music industry, the biggest recession in
years, the growth of online file sharing and the
explosion of choice in music consumption.
Q. Which city do
you associate Richard
Hawley with?
To find out more about the film and where you
can see it, go to: www.lastshopstanding.com
*Standard terms & conditions apply

12 PROPERGANDA

June Tabor &
Oysterband, Heidi
Talbot (inset)
Doing It Proper
Some argue there’s no call for budget compilation CDs,
That’s Proper Folk!! proved them wrong. Colin Irwin says
This Is Proper Folk Too!! will do it again.
R
eleased in 2008, That’s
Proper Folk!! remains something of a
phenomenon. Featuring some of the
biggest folk stars of the year – Eliza
Carthy, Bellowhead, Lau, Sharon
Shannon, Cara Dillon, Martin Simpson and
Drever, McCusker & Woomble among them –
and retailing at an absurdly low price, it was an
experiment that swiftly turned into a runaway
success. Far from being cheap and nasty, the
album was a class act, as 60,000 sales proved.
And a new audience, long indoctrinated by the
ritual derision heaped on all things folk for so
many years, grabbed the chance of discovering
the music for themselves.
Now the format is being repeated with
the class of 2012 coming to the party for This
Is Proper Folk Too!!, an even more audacious
collection that collates some of the biggest names
on the current folk scene, among them Seth
Lakeman, Bellowhead, Karine Polwart, Show Of
Hands and The Imagined Village.
Apart from being a remarkable snapshot of
the modern folk world, the collection is all the
more enticing for its inclusion of material that’s
bang up to date and in some cases yet to have an
official release. Indeed, it’s a pertinent reminder
of the remarkable strength and variety of music
now encompassed in the folk genre, going a
long way to explaining why this has been called
a golden period for the music with a growing
younger market propelling it forward.
The original That’s Proper Folk!! certainly
photo: judith burrows
did a brilliant job in opening people’s ears to
the vast range of music flourishing under the
folk umbrella, starting with Mr Magnifico,
memorable not only for Eliza Carthy’s graphic
tale of a sleazebag but the extraordinary blast of
mariachi trumpets that launched the impossibly
infectious chorus. There was Karine Polwart’s
angry Sorry proving the much-maligned art
of the protest song was still alive and kicking;
Martin Simpson’s leap into song writing with
his beautifully poignant love song to his dad,
Never Any Good; Irish melodeon star Sharon
Shannon playing her
big hit The Galway Girl
with Mundy… and “A remarkable
snapshot of
many others. A motley
assortment indeed to
the modern
set before a nation of
folk lovers… and a
persuasive selection to
seduce those who didn’t
previously know they folk world”
were folk lovers.
The new bumper bundle looks even more
enticing with a starring role for the partnership
that swept the board at this year’s BBC Folk
Awards – June Tabor with Oysterband. The
two great British folk icons hadn’t worked in
earnest together since 1990 when they released
their landmark album, Freedom & Rain. The
sum of their parts were already exceptional, but
the unlikely combination of the magnificent
singing of Tabor and the superior folk rockery of
Oysterband triggered an extraordinary chemistry
that quickly marked Freedom & Rain as one of
the most significant albums of the era.
When rumours first rumbled about a
belated reunion last year, few imagined they
could successfully deliver again. So much time
had elapsed that there was an overriding fear not
only that they’d fail miserably to conjure the old
magic, but they might completely decimate the
memory of their previous excursion. If anything,
though, Tabor is an even better singer today than
she was in 1990 and Oysterband have a yet more
sensitively dramatic approach to arrangements
with many more strings to the imaginative
selection of bows than they had back in
the day. The result was Ragged Kingdom
which, in the view of most pundits, was
the stand-out album of 2011, winning
Folk Album of the Year awards in several
polls before going on to flatten all the
opposition at this year’s BBC Radio 2
Folk Awards.
And if Ragged Kingdom was album
of the year, then their inspired treatment
of Bonny Bunch Of Roses – the epic
ballad depicting the travails of Napoleon
Bonaparte – was unquestionably the track
of the year, an irresistible calling card for
a whole genre and a flagship ingredient of
This Is Proper Folk Too!!
There’s still a large chunk of the year to go,
but there’s no shortage of contenders for the
2012 Album of the Year either, as demonstrated
by some of the other new Proper Folk tracks. Seth
Lakeman marks his escape from major label hell,
pitching in with Blacksmith’s Prayer – anvil effects
and all – from his entirely solo back-to-basics
album Tales From The Barrel House celebrating
traditional West Country trades on his own
Honour Oak label.
Don’t discount The Imagined Village either,
a band built by Afro Celt Simon Emmerson with
the likes of Eliza and Martin Carthy, Johnny
Kalsi and Sheema Mukherjee, who’ve shifted the
landscape of folk song in the last couple of years
by shining a torch on Britain’s multiple cultures.
Their third album
Bending The Dark is a
bold shift away from the
English tradition into a
more groove-driven style
built around their own
self-composed material,
as so infectiously
expressed on the track
included on Proper Folk
Too!! – Winter Singing.
Karine Polwart, too, will surely be in the
mix at the end of the year if King Of Birds is
anything to go by – an ingeniously complex and
astonishingly ambitious song full of imagery
about Sir Christopher Wren in a modern
parable about last year’s occupation at St Paul’s
Cathedral. Add in the continuing adventures
of Bellowhead, tracks taken from major new
releases by Fay Hield and her all-star band The
Hurricane Party, Show Of Hands, Heidi Talbot
and Kathryn Roberts &
Sean Lakeman and you
get a picture of a widely
varied musical genre in
the rudest of health.
Various – This Is Proper Folk Too!!
(PMD PROPERFOLK13)
PROPERGANDA 13
 Blues
Blooded
Brothers
With Southern rock back in the spotlight,
Garth Cartwright catches up with Mike Zito and hears
how Devon Allman and Cyril Neville put the royal in
the Royal Southern Brotherhood.
“T
he South will rise
again” is something that has
been stated in the USA ever
since the South lost the Civil
War in 1865. And the region
has, true to its word, risen several times in many
different ways – it is, once again, an economic
and political powerhouse. And musically, well,
the South is where American music took
brilliant shape: blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, country,
soul, funk, Cajun, zydeco – all these music
forms arose from humid, impoverished
Southern states where poor blacks and whites
were forced to labour alongside one another in
cotton and sugarcane plantations, brutalised and
disenfranchised; all these people had to rejoice
in – and share – was music. That such glorious
sounds arose out of such racially tense lands
– where during the Civil Rights struggle the
South was aflame with Ku Klux Klan-inspired
arson and murders – remains both astonishing
and a testament to how music-making can
overcome the barriers and obstacles humans set
up to stop progressive activity.
The Royal Southern Brotherhood, whose
eponymous album is attracting huge attention
across the US, represent the latest development
of black and white Southern musicians coming
together to make glorious music. That the band
features two members from famous Southern
musical families lends the Brotherhood their
Royal moniker. That these musical brothers are
Cyril Neville – yes, of New Orleans’ first family
of funk, The Neville Brothers – and Devon
Allman – guitar-slinging son of Gregg Allman
and nephew to Duane Allman, thus making
him a direct descendant of The Allman
Brothers – means there is great sonic Southern
14 PROPERGANDA
heritage at work here. But,
beyond their bloodlines, are
the Royal Southern
Brotherhood any good?
On the strength of their
debut album the answer is a
loud “hell, yeah!” Opening
with the powerful New
Horizons, Cyril lays down the
band’s manifesto of spreading
a positive, peaceful message
while Devon Allman and
Mike Zito duel on respective
lead guitars while the rhythm section of Charlie
Wooton (bass) and Yonrico Scott (drums) kicks
things along in that tough yet tender way that is
supremely Southern. Left My Heart In Memphis
is a solo piece for Devon Allman to sing and
play on and in his blue-eyed soul vocal he
sounds not too dissimilar from his famous
father. And that’s a compliment. All members
of the band (excluding drummer Scott) write
songs and this means there’s variety here too as
the album varies from deep soul to hard rock to
funk jams to acoustic blues. Most importantly,
the band sound like they love to play. No mess,
no filler. Just straight ahead Southern grooves
played with love and care and determination.
I caught up with band founder Mike Zito
who filled me in on his long association with
Devon Allman and a series of coincidences that
led to the birth of the Brotherhood.
Zito was originally born and raised in the
Midwestern state of Missouri where he became
close friends with Devon Allman. The two
worked in a guitar shop together and both had
bands of their own, which sparked a friendly
rivalry. When Zito relocated to Texas, he came
under the influence of Tab Benoit, who became
an ally and offered a guiding hand, putting him
in touch with manager Reuben Williams. This
in turn led to a hook-up with Cyril Neville as
Mike was working on a new album and the
song Pearl River became their first joint
composition. It won Song Of The Year at the
Blues Music Awards in 2010, which naturally
enough gave both of them a desire to
collaborate further.
Coincidentally, Devon was still in Mike’s
thoughts as the two played the same gig circuit
and when he learned that his old friend was
looking for a new manager, he naturally put
him in touch with Reuben. A deal was done
and then on the back of a typically long,
rambling conversation between Mike and
Reuben about music in general, the idea of
bringing the trio together took hold. Putting
egos and personal projects to one side Mike,
Cyril and Devon hooked up and were
surprised at how fruitful these exploratory
sessions turned out to be. Mike candidly
remarks “I don’t want to be anyone’s backing
guitarist or singer, but Reuben said just get
 “Music still
matters in the
South – the
same way it
did over 100
years ago…”
together and see what happens. We just quickly proved. “It was electric,” Mike recalls, taking just five days in the studio. As Mike
jammed, Cyril played some drums, we made “really exciting. We knew this was something reveals, “The album was the easiest any of us
shit up, recorded a lot of ideas and walked that we had to do no matter what.” had been involved with. Singing and guitar
away with a pretty good feeling that this could That gig brought Charlie Wooton into the duties just came easy and writing tunes
work. No one got hurt and it was fun. Most of frame on bass, but drummer Mean Willie together did too. Most tracks were recorded
all it sounded good… different.” Reflecting Green was too tied to other commitments to live with very few overdubs. As Cyril said, we
now, he goes further, become a regular, so recorded performances not tracks.” Stateside
describing the sessions as
“Very inspiring and
Voice Of The Wetlands Charlie suggested Yonrico
Scott. To everyone’s
the album repaid all the faith, topping the
iTunes charts and debuting at #5 in the
without struggle, Tab Benoit is a figure in the story of the Royal delight the veteran of the Billboard blues chart and an international tour
everything just came Southern Brotherhood and has been able to Derek Trucks Band and will see the Royal Southern Brotherhood in
call on Cyril Neville and Mike Zito to support
together very easily. I his environmental pressure group The Voice Of countless stellar sessions the UK and Europe later this year.
think we were and are still The Wetlands. Cyril is a current member of the was interested. The final So what’s the enduring appeal of the
amazed at the great songs VOW All-Stars band along with Dr John and piece in the jigsaw was Southern blues-rock sound that seems to be on
we created. The songs Anders Osborne, who have taken the German Thomas Ruf. the rise again?
environmental disaster facing the Mississippi
continue to reveal Mike had long admired “It’s hot down here,” says Zito as he thinks
Gulf Region of America and put it on the
themselves on stage every political map, via the concert halls and dance the Ruf label and had even through the question, “and people are hurting
night.” floors of the region and beyond. produced a couple of still – no jobs, no money, just trying to get by.
It was a live Tab’s father was a commercial pilot, flying recent CDs. As Mike says, Music still matters in the South – the same
performance that finally light aircraft across the region. As a boy Tab “He was great to work way it did over 100 years ago. Music, it soothes
joined him and then also gained his own
brought the Brotherhood with and really passionate the soul and makes the tough times easier.
licence. Flying over the region he’s witnessed
together, setting up a few first-hand the damage and destruction caused about his artists. I told That’s always been true in the South and
gigs in September 2011. by coastal erosion through the Thomas about this great never changes. And
As Mike says, the big commercialisation of the Mississippi, a series of new band and how we with the Royal
question was, “Could we natural disasters like Katrina and an oil industry needed to form an alliance. Southern Brotherhood
out of control and poorly regulated by
do this on stage?” The government. His response was to found Voice Of We sent him some demos we aim to keep doing
answer proved to be a The Wetlands to bring a focus to the problem and he agreed.” just that.”
resounding yes as a two and the solutions that are achievable. With Jim Gaines
hour set at the Rock ‘n’ www.voiceofthewetlands.org signed on as producer, the Royal Southern Brotherhood – S/T
Bowl in New Orleans album was done quickly, (Ruf Records RUF1180)

PROPERGANDA 15
 ArnAldo Antunes
edgArd scAndurrA
toumAni diAbAté
A CURVA DA CINTURA
mAli – b rAsil

A joyous blend of Brazilian rock and

West-African-roots from one of this
year’s most unlikely trios.
Album AvAilAble now on mAis um Discos
uK live show: back2black Festival london July 1
“A magical arrangement of weaving koras and
guitars and wonderful vocal(s)”
SoNglINeS Top of The WoRlD

Also available from MAis UM Discos

oI! A NoVA MUSICA BRASIleIRA!

“A brilliant Brazilian album…
compilation of the month” gIlleS peTeRSoN

www.maisumdiscos.net

Deadly Sinner
Paul Heaton, of the Beautiful South and Housemartins fame, presents The 8th, a
concept album about the seven deadly sins, updated with a thoroughly modern eighth
transgression. Helen M Jerome takes confession.
S
omething was stirring in
Manchester when the organisers were
commissioning ambitious new works
to be staged at their 2011
International Festival, and Paul
Heaton heeded their call – along with his
co-writer Jonny Lexus. As Paul explains it, the
idea for this modern take on the seven deadly
sins had already come to him… in a rare
dream that wasn’t about playing football. The
moment he awoke, he wrote the whole thing
down, pretty much fully formed.
“I’m known for writing more kitchen sink
dramas than I am songs about the ghetto…
where this piece is set. It certainly doesn’t
sound like a project that’s associated with me.”
They didn’t think it should just be released as a
‘new Paul Heaton thing’, but wanted instead to
find somewhere special to perform it. And its
international flavour, universal subject matter
and setting in a poverty-stricken
neighbourhood (initially based in “the
roughest part” of Chicago) meant it felt ideal
for the International Festival.
Step two was getting the right theatrical
talents involved to help with a live staging. And
boy, did they luck out. Playwright Che Walker,
of Royal Court and Young Vic fame, gave it a
theatrical narrative, and Paines Plough’s joint
artistic director George Perrin directed the
project. Punters savvy enough to buy the CD
also get a copy of the original Manchester show
on DVD – and will then no doubt want to catch
the show live (see box).
“This piece
was written
from the
sewer up!”
Next came finding the perfect and in anticipation/ For the latest thing desire had
compelling narrator to pull the listener in and ensnared.” Then Cherry Ghost’s Simon Aldred
provide the glue to keep all these sin-songs waxes lyrical on Greed: “Eyes getting wider in the
together. Like everyone else, vaults of the bank/ Calculating
Paul had been captivated by
the Baltimore crime drama,
Put Me Back On The draft after draft” and Scottish
songwriter Aaron Wright gets
The Wire, so it was a bit of a Bloody Bike! stuck into Wrath. It’s
coup to persuade that show’s Paul Heaton’s seductively familiar to hear the
Reg E Cathey to narrate, with 50:50 cycling tour Beautiful South’s Jacqui
his deep, devilish tone – of his favourite Abbott’s sweet voice on Envy,
making the rest of the watering holes – before Yvonne Shelton rips
ensemble turn into instant the facts: into Sloth, and Hull’s own
‘groupies’. Standing behind his Duration: 40 days Mike Greaves tackles Pride.
‘pulpit’ for the performance as Distance: 2,500 miles Finally, the man himself, Paul
an ex-felon, Cathey’s voice Milestone: 50th birthday – Paul Heaton performs the eighth
booms out, accusing, preaching cycled 50 miles to celebrate each year deadly sin, which evolves from
of his life.
and dangerous, often weaving the previous seven. “This piece
in and out of Steve Menzies’ Finishing Line: The 50:50 was written from the sewer
tour ended in June but Paul has
beautiful singing. The appearances at Latitude, M Fest up!” he says, “It was written for
sustained, hour-long & more this summer, returning to the addicts, the pimps,
composition is also beautifully London, Sheffield, Birmingham and the prostitutes, the gamblers
held together by a string Salford in Nov/Dec 2012 for The 8th and the lonely.”
and Greatest Hits live shows.
quartet, plus Jonny Lexus and Quite simply, Paul
Jonny Wright on guitars and Heaton has created arguably
bass, Christian Madden from The Earlies on his best and most memorable piece of work,
keyboards, and Pete Marshall keeping the beat. with coruscating lyrics and soulful, energised
Each of Paul’s imaginatively-cast Southside music propelling
Sinnaires singers is matched with one sin – and the story of
they gradually unmask themselves as the work The 8th forwards.
progresses. First there’s young soul singer Wayne And to think it was
Gidden on Lust, and King Creosote’s Kenny all a dream...
Anderson’s extraordinary vocals on Gluttony: “Fat
was the ass that was sitting on the seat/ Wide Paul Heaton – The 8th
was the mouth as it prepared/ Wet were the lips (Proper Records PRPCD102)
PROPERGANDA 17
 Rediscovering
The Hidden
People
News of a brand new album sent
Phil Meadley off to Dartmoor in search
of Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman
to find out what they’ve been up to for
the past nine years.

I
’ve got high hopes for this record; I think it
should be heard by lots of people,” says Mark Chadwick, celebrated
lead singer of the Levellers. “They really are brilliant; they’re the new
face of folk for me...” When someone who’s co-written 20 chart
singles and six Top 40 albums is this enthusiastic, then it’s probably
time to sit up and take notice. After all, how many albums have been thrust
into his hands over the years, and how
many of them have ended up on constant
rotation in his car? He certainly has a good
case. Hidden People by Kathryn Roberts and
Sean Lakemen is so assured, accessible, and
downright catchy, that you’d be forgiven for
wondering why the duo aren’t as well
known as Sean’s younger brother, Seth.
The reason for this is several-fold and
explains, to a certain extent, the title of the
album. “It comes from a direct translation
of the first track,” explains the striking,
dark-haired, Barnsley-born singer Kathryn
Roberts when I visit the couple at their
Equation:
home on the edge of Dartmoor. A former Folk Supergroup
village shop, it’s a hotchpotch of
architectural styles, with unusual doing the maths they are about small town people and small
passageways leading to surprising rooms, such as their characters. “We’ve also been hiding down here in our
small studio, and a cellar which still contains old n Kath & Sean first came together in the little Dartmoor village,” says Sean. “And for the past
folk super group Equation. The line-up also
hammer-heads from when the shop sold mining few years I’ve been hidden in Seth’s band, and hidden
included the two other Lakeman Brothers (Seth
supplies for tin miners who worked just up the hill and Sam), plus Kath’s good friend and fellow in studios. And Kathryn has been doing all sorts of
from them. Barnsley lass Kate Rusby. They were signed by guest vocals on albums... it’s a double-hitter.”
“There’s also an old corn dolly that came out of Rough Trade legend Geoff Travis to his label Their last album 2 (the imaginatively titled
the chimney,” says Sean, the relaxed, quietly confident with Warner Brothers and toured extensively. follow-up to 1) was released in 2003 on their own
When Kate left she was replaced by Cara Dillon,
guitarist and producer who bears a striking another exceptional talent. label I Scream Records, which also put out Seth
resemblance to Seth and middle brother Sam. “We Lakeman’s Mercury-nominated album Kitty Jay,
were told not to touch it ... real Blair Witch style...” n The band survived several line-up changes, produced by Sean in the kitchen of their old house in
but ultimately Kate Rusby’s, Seth’s and Cara’s
Coming back to Huldra, the hauntingly (with partner Sam’s) careers have eclipsed Horrabridge. “We were literally being nagged to have
harmonised first track on the album, Kathryn explains their beginnings. Kath and Sean are set fair to something to sell at folk clubs,” she says of the first
that the name comes from a Scandinavian legend continue the run of success two albums. “We were still touring the States a lot
photos: Paul heartfield, Dave Peabody

about forest dwelling women who lure men to their
doom in the forest. “They lure them in, have sex with them, and if they’re
happy and satisfied they keep them there under a spell,” she says. “And if
they’re not they tear them apart.”
She explains that ‘Huldra’ and ‘Huldra folk’ directly translates as
‘hidden people’, which also ties in well with the rest of the tracks because
with Equation (a group that also ignited the careers
of Seth, Cara Dillon, and Kathryn’s old school friend Kate Rusby), so that
was the primary thing. That’s why the albums aren’t much more than live
recordings really. It was pretty hasty.”
In the nine year hiatus, aside from touring heavily with Seth’s band,
Sean has also produced the last two Levellers albums as well as Mark

18 PROPERGANDA

“Kathryn’s got real
range and passion.
Her voice has
the purity that’s
required, but it’s
also got attitude”
Chadwick’s solo effort, and alongside the aforementioned session work,
Kathryn appeared on the Cecil Sharp Project 2011 with the likes of Steve
Knightley and Jackie Oates, in-between bringing up their two twin girls
Poppy and Lily.
As such, many of the tracks have been around in various forms for the
last seven or eight years, but it was only about a year and a half ago that a
concerted effort was made to finish things off properly. With their twins
reaching school age, it meant that Kathryn had more time to record the
album and commit to a tour in November.
The new album is being released on Navigator Records and features a
number of guests including Sean’s brothers, Cara Dillon, the American
singer Caroline Herring, and Sweden’s Greta Bondesson. On the anthemic
Money & Jewels, the male vocal is by Stu Hanna from Megson. “He sings
in a similar duo with Debs, so he knows how to weave around a female
high part,” Sean explains. “We picked the guests because we already had a
relationship with them, so we were able to articulate what we wanted, and
we knew that they’d be on the same wavelength.”
On The White Hind, their “mini folk opera”, they sought out different
singers to play the characters. “You have the mother character, and the
daughter and the son, and it couldn’t work with me just singing that,” says
Kathryn, who plays the daughter. The track is a reworking of a traditional
French song, which Kathryn describes as a “transmigration of the soul
ballad”. By day the central character is a young woman, but by night she’s a
white hind, or deer. In the story her own brother hunts her down, against
the will of the mother, and kills her. Caroline Herring plays the mother,
Jim Moray plays the son, and the track also features Yorkshire folk legend
Dave Burland as “the voice of judgment”.
Mark Chadwick appears on Standing At My Window, a driving folk
rock number with a fabulous fiddle solo by Seth. The duo felt the song
demanded “a gravelly, almost sinister voice”. Mark laughs when he recalls
being approached about it, “They really wanted me to sing on it, but it falls
right out of my vocal range! I’m not exactly the best singer in the world,
but I managed and it was great fun to do.” Like most of the album it was
recorded in their home, which is also where Chadwick chose to record his
solo album.
One of the great strengths of the album lies in its musical diversity,
with the Appalachian bluegrass feel of Lusty Smith, which they learnt in
South Carolina, sitting comfortably alongside the laid-back West Coast
groove of Oxford, N.Y., which stemmed from their love of small town
America. “There’s this amazing place called the Night Eagle Café in
upstate N.Y. where all the big names play when they’re travelling through,”
Sean explains. “And in Oxford they have this legend of a boy who was
buried in a glass coffin because he was afraid of the dark.”
“I have no idea if it was true,” interjects Kathryn,” but I liked the
notion and it sparked off an idea.”
Sean puts his wide range of influences down to his parents’ record
collection, which included The White Album by the Beatles, Martin
Carthy’s Crown Of Horn, and Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon by
James Taylor. His parents also ran Plymouth Folk Club so he’d often
encounter the likes of Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nicol passing through.
Later on Equation’s A&R man Geoff Travis (founder of Rough Trade
Records) widened the band’s musical horizons by sending them packets of
CDs. Thanks to him they discovered the joys of Nick Drake, Tim Buckley
and Jefferson Airplane.
Inevitably with musical parents, all three of the boys chose to play, but
they chose different instruments. “I know I decided to play the guitar
because my dad’s best mate was an architect who drove a Porsche and
played the guitar. So when I was five I wanted to be him,” says Sean.
Kathryn’s parents were both into traditional dance, so her childhood
involved going to folk festivals and being involved with dance teams.
“Everyone who dances ends up in the backroom of a pub, singing, so that
brought me into the traditional world,” she says. “And I think the reason I
remained is that I like songs that have a definite story to them. You don’t
find that in pop music, although that said I don’t often listen to folk music
by choice. If we’re driving back from a gig I’ll get Sean to put on American
heavy rock.”
Mark Chadwick believes that Kathryn is the best English female folk
singer at present. “She’s been hidden under a bushel somewhat, but she’s
got real range and passion. Her voice has the purity that’s required, but it’s
also got attitude.”
He also believes that Sean is the best producer his band has ever worked
with. They first met when Seth was invited to tour with the Levellers. “Sean
understands the chemistry of bands, so when it came to making Letters
From The Underground we asked him to produce it because he understood
the band better than we understood ourselves.” So successful was the pairing
that he’s just produced their new album, Static On The Airwaves.
Chadwick is a big folk music fan, but isn’t a great admirer of what he
terms ‘ultra tradition’. “I really like it when it’s been updated,” he says. “And
Hidden People has really got it. It reminds me of
the more commercial aspects of Fairport or
Steeleye; it’s in the tradition but there’s also some
great folk pop. You have to be careful with these
terms, but you know what I mean. I love it.”
Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman – Hidden People
(Navigator Records NAVIGATOR072)
PROPERGANDA 19
 REAL MUSIC
CLASSIC ARTISTS

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 The King
of European
Jazz
With forthcoming appearances at St Paul’s and
the London Jazz Festival and a series of albums
due for release in 2012, Stuart Nicholson
profiles the extraordinary career of Norwegian
saxophonist Jan Garbarek.
Photography: Guri Dahl

H
e’s been called a “poet of sound” but he
calls himself a “reluctant saxophonist”, even though his
albums have sold in five and six figure sums. He’s widely
regarded as a major figure in jazz but doubts his music is
jazz at all. His best-selling album is with a vocal chamber
quartet that specialises in medieval music, while recordings
with the Greek composer and pianist Eleni Karaindrou, the
classical violist Kim Kashkashian, Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain,
bassist Miroslav Vitous and jazz great Keith Jarrett, could hardly be further
apart stylistically, yet are somehow united by the sheer beauty of his
playing. It’s perhaps no surprise then, that despite a career in music that
began in the 1960s, Jan Garbarek remains one of the most enigmatic
figures in music today.
His music is truly beyond category and rather than artificially force it
into this pigeonhole or that, it’s probably best to skirt around the messy
business of trying to define it. Of course, this drives the music business
crazy – if you don’t call it something, they argue, how do you sell it? In
Garbarek’s case it doesn’t seem to matter. When it comes to selling CDs
he’s notched up sales of over a million units with the album Officium and

PROPERGANDA 21
Jan Garbarek
with The Hilliard
Ensemble
such-and-such radio station and this radio
station and that radio station – we had a huge
number of calls, people wanting to know where
they could find this album. Then it started
selling like crazy, over a million, I mean it’s
unheard of!” Officium was followed by
Mnemosyne in 1999 and
Take Five Garbarek CDs Officium Novum in 2010,
which all enjoyed
1. Officium Novum
remarkable sales despite
(476 3855) 2009
The third Officium album Garbarek’s belief they
in an extraordinarily would only appeal to “a
successful series in which group of esoteric people”.
Garbarek improvises over Following the success of
the four voices of The Hilliard Ensemble. It spans
Officium, the group clear
the centuries, medieval and contemporary music
uniquely unified. space in their diaries to
tour every other year,
2. Dresden –
occasionally more
In Concert (270 9572)
2007 frequently, not least
every time he tours he sells out major concert that became one of ECM’s Garbarek’s current jazz because they enjoy each
halls across Europe. Somehow he is able to biggest-selling albums of all group in its only live other’s company so much;
appeal to classical music fans, pop fans, jazz fans time, even appearing in the recording, this double “I feel good with them,”
album powers through material new and old,
and folk fans with music that succeeds in pop charts in several including euphoric performances of Paper Nut, says Garbarek, “very
speaking to everyone. European countries. “I was Twelve Moons and The Tall Tear Trees. invited. We do material we
It’s no mean achievement and something very impressed when I first all feel very confident
3. Selected Recordings
he’s accomplished with typical modesty and in heard the Hilliards,” recalls (014 1652) 2003 about and it’s a great
the lowest key imaginable. For a start, his record Garbarek. “I think I A 2-CD anthology chosen pleasure to be with them,
company ECM have always erred on the side of mentioned this to Manfred by Garbarek himself; and it’s fun to do concerts
understatement, while Garbarek himself is not [Eicher] and he said maybe these remastered tracks just acoustically, no PA, no
from 1974-1995 feature
one for basking in the glow that celebrity brings. you should do something microphones nothing, and
seminal songs with Keith Jarrett, Bill Frisell,
He seldom gives interviews, preferring to avoid together and it turned out Anouar Brahem, Shankar, John Abercrombie, if we have a good room –
the spotlight by escaping as often as he can from – talking to the Hilliards Egberto Gismonti & Charlie Haden. bliss!” Their last appearance
his Oslo apartment to a small retreat in the later on – that when they in St Paul’s Cathedral in
4. I Took Up The Runes
Norwegian countryside. He once penned an joined ECM it was also (177 9877) 1990 2009 was to huge critical
original composition called The Reluctant with a prospect of The five-part Molde acclaim so be warned, this
Saxophonist, saying: “Reluctant saxophonist? It collaborating with other Canticle lights up a upcoming July concert
could be me. I certainly feel like it sometimes. ECM artists. And it turned compelling disc by the promises to be something
Jan Garbarek Group,
Reluctant saxophonist means reluctant to play out to be me, and we met augmented by Bugge Wesseltoft on synthesizer
special.
sometimes. Sometimes it’s like that, when you up in a specially chosen and rock drummer Manu Katché, making his Garbarek uses the tone
actually play it’s fun, but you have to get down to place which we both knew first, vibrant appearance for the saxophonist. of his saxophone as a
it and there are other things to do, other – this monastery in the 5. Dis (827 4082) 1976 powerful expressive force,
thoughts to think…” You sense he views success northern Alps – and they Exquisite, quintessential his phrasing as remote from
as the unwanted by-product of making records, have a chapel there with Garbarek with his any ‘jazzy jazz’ orthodoxy as
something to be endured rather than enjoyed. very good acoustics. They keening saxophones can be imagined, a kind of
And part of that success he attributes to his brought some pieces they melded with a wind poetic grandeur shaping his
harp (atmospherically
close association with label boss and producer thought might be recorded on the Norwegian coast), a hushed often memorable and
Manfred Eicher of ECM Records, with whom worthwhile to see how they brass ensemble, and the 12-string and classical haunting lines. Like jazz
he first recorded in 1971 and continues to record worked, they put their guitars of Ralph Towner. legend John Coltrane, one
to this day, saying ECM Records, “is something music down on this stone of his formative influences,
I feel proud to be part of ”. table and they started to sing and I listened his quest seems to be to imbue every phrase with
While there is no shortage of Garbarek and picked up the saxophone and joined them significance. This aspect of his playing can be
albums on the ECM label, those curious to get for a minute, and then we stopped and said heard in the context of an exciting upcoming
into his music usually ask, “Where do I start?” okay, I think we can do a recording! The sound re-release of three albums he made in the 1970s.
Well that answer is made easy in the coming seemed to blend quite well together and it Produced as a box-set, Dansere comprises the
months by a bit of an upsurge in Garbarek-ian wasn’t too abhorrent to them to have a latter album made in 1975, Witchi-Tai-To from
musical activity guaranteed to get the pulses of saxophone with them! 1973 and Sart from 1971, all from a time when
even the most established Garbarek fans beating “To me they sounded absolutely marvellous, Garbarek was establishing himself in the jazz
a little faster. But don’t expect grand so we met a few months later in the same chapel world. These albums were hugely influential in
proclamations in the press, on radio or TV and recorded the album Officium. We had a projecting a European dimension in what until
because that’s not his way. He likes to work wonderful time and I think we all felt we had then had by and large been considered an
under the radar, such as his appearance with The done something really wonderful, we liked it a American art form. Together with a core group
Hilliard Ensemble at St Paul’s Cathedral in lot, I think we all – certainly me – thought it was of Bobo Stenson on piano, Palle Danielsson on
London on 12th July 2012. Heard about it? just something for an esoteric group of people bass and Jon Christensen on drums, they
Probably not, but it looks like being a sell-out, so who might find it interesting, but so what? We demonstrated great jazz could be produced in the
photo: Paolo Soriani

make your booking sooner rather than later. did it, and we enjoyed it, and there it was. So Old World, and were hugely influential in
Garbarek’s association with the Hilliards when the album was released and we started inspiring successive generations of European jazz
began in 1993 which led to the album Officium getting these telephone calls – it was played on musicians to find their own voice in the music.

22 PROPERGANDA
“When it comes to
selling CDs he’s
notched up sales of
over a million units
with the album
Officium”
PROPERGANDA 23
 “Reluctant
saxophonist?
It could be me.
I certainly feel like
it sometimes.”

DANSERE BOX SET review

Jan Garbarek – Dansere
(2755178)
The latest three-album box set in
ECM’s Old & New Masters series
Garbarek takes up the story of how these at the time; this was brings together all of Jan Garbarek’s
lifetime, two in the
albums came about: “I was invited to do a earlier, 1971 I think, collaborations with Bobo Stenson for
studio: Belonging and
the label, thus Sart from 1971, Witchi-Tai-To from 1973 and
festival in Poland in ‘73, and I didn’t have a and we brought Bobo Dansere from 1975 make a welcome return to the catalogue,
My Song, and two
band with me, but I knew that [bassist] Palle in as an extra colour at live: Nude Ants and
having been out of print in recent years. The perspective that
Danielsson would be there and [drummer] Jon that point. It was a some 40 years permits, might allow rationalisation to temper Personal Mountains,
Christensen would be there, and I thought we different type of these albums’ significance, but the passage of time has done and all are classics.
could do something with the trio, just project that was really little to dim their lustre; they are bona fide classics, not just of
According to Jarrett’s
European jazz, but of jazz itself.
improvise something. Those were the ‘free a quartet with Terje biographer Ian Carr,
[jazz] days’, we just went on stage and played. Rypdal playing guitar, All the musicians were well known to one another through this group took, “the
But as it turned out, Palle was there with Bobo Arild Andersen [on a variety of associations, thus Garbarek, Stenson, Rypdal, art of the classic jazz
Andersen and Christensen stepped into the recording
[Stenson], and we thought it would be a good bass], Jon studio for the 1971 Sart session confident their sympathetic quartet to its highest
idea if we did a quartet. It felt very much like [Christensen on interaction would carry the day – which it did. Here is pinnacle”. So the
coming home, we all had the same background drums] and myself. It creative music-making in the moment; musicians embracing forthcoming release
with Coltrane, Miles, everything that was was more like an the burden of creativity with the licence that free-flowing of a previously
expressionism brings.
around in those days, Cecil Taylor, Ornette experiment in the unissued Japanese
Coleman, it was very fertile ground you might studio, like we often The Garbarek-Stenson quartet present a more formal concert by the
say. So when we started to play we sort of had did with ECM, trying approach to improvisation, using song forms – not least the quartet, recorded in
classic Witchi-Tai-To – to underpin their improvisations, which
a ‘code’ – we knew what to do with each other, to come up with 1979, is exciting news.
are models of lucid melodicism and an ability to “play silence”
everything that came from one or other of the something! Later on, – a technique that may be Miles Davis’ most enduring legacy Add to this
musicians, we all knew how to respond. It was following Witchi-Tai- – in a way that their improvisations assumed greater clarity Garbarek’s appearance
like putting on old, nice gloves. To we became a band and resonance. This quartet, with Danielsson and Christensen, at the London Jazz
“I think Bobo had a session coming up for with Bobo, Palle, Jon had it in their gift to make music that was timeless. Perhaps Festival in November
the only regret is they did not record more often..
ECM, and he said, ‘Let’s make it a quartet and myself and then with the Indian
session, let’s do some of the stuff we did in we recorded Dansere percussionist Trilok
Poland’. So we did this album called Witchi- in ‘75.” Gurtu and this genuinely modest man, whose
Tai-To, and it was really Bobo’s project at the The core of this influential band, sans remarkable career has no shortage of musical
time, and then we decided to do live concerts Stenson, would again write an important highlights, might for a moment be trapped in
Credit: Guri Dahl

and record some more together. That was pretty chapter in jazz history when they collaborated the spotlight of fame he has so scrupulously
much it; the album Sart was a bit different, we with the American pianist Keith Jarrett. The tried to avoid. If he is, then it’ll be well
weren’t really playing together on a regular basis group only recorded four albums during their deserved and long overdue.

24 PROPERGANDA
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Cinematic Folk
The Old Dance School take a widescreen approach
to music – and pictures – finds Chris Nickson.
T
he Old Dance School?
Strange name for a band, isn’t it?
Evidently not, the name in fact pays
homage to where the band got
together.
“I lived at what had been the Betty Fox
School of Ballet in Birmingham,” leader Robin
Beatty explains. It was a living and performing
space and “there was a recording studio”. The
players already knew each other as students at
26 PROPERGANDA
Birmingham Conservatoire, where some had
studied classical and some jazz. “There’s a lot
of music in a small space, both at college and
in Birmingham, where there’s a hardcore Irish
scene. We’d been playing together and we were
offered a ceilidh gig. Afterwards, we thought
this sounded like a band. Next thing we were
headlining Moseley Folk Festival. We
rehearsed hard and we realised we were
writing a lot of material.”
They made an EP to use as a calling card
for more gigs and then “We got together with
Joe Broughton of the Urban Folk Quartet. We
all played in his big band, a 45-piece ensemble.
He offered to produce our first album, Based
On A True Story (2008), and it was onward
from there.”
The album received rave reviews and was
championed by Whispering Bob Harris on his
radio show, helping to raise the band’s profile
as one of the most exciting new groups – and
also established their sense of visuals with
striking photos taken by Robin’s father, John
Beatty. But they understood that a debut,
 a barn and spend days playing.
It was full-on work day after
day, but a more conscious way
of working. We’re always
using sounds to make images
in terms of texture and colour.
Most traditional music is
modal. But as we have a
trumpet in Bb, we got out of
modal harmonies. You can
hear that on Swifts And
Martins on the new album,
where we move through
several key changes. We
recorded this one with Calum
again, at a new studio in
during a snowy winter, and I think it really Glasgow that he’d designed. A lot of it involved
developed our sound.” carefully positioning the mics for different
That mix of trumpet, double violins and sounds. Much of it was live – the rhythm
woodwind offers the chance for plenty of colour section was live and the strings were live, then
and texture, and The Old Dance School has we’d add to that and use the space. You can hear
learned to take it in the thick
advantage of it in their
compositions. The
music might have its
“We’re always string effects on
The North Edge,
for instance –
roots in folk, but over
the last few years the
music has matured
using sounds to that’s just in the
way the mics were
placed.”
into something
delightfully individual,
both in instrumentals
make images in Beatty might
speak for the
band, but it’s
and songs.
“I’m not a fan of terms of texture really very much
a democracy:

taking pictures
“We like strong, iconic
shapes. For the cover of
Forecast we used the Point
of Ayr lighthouse at Talacre
Beach. We all enjoy the
outdoors, we’re always
out and about. We were
thinking about what we wanted for the cover of Chasing
The Light. Then, when we were driving to a gig in Devon,
we saw a hot air balloon in the sky and we knew that
was it. We enticed some guy and his balloon out to the
Peak District. It was 3am, up on a hill with a big sky. The
wind was starting but we managed to get the balloon
up for 10 minutes, catching some cool shapes before
daybreak, when the wind became too much.”
however well received, is just a beginning, and
over the next couple of years they thought a
great deal about their music.
“Aaron Diaz was playing bass then and we
spent a lot of time listening to European and
Scandinavian jazz,” Beatty recalls. “There’s a
real appreciation for sound in it. Aaron moved
over to trumpet and we saw we could use it
with strings and Irish whistle, as well as loops.
So Adam Jarvis joined on double bass. We
worked with producer Calum Malcolm on the
photos: John beatty
and colour”
pigeonholing,” Beatty
agrees. “When we
began writing we
weren’t aware of
boundaries, we were more informed by stuff
around us. These days it’s perhaps necessary to
sum yourself up in one sentence. We draw from
classical and jazz and also Celtic music. We call
it cinematic folk, it implies taking things from
soundtracks, the qualities of film music. When
we’re writing, we want to evoke an image and
sense of place.” That also accents the idea of
visuals, which is likely to become even more
integral to the band. “In a year we’re hoping to
do a tour with visuals synchronised to the
music. It would be quite easy to implement and
it would be exciting to work with my dad.”
That shows just how important pictures
and images are to the band. Beatty does a great
deal of audiovisual work with his father,
soundtracking the live show that his parents do
of still photographs. Beatty also makes all the
videos for the band, pieces that have a
professional look and feel without ever being
slick; he knows how to capture the group’s
personality very effectively.
For now, however, The Old Dance School
have a more pressing matter – the release of
their third CD, Chasing The Light, with its
striking cover of a hot air balloon rising from
“We talk a lot
about how we do
things. It can
make for a slow
process at times but the end result is more
balanced. We’re a seven-piece, so learning the
process of working together has been very
good. We live together and do things
together, other small groups, and we play in
Irish sessions. The friendship is the most
important thing. You learn different roles,
what people are good at. Samantha Norman
[violinist] can hear something and play it
perfectly, for instance, while [other violinist]
Helen Lancaster has a remarkable feel for a
melody, she makes it her own.”
With the album just out, “We’re already
thinking ahead to the next one and starting to
plan it”. Before that happens, though, they’ll be
taking this one on the road. They’ve developed
a real following that sees them playing gigs and
festivals through the summer and say “We’re
looking forward to our October tour. It’s 20
dates, the biggest we’ve done, and then there’ll
be another one in February after we’ve played
some shows in Sweden
and Denmark.”
The Old Dance
School looks set to last
for a very long time.

next album, Forecast, in 2010. He was a the ground, pursued by the band.
wonder in the studio and really helped us “We put the album together last year,” The Old Dance School – Chasing
experiment. We made it at a studio in Wales Beatty says. We rehearsed intensively, we’d book The Light (Transition TRANSCD05)

PROPERGANDA 27

Pure Gold
200 albums down the line, Peter Gabriel’s Real
World “dating agency” for adventurous musicians
has turned out rather well. Howard Male signs up.
L
ong before Damon Albarn
took up the baton of bringing ‘world
music’ to a rock and pop audience, rock
star Peter Gabriel founded the Real
World record label to function as what he
amusingly called a “dating agency” for
adventurous musicians wanting to expand their
musical horizons. But whereas Albarn seems,
generally speaking, to have gone for a fully
immersive approach – either arranging
glorified jam sessions mostly between rock and
African musicians under the name African
Express, or making albums on which he was
still an integral if not central element –
Gabriel has remained largely out of the
picture, preferring to let his artists do their
own thing on their own terms. Without Real
World and one or two other bold, adventurous
record labels, it’s unlikely that the
controversially labelled ‘world music’ would
have become such a going concern.
Yet this ground-breaking label has been
with us now for 23 years. Today, any self-
respecting fan of global grooves (to pick yet
another inadequate term for the vast spectrum
of music that has to exist under the same
umbrella) will have a sizeable section of their
CD collection brightened up by the familiar
multicoloured, striped spines that have been
part of the Real World brand design, since the
label’s inception. But although this unifying
Drummers
of Burundi
element of the cover art might
suggest a distinct house style, the
music within tells quite a different
story. This is especially evident on
these first ten CDs to be re-released
in the Real World Gold series. The
degree of diversity is staggering.
At one end of the sonic
spectrum there’s the ethereal folk of
English-born Indian singer Sheila
Chandra, while at the other end
there’s the thunderously bombastic
Drummers Of Burundi performing a single
eardrum-shattering, 30-minute piece on their
Live At Real World album. From the get-go,
Real World offered something for everyone –
particularly if you were interested in voyaging
outside your rock and pop comfort zones. Each
Real World’s Peter Gabriel
It was in the early 1970s that
Genesis’ original front man, Peter
Gabriel, dressed up as a flower to
sing about lambs and wardrobes.
Looking back it seems perfectly
logical that a man who indulged
in such uninhibited behaviour
should end up being responsible
for introducing us to so many other
new and often challenging sounds.
Given that we’re more musically
Real World Gold: The Blind Boys Of Alabama – Higher Ground / Geoffrey
Oryema – Exile / The Imagined Village – ST / Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
– Mustt Mustt / Papa Wemba – Emotion / Afro Celt Sound System –
Volume 1: Sound Magic / Afro Celt Sound System – Volume 2: Release
/ Sheila Chandra – Moonsung / Lama Gyurme – Rain Of Blessings: Vajra
Chants / The Drummers of Burundi – Live At Real World
new release further expanded the label’s
reach, rather than helping to clarify its
identity – a brave thing to do in a culture
so focused on brand continuity. To
further illustrate this point, also amongst
these initial ten re-releases there’s
Tibetan chanting and percussion backed
by nicely atmospheric synths on Lama
Gyurme & Jean-Philippe Rykiel’s Rain
Of Blessings, Congolese soukous given a
slick R&B/funk makeover with Papa
Wemba’s 1995 album Emotion, and edgy
gospel/blues perfection with The Blind
Boys Of Alabama’s Higher Ground.
The label has lent support to some
home-grown projects with an interest in
embracing global influences, such as the
Imagined Village – a collective of
musicians passionately concerned with
making folk music a more credible and
innovative genre, and Afro Celt Sound
System with their mix of European and
West African musicians creating a unique
fusion that’s both rousingly emotive and
irresistibly danceable (both represented in
these re-releases on Real World Gold).
The fact that the label had its own
purpose-built studios from the beginning
must have helped greatly in creating a
signature Real World sound. For Joe
Bloggs had to be able to play the new
Papa Wemba album to his Dire Straits-
loving mates and be confident that it
stood up sonically; that it had a power
and heft sometimes missing from a genre
largely associated with the one or two
microphone field recording.
I was astonished to learn that
nearly 200 albums have been released
by the label to date. The time certainly
seems ripe for cherry-picking some of
the seminal releases so that both us
older, more seasoned world music fans
can be reminded of some gem we overlooked
first time around, and a whole new generation
(who perhaps received an early indoctrination
by being dragged along to WOMAD by their
parents) can check out the archives for the
first time.
adventurous than when Real World
first came on the scene, it only
seems right that some of these
sounds are now being given a
second airing. As the man himself
said, “There are some wonderful
albums in the catalogue that still
haven’t gone out as far in the
world as we’d like them to. I think
there’s a different generation being
exposed to world music now.”
PROPERGANDA 29
 Hield’s Hurricane
Takes Off
With an all-star new band, The Hurricane Party, a new album
Orfeo and appearances at many of this summer’s festivals,
Colin Irwin attempts to keep up with Fay Hield.
Photos: David Angel

A
s the mother of two young children, One she didn’t construct is The Cuckoo, learned from the singing of one
juggling with the demands of her work as an ethnomusicologist of her seminal influences, Anne Briggs. Despite parents steeped in folk
and teacher – and seemingly a million other tangential projects clubs and morris dancing, Fay didn’t have a lot of exposure to folk records
and ideas swallowing her time and energy – you can’t imagine until she was in her teens. “It was a folk background but we didn’t have
how Fay Hield can muster up the time, vitality or inclination to those 70s’ recordings of people like Steeleye and Fairport. But when I got
concentrate on her blossoming career as a singer. Yet concentrate she does. to 15 or 16 some of my friends at the folk club gave me bootleg tapes of
“I’m loving it,” she says of her elevation various people and Anne Briggs featured a
from former Witches Of Elswick member lot – a brilliant singer.”
to academic to tentative solo performer to Who else? “Peter Bellamy. It was
fronting a full-blooded band. “I knew I drummed into me at an early age how
wanted to make another album and I knew brilliant he was. Waterson:Carthy were
it couldn’t be similar to my first one quite prominent and Maggie Boyle was a
Looking Glass. So I decided to go one step huge influence. I nannied for her and
up the ladder and play with a bigger band seeing her having a career was
and aim for festivals. So then it was like conceptually important.”
choosing my fantasy folk band and I Fay first came to prominence in the a
decided to go for musicians who would fire cappella group the Witches Of Elswick and,
off each other.” despite the blossoming role of arrangements
And what a band The Hurricane Party with The Hurricane Party, she remains at
has turned out to be. In addition to her heart an unaccompanied singer.
Looking Glass supporting cast of Rob “I’ll always first learn a song
Harbron (concertina) and Sam Sweeney (everything), it also features her unaccompanied in the car but I’ll still have in mind how it might be
partner Jon Boden (of Bellowhead, mostly on fiddle) and melodeon recorded. Looking Glass was a huge learning curve because I’d never sung
maestro Andy Cutting, along with characteristically match-winning guitar with instruments before I made that album. I’d only ever done solo
and banjo cameos from one of her neighbours from up the road in unaccompanied singing or with the Witches. I was also working on it in
Sheffield, Martin Simpson. Together they colour the music in all manner the final year of my PhD so it was a bit of a sideline. It was just
of wondrous ways, though never to the detriment of the songs or Ms. something I wanted to do… I wanted to make an album before I died…
Hield herself. something to show the grandchildren. So we made it and planned to put
“Basically they just played with very little direction or discussion. it out on our own label…and then sent it to Topic and much to my
They just listened to one another and got on with it amazement they said they’d like to release it. It just
and it was lovely.”
A key feature of both Orfeo and its predecessor
Spreading The Word happened. There was no big design plan.”
Looking Glass was warmly received,
Looking Glass is bringing to the fore some largely “It’s important to keep developing things in immediately announcing her as one of the most
unfamiliar material. The epic title track on Orfeo the folk scene, but we also need to try and formidably gifted young singers around…and now
provide places for the new audiences that are
has its roots in a medieval take on the Greek she’s gone up several notches with Orfeo, an
out there and to give them real avenues to get
Orpheus/Eurydice story, so her degree in medieval involved…” album of varying moods ranging from the
literature stood her in good stead. “I do like an epic Fay and partner Jon Boden have been involved unexpected music hall feel of Old ‘Arris Mill to
ballad,” she laughs. “Jon [Boden] started looking at in setting up two highly successful folk clubs in the mighty ballad The Lover’s Ghost and the
it a few years ago but didn’t get anywhere with it so Yorkshire – Bright Phoebus in Sheffield and the beautifully romantic
Royal Traditions in the village of Dungworth – as
I revived it. It’s a great story. I came across various The Weaver’s Daughter.
well as the Soundpost Singing Weekend with
different versions and hashed them all together. I’m workshops, concerts, singarounds and talks. “I just love singing,” she
not sure if that makes me a songwriter – I see it “What riles me is people moaning and saying it’s says. “If people let me sing
more in the role of an editor. But it’s a song we all in demise and where are the young audiences then I’m happy.”
constructed yet is still very much part of the and why don’t people do this or that? Well, if
you’re going to stand there and whinge about it
tradition. I do look to record songs that aren’t that’s not going to inspire anyone to join you…” Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party –
widely known.” Orfeo (Topic TSCD586)

30 PROPERGANDA
 “I’m not sure if
that makes me a
songwriter –
I see it more in the
role of an editor”
PROPERGANDA 31
 TUESDAY 24 JULY, 10.00PM
KRONOS QUARTET
An eclectic late night featuring the ever crusading
Kronos Quartet, with influences from the USA, Syria,
ROYAL ALBERT HALL the Balkans and Scandinavia.

THURSDAY 6 SEPT, 10.15PM

STAFF BENDA BILILI + BALOJI
Congolese street musicians Staff Benda Bilili and
Congolese-Belgo rapper Baloji bring their own pieces
of Africa.
Half Price
tickets for all ALL SEATS £12.00 OR £16.00
those aged 18 OR PROM (STAND) ON THE
and under NIGHT FOR JUST £5.00
TUESDAY 31 JULY, 10.15PM
Book by telephone 0845 401 5040*
José Hernando Arias Noguera online at bbc.co.uk/proms
Egidio Cuadrado in person at the Royal Albert Hall
Energetic sounds from Colombia – both traditional and modern –
from two leading accordionists, joined by an enthusiastic band. theproms @bbcproms

BBC RADIO 3 WORLD * Calls cost up to 5p/min from most landlines (an additional
connection fee may also apply). Calls from mobiles may cost

ROUTES ACADEMY considerably more. All calls will be recorded and may be monitored
for training and quality-control purposes. Booking fees may apply.

www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk
FOLK BY THE SEA
PEATBOG FAERIES
THURSDAY 23RD AUGUST 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £15 Standing

TIM EDEY & BRENDAN POWER

TUESDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £10

BUDAPEST CAFE ORCHESTRA

THURSDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £12

ELIZA GILKYSON
THURSDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £14

TREACHEROUS ORCHESTRA
SATURDAY 13TH OCTOBER 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £14

FAY HIELD & THE HURRICANE PARTY

SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £14

DAMIEN O’KANE
SUNDAY 4TH NOVEMBER 2012
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £12
Ropetackle Arts Centre
HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN S
Little High Street, Shoreham-by-Sea, BN43 5EG
SUNDAY 11TH NOVEMBER 2012 K ET Box office 01273 464440
Doors 7.30pm Starts 8.00pm Tickets £16.50 Standing TIC www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk

Properganda Ropetackle Ad 2012.indd 1 06/06/2012 15:23

ECM Summer
Round-up
Ray Comiskey profiles ECM’s latest releases
Jarrett/Garbarek/ Danielsson/
Christensen– Sleeper (Tokyo, April 16, 1979) 3705570
Keith Jarrett’s 70s ‘European’ quartet with Jan
Garbarek, Palle Danielsson and Jon
Christensen was a serendipitous, unrepeatable
blend of uniquely gifted individuals who could
handle Jarrett’s compositions with rare clarity
and creative freedom. They finished in 1979
with Nude Ants and (released 10 years later)
Personal Mountains. But a previously
unsuspected, two-CD Tokyo concert recording
from that vintage year is, in its expressive range
and sheer communal joy in making music, up
there with their best. Few groups could groove
and create as they do on the trance-like
Personal Mountains, segueing with seamless
inventiveness into a contrast like Innocence.
Or, in So Tender and the multifaceted Oasis,
take group interaction to such a peak with
Jarrett and Garbarek clearly enjoying a
musical conversation.
John Surman – Saltash Bells 2798108
Surman’s first solo album since 1994 is
a lovely reminder of the rustic elements
that most overtly graced his previous solo
recordings. Using soprano, tenor and baritone
saxophones, alto, bass and contrabass
clarinets, harmonica and synthesizer, it’s a
trawl through memories of his Devon roots
that sparks his gift for creating personal,
uniquely folk-like themes. An impeccable
sense of instrumental colour, contrast and
counterpoint, deftly deployed in these
beautiful evocations of time and place,
enhances the impact of an album of great
charm and melodic and conceptual strength.
It’s particularly true of the melancholy Winter
Elegy, an eery Whistman’s Wood, the (almost)
Morris dance of On Staddon Heights, a
dramatic Sailing Westwards and the glorious,
open-air feel of Saltash Bells.
Arild Anderson/ Tommy Smith/
Scottish NJO – Celebration 2790947
Fronting a big band as the main soloist, bassist
Arild Andersen is outstanding in this brilliant
reimagining of compositions from ECM’s
history by a team of arrangers, including
Tommy Smith, whose powerful tenor also
features on this live recording. In a set of
strong, tight performances the SNJO responds
superbly to the disparate challenges presented
by the demands of Makoto Ozone’s
gorgeously voiced ensembles in
Crystal Silence, the beautifully
built orchestral textures of Trygve
Seim and Øyvind Brække’s Ulrikas
Dans and, above all, Mike Gibbs’
multilayered marriage of soloist
and ensemble on Andersen’s
Independency Part 4. Other gems
include Geoff Keezer’s sensitive,
unfussy arrangement of Jarrett’s My
Song and Smith’s measured take on
Garbarek’s stately Molde Canticle
Part 1.
FLY – Year Of The Snake 2776644
With this release the tenor-bass-
drums trio of Mark Turner, Larry
Grenadier and Jeff Ballard bring
their remarkable colloquy to its
highest level yet. The music is
intensely focused and directed,
with the soloist often just the
most prominent part of a three-
way interchange binding the
predetermined and the improvised
into a unified continuum. It’s both
cerebral and visceral, aspects notably
embodied in the work of Turner,
who contributed four originals and,
with Ballard, the song-like Salt And
Pepper; Ballard and Grenadier wrote
three more and there are some brief,
spontaneous group improvisations.
The tenor’s pieces, often akin to
spiritual meditations, are simple
but eloquent blueprints for a trio
that sounds like no other and
possesses, in Turner, one of the great
contemporary saxophonists.
Steve Kuhn/Steve Swallow/
Joey Baron – Wisteria 2794578
Decades-old associations reinforce
the understanding between pianist Steve
Kuhn, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer
Joey Baron in this, their swinging debut as a
trio. A wide-ranging programme includes four
pieces from Kuhn’s with-strings Promises Kept
album, and further compositions by himself,
Swallow, Carla Bley, Art Farmer and the
Brazilian, Dori Caymmi. The unflaggingly
melodic inventiveness and harmonic nous of
Kuhn and Swallow are threaded through these
performances, deepening their rhythmically
flexible and dynamically nuanced dialogue with
the splendid Baron. And, led by a thoroughly
energised Kuhn, the trio’s clarity and warmth
illuminate the implacable drive of A Likely Story
and Good Lookin’ Rookie, the jaunty Promises
Kept and Permanent Wave, the
soulful Adagio, Pastorale and the
wistful Wisteria.
John Abercrombie Quartet –
Within A Song 2789531
With a more straight-ahead
approach than usual, guitarist John
Abercrombie offers an absorbing,
contemporary slant on some seminal
recordings of Coltrane, Rollins,
Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Ornette
Coleman that opened doors for
him in the sixties. In the hands of
a gold-standard quartet completed
by tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano,
bassist Drew Gress and drummer
Joey Baron, the music combines
impeccably attuned group interaction
with some memorable soloing
from, in particular, Abercrombie
and Lovano. It yields refreshingly
new lines on Flamenco Sketches
and delightfully oblique views of
Where Are You, Evans’s Interplay,
Ornette’s Blues Connotation, Sergio
Mihanovich’s graceful but seldom
played waltz, Sometime Ago, and
establishes a euphoric groove on
Coltrane’s dramatic Wise One, the
album’s longest performance.
Louis Sclavis Atlas Trio –
Sources 2799532
Always receptive to the untried,
clarinettist Louis Sclavis flexes
his improvisational muscles in a
new trio with Benjamin Moussay
(piano, keyboards) and guitarist
Gilles Coronado. Virtually all the
repertoire, specifically conceived for
the group, is his, combining rigour
and freedom in razor sharp unison
and counterpoint, stunning written
and improvised polyrhythmic
dialogue, and cues to stitch ad lib and
written elements together. A palette
that includes, among other things,
rock, world music, spontaneous
group improv, perhaps a flavour
of French chanson, tests the trio’s
emotional and creative range and its consistently
impressive capacity to strike a balance between
openness and control. It’s all epitomised in
the multidimensional A Road To Karaganda,
which, like the album, achieves a persuasively
homogenous feel.
For regular information on ECM, join the free mailing list –
see www.propernote.co.uk
PROPERGANDA 33
 clearly rubbed off, and the kaleidoscopic array of
chops Sonny coaxes from his guitar are drenched
in that area’s need for foot-tapping drive and
party-starting grooves. His back catalogue is a
cultured and highly impressive one, and back in
the day when BMG were trying to break him as
the next big thing, he released some quite
splendid albums. They didn’t sell in X-Factor
quantities (class rarely does) but what they did
do was sow the seed and help grow the bud into
the bloom it is today.
The list of those artists Sonny has worked
with is a real who’s who of the music world:
John Hiatt, Maria Muldaur, Eric Clapton,
Eric Johnson, John Mayall, Dr John, Mark
Knopfler, Jimmy Buffett...and so it goes on.
Being so creative and always looking to
expand the frontiers of guitar playing means
taking chances, which is what
Landreth’s done on Elemental
Blues Blasters Journey, his 11th studio album.
Five instrumental It’s an all-instrumental affair,
masters. by drew hobBs and depending on your
1. Jimmy Thackery - Rude Mood viewpoint, it’s either incredibly
A scintillating tune played at rewarding or plain foolhardy.
breakneck speed and with amazing It’s bound to attract the musos
virtuosity by one of the great unsung and the highbrow intellectuals
guitar heroes.
who will dissect every last
2. Jeff Healey - Hideaway chord change, but at the same
The Freddie King tune given a quite time it might alienate his
breathtaking makeover by the late
Canadian bluesman. Healey gives it hardcore fan base, the ones
tons of bounce and skip, bending the (like me) who adore lyrics and
strings into delightful shapes. vocals on an album. But
3. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Lenny whatever the split in opinions,
A loving tribute to Stevie Ray’s wife. what can’t be denied is the

Bayou Blues
Vaughan had the touch, the feel and sheer scale of artistry on
the grace and was one of the very
display – it really is chock to
best exponents of slow blues tunes.
As an art of loving expression it’s hard the top with mesmerising
to beat. musicianship.

Master
4. Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas A few guests were invited
Another sensational slide master. along to the party. Satriani
Played on acoustic bottleneck this does his thing on Gaia Tribe,
drips with a brooding menace and Eric Johnson embellishes
evokes the richest imagery. You can
Passionola with typically
feel the sweat on the strings.
exquisite dreaminess, and the
Sonny Landreth returns with for some time now, on his
own albums or as a hired
5. Joe Bonamassa - Django
Inspired by one of Bonamassa’s
steel drums of Robert
Greenidge enlighten and
an all new instrumental hand, and Sonny’s highly
leading lights and showcasing the
fluidity and the dexterity of the enchant the ears on the

album, Drew Hobbs is identifiable sound always fits

quite seamlessly into a wide
current king of modern blues. beautiful Forgotten Story. A
welcome addition are the
digging the groove. variety of musical landscapes. It’s a strangely
hypnotic creation and clearly crafted by the
string arrangements added to five of the tracks,
beautifully brought together by world-

I
f it’s a consummate guitarist
you’re after, then look no further. If
unusual technique, mastery of the
bottleneck and supremely tasteful string-
bending warms the cockles of your heart,
then lend an ear to Sonny Landreth, a hugely
gifted musician from Louisiana who clearly
soaked up a barrel load of influences from the
energies of the Bayou.
Photo: Brian C. Miller Richard
hands of a master technician, but one who
understands the importance of playing to and
with the heart.
Too many guitarists overstretch themselves
by playing too many notes, or they play for the
sake of their egos, but that’s not so with Sonny.
He used to play the trumpet at school and this
was a great influence on his guitar technique –
particularly the slide playing he’s renowned for.
“The phrasing that comes from having to take a
renowned music director, Mariusz Smolij.
They add a fresh new twist and enhance
Sonny’s always inventive playing.
So there you have it: a guitar aficionado’s
delight or a wordsmith’s constant craving?
Either way, it’s executed with undeniable
brilliance and adorned with balmy
Louisiana charm, and
it has a sunny
disposition. But then

Other guitarists dribble at the mention of
his name, and no doubt plenty of wannabes
and aspiring musicians all over the world are
scratching their heads and asking: “Just exactly
how does he do that?!” Well, he’s been doing it
breath has its own warmth – to me, that makes it would have,
it very vocal,” he explains. wouldn’t it?
The rhythmic feel of Landreth’s playing has
Louisiana written all over it. Spending time on Sonny Landreth – Elemental
the bandstand with the late Clifton Chenier Journey (Proper Records PRPCD103)

34 PROPERGANDA
 Dreaming
In Sound
Peter Quinn uncovers the remarkable
voice and vision of Ola Onabulé
O
la Onabulé’s future
direction in life was effectively sealed
one night in Lagos when, on the eve
of his eighth birthday, his father took
him to see James Brown in concert.
Consisting at the time of Maceo Parker, Fred
Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis and Bootsy Collins,
Brown’s backing band the J.B.’s struck up the
dirtiest groove imaginable, before the Godfather
of Soul strode onto the stage to an ecstatic
welcome. For Ola, the
“His falsetto
musical seed was well and
truly sown.
Born in Islington,
north London, the singer
had relocated to Lagos has to be
with his family at the age
of seven, before returning heard to be
believed”
to the UK just before his
17th birthday to study law.
Much to his family’s
consternation, his law
studies didn’t last: the pull of music was simply
too strong.
Since extricating himself from a major label
deal in the early 1990s, Ola has ploughed his
own artistic furrow, setting up a label, building
his own studio, and touring ceaselessly with his
band. He has subsequently performed at some
of the world’s most prestigious events, including
the legendary Montreal Jazz Festival, and shared
stages with some of the world’s finest soul and
jazz artists including Al Jarreau, Dianne Reeves,
Joe Zawinul, Roberta Flack and Natalie Cole.
Photo: Steve Read
From the intimacy of a trio to the roar of a
big band, is there a particular setting in which he
feels most comfortable? “I truly love them all.
The variety means that music-making doesn’t
become a reflex born out of habit. I can
continuously surprise and exercise my creative
brain with new and fresh challenges.”
It’s testament to the strength of Ola’s writing
that his latest album, Seven Shades Darker – his
seventh – is entirely skip-proof. Recently added
to the Jazz FM playlist, the debut single Be A
Man showcases his amazingly strong storytelling
gifts. From the powerful hymn to lost youth, The
Desperate Ones, to the
quest for a better life in
Great Expectations (Sans
Frontier), Ola’s lyrics
resonate powerfully in the
mind. With other songs
covering the loss of a
loved one (He’s Gone) and
feelings of insecurity
(Cheap Cologne), you won’t
find any bedroom
platitudes here.
Drawing from a rich palette of styles that
includes soul, jazz and funk, the sophistication
of the music – deft harmonic changes that can
take the breath away, subtle metrical shifts that
catch you unawares – similarly marks Ola out as
a singer-songwriter of impeccable
craftsmanship. And taking centre stage
throughout the 14-track album is Ola’s
remarkable voice, an instrument capable of both
caressing the ear and conveying powerful
emotion, often within the confines of a single
song; his falsetto has to be heard to be believed.
Meticulously produced by the singer, it’s
clear that Ola takes as much care with the
sonic elements of his music as he does with
the lyrics, melodies, harmonies and song
structures. “An important aspect of my
upbringing was the constant instruction to
self-reliance,” Ola says. “My parents were
great proponents of the notion of ‘teaching
their children to fish’. Once I started making
music, I knew I would have to take on
producing and recording my music myself, at
a time when to contemplate doing such a
thing was considered the first onset of
insanity! As I got more and more into the
technology of recording – mic placement,
acoustics etc. – I realised I would have to
build my own studio so I could realise my
wildest sonic dreams, so to speak. Happily, I
haven’t looked back since.”
With artists such as Esperanza Spalding
and Gretchen Parlato currently making waves,
does he think that we’re entering into a new
age of the classic singer-songwriter?
“I’m not so sure. I’m inclined to believe
that singer-songwriters are always busy at
work documenting and commenting on their
times and their communities. Every so often,
the listening public – as one – seem to yearn
for a bit of introspective reflection which they
can then find in the work of a ‘newly
discovered’ singer-songwriter.”
What is clear is that with Seven Shades Darker
Ola Onabulé has created an album to relish. It
would be difficult to
imagine a finer
introduction to this
singular artist’s music.
Ola Onabulé – Seven Shades
Darker (Rugged Ram Records RRAMCD13)
PROPERGANDA 35
 A festival of music, dance, film,
literature, fashion and free events
with Baaba Maal & Friends
Paco Peña Angelique Kidjo Gregory Maqoma
Oumou Sangaré & Béla Fleck
Noo Saro-Wiwa Chika Unigwe Taj Mahal
Vocal Ensemble of Africa Muntu Valdo
Nuruddin Farah Funmi Olawumi
The Ultimate Afrobeats Utopia
TICKETS FROM £10 Inua Ellams
buy tickets: 0844 847 9910
Southbankcentre.co.uk/africautopia

Roots, Toots,
Blues & Horseplay
Cliff White is right on track with the latest Properboxes
B
y capricious scheduling,
during this season of national flag-
waving for ER’s Diamond Jubilee and
hopes for UK glory in the Olympic
Games, four new Properboxes are
devoted exclusively to early C20th Americana.
Two are thematic miscellanies of evocatively
written and performed roots recordings from
the 1920s to the 50s; another profiles the
multifaceted contributions of a hip-to-the-trip
background motivator in Chicago’s post-war
blues scene; t’other highlights the influential,
award-winning talent of a sometime troubled
uptown jazzman during his most creative period.
Various Artists Lonesome Whistle: An
Anthology Of American Railroad Song Properbox 168
Before super highways and relatively cheap
internal air travel, during the latter part of
the C19th and the early decades of the C20th,
railways – or railroads, as they say ‘over there’
– were the throbbing arteries for freight and
public transport across the vastness of the USA.
Toffs enjoyed pampered service in swanky
saloons; poor blacks and whites, principally of
the southern states, either watched the monsters
pass them by, hammered the tracks, hopped a
freebie in a cattle truck or sat in the cheap seats
– recording their experiences aplenty. This 4CD
box set celebrates 100 of the most pertinent and
poignant examples, from early blues and country
recordings of the 1920s to rock ‘n’ roll in the 50s.
Here are tales of tragedies, opportunities
and loves lost or found, escapes and escapades,
of famous railroad companies and forgotten
locals. The featured troubadours and raconteurs
include legendary performers together with an
equal number of ‘never heard of them before
but now note their names’ reasons to enjoy the
bittersweet romance of railroads.
Compilations often come across as a
jumble of odds ’n’ sods if they are not coherently
compiled and annotated. This one, enclosing an
informative 24-page booklet, is just the ticket.
Various Artists Ramblers, Gamblers,
Vagabonds And Revelers: 100 Songs By And
About The Archetypes And Architects Of
American Roots Music Properbox 170
Covering much the same time span and
social demography as Lonesome Whistle, and
featuring some of the same performers in the
mix, the themes of this equally well-informed
anthology are self-explanatory.
Audiophiles should be warned that early
recordings on both sets are crackly transfers from
shellac, which is entirely appropriate. It would
be alarming if they were suddenly booming out
in quadraphonic sound. Together they comprise
an eloquent diary of southern expression of the
dispossessed either prevailing over circumstance,
or simply falling by the wayside. Many of the
recordings on both sets provided repertoire for
50s UK skiffle, which in turn inspired the follow-
up generation of British beat groups – along with
rock ‘n’ roll and, next out of the box…
Various Artists The Willie Dixon Story
Properbox 166
Chicago could hold claim to be the post-
World War II electric blues breakout capital.
William James ‘Willie’ Dixon (1915-1992) was
an imposing figure of influence and creativity
within the city’s burgeoning blues scene, initially
as a performer, more importantly as a studio
mentor, musical accompanist, writer, arranger,
talent scout and producer. All aspects of which
are celebrated in this 100-track, 4CD box set.
After moving up from Mississippi to
Chicago in the mid-30s and punching his
weight as a boxer for a while, Dixon first entered
the studio in 1940 as the singing, slap-bass
playing big man with buddies calling themselves
The Five Breezes. Later in the 40s he recorded
with The Four Jumps Of Jive before leading the
successful Big Three Trio, by which time he was
hanging out with the cats at Aristocrat (soon to
become Chess) Records. During the 50s, with
Chess and latterly Cobra Records, in one role
or another he was a significant contributor to
the success of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf,
Little Walter, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and many
another name on the scene. The vital recordings
are all here, along with a typically informative
Properbox booklet.
Bill Evans The Way To Play Properbox 169
A classically trained pianist who won medals
for Mozart and Schubert recitals at the age of
10, New Jersey-born Bill Evans (1929-1980)
developed a more personalised vision during
his teen years and by the mid 1950s was being
recognised as one of the most innovative
modern jazzmen of his generation. Like many a
jazzman he contributed notable accompaniment
to others’ sessions but it was his own trio
recordings in NYC (1956-1961, studio and live)
that cemented his reputation and are featured
here, along with a 1959 mutually conceived
collaboration with the Bob Brookmeyer
Quartet. Also like many a jazzman of his time,
Evans succumbed to a heroin habit, which
probably eventually shortened his lifespan
but certainly didn’t impede his unique modal
explorations of the keyboard.
Annotated by Joop Visser with
acknowledgement to Keith Chadwick, author
of the Evans biography Everything Happens
To Me, this is a handsome tribute to a stylist
whose recordings are still inspiring today’s new
breed players.
PROPERGANDA 37
 The original independent festival...where folk has roots

3 ways to do Towersey...

...still beautiful

Bellowhead Edward II Donal Lunny, Kathryn

Abigail Esquisse Padraig Rynne Tickell:
Washburn Junk & Sylvain Barou Northumbrian
with Kai Welch
Session A9 EsquisseThe Dance Part Voices
y
Martin Simpson Nic Jones Peatbog Faeries Roddy Woomble
Trio with Joe Jones & Spiro
Belinda O’Hooley
Whapweasel
Jon Boden The Albion
Brass Monkey Emily Barker and Band
Reuben’s Train the Red Clay Halo Chipolatas
Peeping Tom
Alistair Anderson An Afternoo Roy Bailey
Old Man of Americanan An Afternoon of
The Ian Words Nancy Kerr
Gadarene Luedecke and Music
McMillan James Fagan
Lebedek Larkin Poe Orchestra Melrose Quartet

Cock & Reuben’s Train Walsh & Pound

Hekety
The Armagh Rhymers
Bull Band Jamie Smith’s Mabon
Stephen Taberner Jez Lowe Old Swan Band
Blair Dunlop &
Melrose Quartet
Ashley Hutchings
Nancy Kerr &
O’Hooley & Tidow
James Fagan
Merry Hell
Pilgrim’s Way John Kirkpatrick
Alistair Anderson Jason Maverick
DanceCupola
 R e v i e w s
folk country americanA world rock
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

jazz blues singer-songwriter ◆ ◆

Tab Benoit
Legacy: The Best Of
Telarc TEL3330102
A recent discovery for me, Tab’s
Medicine is a firm fave and this chance
to catch up with some of the best of
his Telarc recordings confirms the
appeal of his impassioned voice and
stinging, signature guitar sound, which seem to bubble
with the very essence of the bayous and spirit of Louisiana.
It’s a great collection, thoughtfully sequenced, mixing
originals and well chosen covers: his takes on I Put A Spell
On You and an excellent, bluesy reworking of For What It’s
Worth come sandwiched between the motoring boogie of
Night Train and an epic Nice And Warm. The latter’s BB
King-ish licks, duelling with Reese Wynan’s Hammond,
wring every ounce of juice out of his battered custom
Telecaster. The Cajun/country inflections of Coming On
Strong offer a little light relief, while his take on These Arms
Of Mine confirms his soulful style and The Blues Is Here To
Stay has a languid funkiness. Best of all, the live pairing of
New Orleans Ladies and Bayou Boogie, suggests any chance
to see this guy live is an absolute must. SH

(Steve Thompson)
aka Blabbermouth
Ramble
Blabbermouth Records BLABCD001
After two increasingly
listener-friendly albums on which he
purveyed his own special brand of
“charming songs about mortality”,
Steve now unveils a brand new
collection that does what it says on the tin: “ramble”, but in
the nicest possible way. That means it starts more like a
travelogue, through the locales of which Steve visits his
own tellingly simple, if mildly enigmatic observations on
the human condition couched in loving, wistful
reminiscence. The parade of place names (New York,
London, Amsterdam, Littlehampton, Arundel Castle) is
interspersed with appealing little reflections on matters
metaphysical (360), purely romantic (The Farm We’ll Never
Have) or mundanely everyday (Dust) – often with a genial
wit. Steve’s musical styling is perhaps best described as
delicately retro; for as ever, his songs are attractively
delivered, the pleasingly accessible settings making the
best of his own gentle, understated guitar and the judicious
use of additional instrumentation and programming from
producer Ian Faragher. Steve’s humble position, as “just a
man with no place for these crazy thoughts to hide”, is
surely unassailable; you’re certain to identify closely with
him there. DK
Blueflint
Maudy Tree
JRR JOROCK014
An unusual amalgamation of
Scottish folk and old-timey music,
Edinburgh’s Blueflint have hit upon a
refreshingly individual and thoroughly
engaging sound. Their calling card
Joan Armatrading
Starlight Hypertension HYP12287
Joan’s 20th album in a recording career
spanning 40 years, Starlight continues to ring the stylistic
changes, that have recently led to her being the first female UK
artist to debut at number one in the US blues charts, also picking
up a Grammy nod for Into The Blues. This time she turns her
attention to jazz and although a jazzy lilt was felt as early as her
breakthrough single Love And Affection, she isn’t simply revisiting familiar turf and
dropping into a comfort zone. Expansive playing (all by Joan, even down to the
drum programming) and tricky time signatures abound. Still, certain Armatrading
signatures are immediately recognisable, her voice for one, which if anything seems
to get better and better. Then there’s her knack for making maximum emotional
contact by picking fine details and building the extraordinary from the everyday and
the personal from the universal.
It’s an album of contrasts and contradictions. The scratchy funk and
freewheeling melody of opener Single Life, for example, are two sides of a coin as
she explores the duality of living alone: the freedom to just be yourself against the
solitary need for companionship. Close To Me suggests a companion has been
found, but it’s not so simple and love’s course is never easy. The expansive opening
bass motifs of Tell Me slip into a tight groove that carries a surprising, sharp guitar
solo and some angular piano, as Joan seems to play with the tension and release of
giving up a confidence.
Back On Track is a soul-jazz classic that’s the most likely for hit single treatment.
I Want That Love is another complex groover, while The Way I Think Of You is
bittersweet and soulful. The title track’s big swinging beats are (dare I say it) on the
verge of hip-hop as Joan questions our C21st lust for fame. The concluding Summer
Kisses again pitches the fear of betrayal against the need for trust and arms to fall
into. Love’s complexity seems to be wrought through these songs, hope and doubt,
protection and jealousy, infatuation and passion coexist, just as they do in life. SH

PROPERGANDA 39
 R e v i e w s
Paul Brady
Dancer In The Fire: A Paul Brady Anthology Proper Records PRPCD101
Through the 70s, Brady earned the
reputation as the foremost interpreter of the Irish folk
tradition, with some of his arrangements regarded as definitive.
He was also a leading light in the hugely important Planxty,
but as the 80s dawned turned his back on the tradition and has
since gained equal respect for his own songs. As Nanci Griffith
quipped, picking up her 2011 Lifetime Achiever’s Folk Award, “I just hang out my
window and try and catch the good songs as they fly by on their way to Paul
Brady’s house”.
This anthology gains extra kudos by being Brady’s own choice, a most
interesting selection that dips a toe or two back into the folk days. There’s a rock ‘n’
rolling Duncan And Brady while the haunting I Am A Youth That’s Inclined To Ramble
and elegiac Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore echo Brady’s own Atlantic crossings. The
rest, a Hank Williams song aside, are Paul’s own compositions or co-writes.
That the discs aren’t sequenced chronologically is another strength. Some of
these recordings have a period feel, notably those from the 80s, but by ringing the
changes those tropes are quickly lost in what is, after all, a very fine song sequence.
Brady’s notes are a good read too. He acknowledges influences like JJ Cale and Little
Feat for Trouble Round The Bend and Steely Dan for Dancer In The Fire; or writing in
Bonnie Raitt’s garden with Smile. Then there’s opening for Dire Straits and Eric
Clapton in huge arenas with just an acoustic guitar for protection that led to the
latter guesting on Deep In Your Heart.
But Brady is no bragger or blagger and the affect is disarming: it’s more that he’s
acknowledging his peers and pals for their part in this story. Politics (Blue World),
love (Steal Your Heart Away), family (The Game Of Love) and personal fortune, or
lack of it (The Awakening), are also mixed into the engaging narrative that, if you let
it, will work its charm along with this selection of songs. As a package it adds up to
the best introduction to Paul Brady, save a handshake and chat, you can ask for. SH
40 PROPERGANDA
may be the yearning harmonies of Deborah Arnott and
Clare Neilson, but there’s plenty to love, too, in the subtle
interplay of banjos, fiddle, ukulele, mandolin and double
bass that contributes to their quietly compelling
arrangements. Their self-written songs evoke dreamy
Americana but the sense of nostalgia and melancholy is
balanced by verve and humour. Trombones and harmonium
decorate the anthemic Barren Lands; Take Your Shoes Off is
positively saucy; Roddy Neilson’s Mary sounds like a
long-lost classic with a heartbreaking message; Missed The
Boat is a full-blooded hoedown; and P45 is a witty revenge
song overloaded with faux bluegrass and clever couplets.
In Deborah Arnott’s Last Waltz they’ve also constructed a
seductive track to melt the senses and infiltrate your heart
in a particularly potent fashion. The album’s understated
nature may mean it slips under the radar generally occupied
by more shouty efforts, but that is exactly the quality that
underlines its core strength and durability. CI
Maggie Boyle
Won’t You Come Away
Wild Goose WGS390CD
Perhaps best known in recent
years as part of the female vocal
harmony trio Grace Notes, Maggie
Boyle doesn’t seem to get as many
opportunities these days to showcase
her considerable solo talents. Happily, Won’t You Come Away
gives her a superb platform for exploring a range of
enchanting songs. Maggie delves into her Irish heritage
with classic songs like The Spinning Wheel, Donal Og and
Moorlough Mary. Her vocal style is well suited to the Irish
material, with breaks and ornamentation that seem
influenced by previous generations of source singers
without being so pronounced as to distract from the
loveliness of the songs. She also handles very capably some
classic English songs, such as the ineffably beautiful Linden
Lea, and even has a bit of a bluesy rock-out on her son Joe’s
Liza And Henry. Vocally the album is very self-assured, with
a stylistic strength and depth which may have influenced
some of the current generation of young female singers
who eschew breathy prettiness for passion. Accompaniment
is stellar, with the likes of Jon Boden, Steve Tilston and Paul
Downes lending classy arrangements. JC
Sue Brown & Lorraine Irwing
The 13th Bedroom
Rootbeat Records RBCD14
In which Mss. Brown and Irwing
throw the gauntlet down to more
cluttered, guest-heavy albums with
this long-awaited follow-up to their
1998 debut. Featuring just-right
harmonies, and sparing use of guitar, dulcimer and shruti
box with no additives, this Oxford dyad largely trades in a
mix of tried-and-tested trad. arr. favourites (The Derby Ram,
Green Grows The Laurel) and the more arcane. Of the latter
On The Fourteenth Of November and Lady Gay are absorbing
variants on familiar themes – loyalty against all odds,
unrelenting grief respectively. Folk song evokes simpler
times huh? I think not – themes of diverted passions,
jealousies and amorphous discontent are as contemporary
as tomorrow’s headlines. Oh and “never go near the 13th
bedroom” either (Mr Fox)! Inherent human fragility is
mirrored with compassion and soul by Sue and Lorraine in
this lambent recording, which never sacrifices melody nor
becomes too obscure just to impress. Gentle, at times
gloomily graceful but always honest, basically this is an
affirmation of the English tradition and fans of this
oft-thought endangered species can hold their heads that
much higher. CP
Rose Cousins
We Have Made A Spark
Old Farm Pony Records OFPR003
For her third album release,
this strong-voiced Nova Scotian
songwriter (who was the proud
recipient of dual 2011 East Coast Music
Awards) has called upon a host of
friends from her community of supporters in Boston to help
realise her own personal, predominantly contemplative
vision. With her own piano or guitar forming the cohesive
bedrock, Rose explores with delicacy, sincerity and honesty,
the challenges of life, those uncomfortable facets of the
human condition such as loneliness, vulnerability, depression
and frustration. And the team behind her provides a fulsome
and considered backdrop at all times: this involves fellow
songwriters Rose Polenzani and Kris Delmhorst and other
notable names such as Jennifer Kimball and producer Zak
Hickman. Nevertheless, it’s Rose’s individual voice that stands
out of the lovingly assembled textures, and this latest batch of
songs proves no disappointment to those who’ve been
fortunate enough to latch on to Rose’s earlier work. For good
measure, Rose also includes on this latest set a moving cover
of Springsteen’s If I Should Fall Behind, here done as an
impassioned duet with Mark Erelli. DK
Fairport Convention
“Babbacombe” Lee Live Again
Matty Grooves MGCD052
An antique junk shop discovery
put Fairport’s Dave Swarbrick on the
trail of a tale turned into a folk-rock
opera based on a little bit of Devon
drama. A condemned man went to the
drop but lived to tell his tale. That’s today’s terrorist stuff.
Imagine a world where the judged guilty escape a court’s
punishment! John Lee of Babbacombe, convicted of “wilful
murder” of Emma Keyes, was hanged at Exeter Gaol in
February 1885. Something went right for Lee and three times
in a row the gallows malfunctioned. The Man They Could Not
Hang’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. On its
1971 release, it was largely ignored, consigned to the margins
in the Fairport Chronicles. Recorded live in 2011, this
imaginative revisiting of the work revitalises the legend.
Dream Song, for example, is now something else. Chris Leslie
makes his entrance on Little Did I Think – taking Swarb’s
former role – and he makes it his own, vocally and
instrumentally. As the first folk-rock-opera, “Babbacombe” Lee
is certainly ripe for reappraisal. KH
Fairport Convention
By Popular Request
Matty Grooves MGCD051
We live in an era when the rules
of popular music are being rewritten.
Back when Fairport Convention, the
Rolling Stones and their kind
embarked on their fantastic voyages,
no musician would have sensibly predicted that they would
still be doing it decades later. A proper job or a guest spot
on variety television was about the pinnacle of ambition for
a musician. Now, Fairport only has one charter member in
their line-up – Simon Nicol – but the others in the band
have been serving the Fairport cause for a fair few decades,
too. Like any band of any longevity with a back catalogue,
they have to continually find new ways to source the good
ore. Working any song mine necessitates finding new
approaches, because what has been extracted before is
either long gone and you become your very own tribute
band or you go bonkers. Popular Request’s reinventions
work superbly. When Chris Leslie sings Dave Swarbrick’s
Rosie here, you instinctively know that the Fairport Tradition
is in good hands. KH
Bella Hardy
The Dark Peak And The White
Noe Records NOE04
There are actually two Peak
Districts in Derbyshire, the Dark,
craggy and brooding with its cap of
millstone grit, and the smoother,
gentler White Peak. Bella Hardy grew
up knowing them both, and this is her love letter to the
area, an exploration of its myths and legends. All the tales
here come out of the past – a romance at the plague
village of Eyam in Emmott’s Song, a murder and its
consequences at Winnat’s Pass for Henry And Clara. It’s
stripped down, a bare folk album, little more than Hardy
and her husband Kris Drever. She’s composed many of
these songs, including the gorgeous elegy Lament For
Derwent Village, an ode to the hamlet now lost beneath
Ladybower Reservoir, but they sound as if they could
have been written a century ago, creaking with the
weight of history. Whether sprightly or brooding, these
pieces are all labours of real affection, and Hardy, raised in
Edale in the shadow of Mam Tor, captures the raw,
sprawling beauty and dangers of the two Peaks in
perfect fashion. CN
Rachel Harrington & The
Knock Outs
S/T
Continental Song City CCSCD1084
Her music has been labelled
‘country noir’, but this is more in the
classic Gram Parsons’ mould of
‘cosmic American music’, laced
through with the sly humour in
Harrington’s lyrics. Raised on a balanced diet of Otis
Redding, Hank Williams and George Jones, Harrington
writes country songs illuminated with a Southern soul
glow, and comes across like a more liberated and lusty
reincarnation of Loretta Lynn, although it would be hard
to imagine Lynn singing Love Him Or Leave Him To Me,
Nothin’ To Do But You, or Wedding Ring Vacation! The
Knock Outs are a fine backing band including Mark Erelli
and Tim Carroll (partner of the equally feisty Elizabeth
Cook), who with Harrington’s long-time producer, Evan
Brubaker can turn their capable hands to Motown stomp
on He’s My Man, and can sound a little like The Rolling
Stones, circa Sticky Fingers. Billy Stover’s tumble-down,
honky-tonk piano and Alisa Milner’s unfeasibly sleazy
fiddling are especially noteworthy. JL
blues bites
Championing contemporary blues music
for over 40 years, Bruce Iglauer’s
Chicago-based Alligator Records stays true
to its raison d’etre and loyal to its hardcore
talent – and audience – with two new
releases by company stalwarts.
Lil’ Ed & The Blues
Imperials
Jump Start Alligator ALCD4949
The eighth CD in 26
years by an always
entertaining fiery
quartet led by a little
man with a big
personality, rich voice,
powerful guitar skill in the upside-your-head
punch ‘n’ slide style, and a bag full of fresh slants
on familiar relationship themes. Apart from a
burnin’ revival of JB Hutto’s If You Change Your
Mind, the other 13 tracks are originals credited to
Ed and his wife Pamela (the muse behind the
man?). Musically, the mainly upbeat pzazz is
tightly interlocked throughout; lyrically No Fast
Food (“Why eat hamburgers when there‘s prime
steak at home?”) and Moratorium On Hate (“A veto
on violence”) are but two examples of the wit and
wisdom of Ed’s survival formula.
Rick Estrin & The
Nightcats
One Wrong Turn Alligator ALCD4950
Founded in 1976,
originally as Little
Charlie & The Nightcats,
subsequently giving
front billing to blooz
harp virtuoso and
singer Rick Estrin, this is another of Alligator’s
veteran R&B quartets with abundant verve to
keep the motor running. No credits on this
advance promo so I’m just guessing the 12 tracks
are all originals. These guys like to throw in a
swerve including two instrumentals, one an
organ & sax led jazzy romp, t’other a whirlwind
of guitar shatterings straight out of the early 60s
surfin’ pipeline. Elsewhere Mr Estrin is the
leading light with his modern take on Little
Walter’s legacy, although in one instance coming
on like he was born in the bayou and on another,
Old News, paying blatant tribute to Sonny Boy 2.
Ed’s Imperials and Rick’s Nightcats – along with
the guvnor’s determinedly independent stance
– are striking examples of why Alligator Records
has now been doing its do for far longer than
any of its more famous predecessors such as
Atlantic, Chess, Vee-Jay, Modern, King or even
Motown. The old guard all sold up or out to
corporate cover and amorphous back catalogue.
The feisty indie Alligator crew still aim to put a
tiger in your tank. CW
PROPERGANDA 41
 R e v i e w s
Hat Fitz & Cara

Hat Fitz & Cara

Wiley Ways
GLP Records GLP036
A quick double-take at the hirsute,
weather-beaten visage of Hat Fitz may
be needed, but before you utter “Sea...”
let me put you straight. This Australian
duo is something else and something
special. Sure enough, the National Steel and washboard offer
most of the musical clues you need and the rusting wreckage
that serves as a backdrop to the cover picture adds another,
but then there’s Cara Robinson, big voiced, provider of the
percussive pulse and plenty more besides. The opener Power,
with its gospel call and response and live atmospherics also
throws another element into the mix, namely Jeff Lang’s
excellent production. The fellow Aussie guitarist is superb in
his own right, but there’s clearly some alchemy at work.
There’s some of their country’s history wrapped up in Eliza
Blue and Company Underground. Play Me Something New
meanwhile is a moving, Waitsian ballad that maybe explains
where all of this comes from and shows that they have more
than enough variety to keep your toes tapping. Apparently
they’re even better live – now that I must see. SH

Sophie B Hawkins
The Crossing
Inakustik INAK 9114 CD
When she burst on the scene in
the nineties with Damn, I Wish I Was
Your Lover and As I Lay Me Down, it
looked like there would be no
stopping Sophie B Hawkins. And she’s
honest enough to admit that she’s been evolving her
music ever since, as well as including both early hits as
bonuses at the end of this new album, in stripped-down,
acoustic versions – putting the emphasis back on the
heartfelt lyrics. With Missing, she’s putting pieces of her
life back together, in Georgia, she praises the subject for
being “sexier than Brad and Angelina” and in Gone Baby,
she speaks of moving away from an abusive partner. Yet
she can also tackle the tragedy of the Gulf oil spill in The
Land, The Sea And The Sky, and her experience of the
Democratic presidential campaign rivalry in the raw
Betchya Got A Cure, complete with epic guitars. Keeping
this together across The Crossing’s 17 tracks are her
distinctive, earthy vocals, even daring to reclaim
Sinnerman, despite Nina Simone’s classic version. HMJ
Colin Hay
Gathering Mercury
Compass COM49741 [vinyl]
Reacting to the death of his dear
dad, singer-songwriter Colin Hay (of
Men At Work fame) has dug deep and
produced his most personal work to
date – one of shifting moods,
celebrating his father’s life, while mourning his passing. On
songs like Family Man – driven by Jeff Babko’s understated
piano playing, and particularly Dear Father, he’s poignantly
evoked with wistful, Beatlesque arrangements and
occasionally Sting-like vocals. Lyrically rich, the album is
packed with couplets that even Difford and Tillbrook would
be proud of. Invisible (“now I can be free”), plus the title
track (co-written with Cecilia Noel) and Half A Million Angels
(with Noel’s celestial harmonies) are all informed by Hay’s
inevitable musings on mortality. Yet this is still a positive,
upbeat, hugely pleasurable work on which the son reframes
his relationship with his father. Hay name-checks their
hometown, Glasgow, on Where The Sky Is Blue, and on
Simple Song he finds closure with its closing lines, “It doesn’t
matter where you’re from/ One day we’re here, and then
we’re gone” – and you feel that he’s ready to move on. HMJ
Heritage Blues Orchestra
And Still I Rise
Raisin Music RM1010
The Heritage Blues Orchestra is
made up of vocalist Chaney Sims, her
daddy Bill Sims Jr. with Junior Mack
on guitars, Vincent Bucher on
harmonica and Willie Big Eyes Smith’s
son Kenny Smith, on drums. Augmented by Bruno
Wilhelm’s steaming horn section, they wade into a whole
slew of old time blues, spirituals and field hollers with a
drive and vitality often lacking in current blues
performances, giving old songs a new sophisticated twist
but still managing to retain the down-home original feel;
the clever arrangements adding a depth that is, at times,
startling. For instance, Hard Times is presented in three
parts. First, a call and response section with African-
sounding guitars followed by a sensuous horn movement
which has shades of Miles Davis and then it ends with a
soul-filled blast fuelled by a heavy beat, clanging guitars
and some fabulous roaring sax. I detect more than a hint
of early classic Taj Mahal on And Still I Rise – especially on
songs like Going Uptown with its loping beat, and the
back country stomp version of Son House’s Clarksdale
Moan. I couldn’t be happier with this CD! KS
Le Vent Du Nord
Tromper Le Temps
Borealis BCD214
With years of experience from
playing in some of the top bands on
the Quebec folk scene, when these
four talented lads came together as
Le Vent Du Nord, they soon made a
name for themselves as part of the noughties new wave,
rejuvenating Quebec’s traditional music and taking it in
new directions. Ten years, seven albums and numerous
awards later, Le Vent Du Nord remain at the top of their
game. The customary foot percussion, glorious
call-and-response vocals, energetic dance tunes and
catchy French choruses are all in abundance here.
Sparking off one another, Olivier Demers’ driving fiddle
and Nicolas Boulerice’s hurdy-gurdy shape Le Dragon De
Chimay; Boulerice and Rejean Brunet provide attractive
piano and accordion arrangements on Le Souhait,
complementing Simon Beaudry’s rhythmic guitar style,
while Le Diable & Le Fermier – “an act of social solidarity
against the reckless development of shale gas” – delivers
a punch to the sound of marching feet. Things calm down
with the atmospheric Manteau d’Hiver and the filmic
setting of Dans Les Cachots, but not for long – Tromper Le
Temps is a tour de force! SM
Malawi Mouse Boys
He is #1
IRL 065
Let’s get the back story out the
way first, and then we can get down
to the music. The band get their
name from the fact that they sell
mice on sticks (presumably nicely
seasoned and then barbecued) to people who pass by
their village. Malawi is one of the world’s poorest
countries in the world and so entrepreneurial ingenuity of
this kind is just a fact of life. But back story or not, the
album they’ve made with Tinariwen’s most recent

PROPERGANDA 43

The Imagined Village
Bending The Dark ECC ECC006
The first line-up of The Imagined Village’s
fascinating evolution, with its deliberately urban edge, brought
together Billy Bragg, Benjamin Zephaniah and a host of
legendary folk and world musicians to articulate a multicultural
view of modern-day Britain. It might have been a one-off oddity
punctuating time and place had IV’s Simon Emmerson and
Mark Constantine, founder of high street cosmetics juggernaut Lush, not forged an
unlikely friendship through the UK’s community of birdsong enthusiasts.
Constantine loved the Imagined Village project and quickly became a sort of patron.
The second Imagined Village album, Empire & Love, was sold in Lush shops, and
there were even tie-in products.
Musically, the Lush partnership also had impact. Constantine chose artists from
The Imagined Village to create soundscapes for the company’s boutique spas. Music
was developed to accompany each treatment – in one sea-themed facial, Jackie
Oates’s dreamy voice sings shanties, while Eliza Cathy’s earthy I Do Like To Be Beside
The Seaside brings the pampered sybarite back to shore – and released via the Fresh
Handmade Sound series of albums.
The band’s evolution has continued through its line-up changes – Bragg and
Zephaniah left after the first album and Chris Wood has also now taken a sabbatical
– the latest incarnation is woven mainly around the contrasting vocals of Jackie
Oates and Eliza Carthy, and it’s an incredibly successful partnership of light, shade,
richness and ethereality. It’s impacted on the way the music is arranged and
presented too, with Simon Emmerson’s experience with Afro Celt Sound System
enabling a more nuanced product than simply filtering English folk song through
diverse cultural influences.
Bending The Dark is more of an extended suite than a series of songs,
comfortably mixing original and traditional material, with a variety of instruments
utilised more subtly. Winter Singing is a perfect example of how the originals sound
fresh and exciting, with a shimmering vocal line and rich production. But the ethos
of interpreting traditional songs is equally robust, with Eliza Carthy’s The Washing
Song utterly true to the Manx version collected in the 1920s, yet feeling, touchingly,
as though she might have written it yesterday for her own children. It’s a confident
statement from a collective of artists not afraid to break new ground and celebrate
Britain’s rich and varied musical landscape. JC
44 PROPERGANDA
producer Ian Brennan is a vibrant, moving experience in
which powerful vocal harmonies, reminiscent of those
heard in South African township jazz, are set against the
loose metallic rattle of vigorously strummed home-made
guitars (another example of the make-do ingenuity of
these young kids) and wonderfully casual hand claps.
But the thrilling rawness of the sound cannot disguise the
yearning melodies which exude the hope and optimism
you need to survive in an environment like this. This
album is both a balm to the soul and a stimulant to
the feet. HM
Nation Beat
Growing Stone
Avokado Artists BR033
The musical trade between
Brazil and the US has taken many
forms since the cross-pollination of
samba and jazz. American drummer
and percussionist Scott Kettner spent
nearly two years in Brazil, during which time he fell under
the spell of the music of the country’s north-east. As a
result, he formed Nation Beat, featuring two Brazilians
(including singer Liliana Araujo) and four Americans.
Together, they fuse American country with local
north-eastern styles such as forro and maracatu, which has
a distinctively thumping, percussive thrust. But there’s more
to it than that, as demonstrated on their new release
Growing Stone: Rafa’s Pe makes an unlikely success of fusing
forro with ska, Tropicana (Morena Tropicana) is languid
reggae, City Blues concludes with gospel fervour, and there’s
a certain Woody Guthrie feel to both the title track and
Sumico Do Urucu. The rustic, reedy rabeca fiddle sounds
great in this context, and none other than the great country
veteran Willie Nelson claims to have been ‘overwhelmed’
when he heard their music. What more recommendation do
you need? JL
Maz O’Connor
Upon A Stranger Shore
Demon Barber Sounds DBS005
Cumbria-born (currently
Cambridge-based) Maz, after
winning a competition at Fylde Folk
Festival at age 13, spent time with
both Folkestra North and BBC Young
Folk Award winners Last Orders, before becoming a
finalist in her own right in 2009 and releasing her own
highly promising debut EP (On Leaves Or On Sand) late last
year. Hot on its heels, comes the eagerly-awaited
full-lengther, which charismatically places thoughtful
takes on traditional songs alongside her own original
songwriting. Maz is blessed with a pure, sweet singing
voice, with both character and potential for development
aplenty. On the traditional material, Maz proves a dab
hand at stitching interesting patchworks from existing
texts, while her approach to shanties owes much to that
of her early inspiration Kate Rusby. Originals like Songs Of
Old and Whitley Bay exhibit an easy lilting confidence that
will appeal to Karine Polwart devotees, whereas Rambling
Free recalls early Sandy Denny. The sensitive, delicate
arrangements primarily involve ex-Last Orders guitarist/
double bassist Matthew Jones, with appearances from Joe
O’Connor, Nicola Lyons, Sam Sweeney and Jim Molyneux.
An enchanting debut, full of promise. DK

John Oates Band
The Bluesville Sessions
WBA Records WBA1201
It seems odd to be referring to
John Oates without his other half but
some 35 plus years since their first hit
Sara Smile, the duo are happily
ploughing their separate furrows. There’s
been the small matter of over 80 million albums sold mind
you, suggesting that it’s for genuine musical reasons rather
than financial ones that both are still active. Indeed the liner
notes for this CD have Daryl’s band hot from two sold-out
nights at New York’s Iridium Club checking into Sirius/XM Radio
to bring that very performance live to a radio audience. This is
the set they had been playing for six months prior to this
recording made last October. Initial impressions are of a voice a
might more wracked than one might expect, but the extra grit
suits John in blues mode, with the opening Mississippi Mile
setting out the stall convincingly. It’s not long before the
familiar rock ‘n’ soul blueprint is re-established with Curtis
Mayfield’s It’s Alright heading into a slinky take on All Shook Up
and a quality band ensure a tight, well structured set. TM
Anders Osborne
Black Eye Galaxy
Alligator Records ALCD4948
Black Eye Galaxy may be on
premier blues label Alligator but there’s
hardly a whiff of the heavy stuff here
apart from the opening track Send Me A
Friend which has a weighty work song
feel to it that’s beefed up with a big guitar riff and bellowing
vocals. From then on Mr Osborne investigates a host of musical
styles that range from the melodic Mind Of A Junkie with its
near-Neil-Young guitar work and Lean On Me/Believe In You, a
song that radiates an upbeat freshness, then way across the
spectrum to the anthemic, thundering Black Tar. The high spot
for me is the epic 11-minute title track Black Eye Galaxy. The
laidback intro eases into a spaced-out slice of exploratory
guitar meandering that, thanks to the use of a psychedelic
wah-wah pedal, reminds me of things that used to go on at
the Roundhouse in 1967. The last few tracks find Anders on
acoustic guitar in a softer mood for the autobiographical
Tracking My Roots, the delicate Paul-Simon-phrasing on
Louisiana Gold and the string-laden ballad Higher Ground
which was co-written by New Orleans pianist Henry Butler. KS
John Pizzarelli
Double Exposure
Telarc TEL3322102
John Pizzarelli’s a guitarist and
singer in the tradition of Nat King Cole
and Frank Sinatra. In Double Exposure,
he gathers together a 10-piece band to
perform some alternative takes on
popular songs. Some of the music translates surprisingly
well. The frenetic bustle of James Taylor’s Traffic Jam hints at
Benny Goodman’s Sing, Sing, Sing, while Joni Mitchell’s Free
Man In Paris evolves into a smooth, sumptuous bossa nova.
Donald Fagen’s Walk Between The Raindrops swings cleanly
and directly, with a buoyant solo from Pizzarelli that recalls
Wes Montgomery. There are stylistic leaps and Neil Young’s
Photo: Emilie Bailey
Harvest Moon loses much of its fragile intimacy in a Hot
Club-style reworking, which features the jaunty violin of
Aaron Weinstein. Diamond Girl takes the call-and-response
theme from Miles Davis’s So What as its starting point. This
in itself sets the bar dauntingly high and marrying the
garrulous exuberance of the Swing Era with Davis’s cool
refinement creates another unexpected juxtaposition. All
the same, while this genre-crossing approach brings with it
obvious risks, Pizzarelli’s energy and easy charm make for
entertaining listening. OB
Duffy Power
Tigers
Dusk Fire DUSKCD106
Duffy’s been around the British
scene ever since the days of skiffle,
present at – and contributing to –
each successive trend, “never quite in
the picture, but never too far from the
edge of the shot”. And he’s survived! Now finding a whole
new world of sound to explore between himself and his
nylon-strung guitar, Duffy delivers a compellingly intimate,
highly personal set of blues-tinged folk. His husky voice has
lost none of its intrinsic power, its dynamic shadings now
placed at the service of sanguine yet uplifting lyrics that
reveal a man no longer wrestling with darkness and
frustration (that hellhound on his trail), instead more at
peace with the world. This new material, written over the
past decade or so and performed mainly solo, can only be
described as beautiful, its air of contemplation tinged with
an aching melancholy. Songs like Spaces, To My Guitar and
Nine Lives Gone are nothing short of exquisite, while Duffy
also brings a uniquely considered touch of reflection to a
handful of covers. Gentle, soulful magic that shouldn’t be
denied centre-stage placing. DK
Luke Ritchie
The Water’s Edge
Angel Falls AFCD001
This album took shape two years
back at Ritchie’s house where, in an
intense writing splurge, he posted
bare bones results each day on the
internet awaiting reaction. Those
Luke Ritchie
R e v i e w s
roughs elicited contact from arranger Nico Muhly and
producer Paul Savage. Both signed on for the duration,
Ritchie and Savage then had the task of sifting the wheat
from the chaff before two weeks’ recording in Glasgow. The
results, complete with five string arrangements from Muhly
were, in the composer’s words, “songs that changed in the
studio… we added bits and embellishments on the hoof”.
Signed to Angel Falls, the ex-Sevenball frontman delivered
an album which reflected his varied tastes and motivations,
from the huge, open soundscapes of The Lighthouse with its
shifting textures and backdrops, to the quietly driven
Looking Glass, where tender lyrics reflect in a string quartet.
Mostly, though, Ritchie deals in hefty guitar melodies,
stomp-along tunes and celebrations of the simpler aspects
of life: Butterfly, Northern Lights, Song To Sunday. There are
echoes of both John Martyn and Paul Brady, but that’s all.
Water’s Edge is the work of an individual talent. SJ
Jack Roberts
The Romance, The Row, And The
Wreck
Tip Top TIPT007
Okay, there’s more than a touch of
Tom Waits about Jack Roberts. They walk
similar ground, picking their way among
the emotionally broken; the songs have
a familiar aching, tormented quality,
with romance the only hope; and there’s the voice. But Roberts
is very much his own man: this material has been simmered
and carefully crafted. A piece like Da-Dee-Da-Dum might teeter
near collapse, but the beauty is in how it walks the edge
without ever toppling over. Fall For You tumbles headlong and
crazy through love. It’s an album of 3am cabaret, when dark
spirits stalk the night and loneliness runs riot. Roberts works
with a small group – essentially piano and violin, with
additions here and there – and it suits him perfectly. The disc
isn’t an easy listen, but taking time to plumb its depths is well
rewarded. Roberts is a singular talent, a man following his
vision regardless of commerciality. But the sweet, sad
heartbreak of something like If, or the crazed circus dance of
Heart Attack shows he’s on to something profound. CN
PROPERGANDA 45
Madison Violet
The Good In Goodbye

UK Tour
August
22 Lexington - London
23 Otterton Mill - Otteron
24-25 Shrewsbury Folk Festival –
Shrewsbury
26 Folkeast @ Somerleyton Hall -
Suffolk
27 Maverick Festival - Framlingham
28 Hawk’s Well Theatre -
Sligo, Ireland
30 Gateshead Old Town Hall -
Gateshead
Bruce Cockburn
Small Source Of Comfort

UK Tour
August
24- 25 Cheltenham -
Greenbelt Festival
26 Leicester - The Musician
28 Dublin Eire - Button Factory
29 Belfast - MAC
31 Milton Keynes - The Stables
September
1 Cambridge - Junction
2 London - Bush Hall
3 Stockton - The Arc
5 Bilson - Robin 2
6 Selby - Town Hall
7 Edinburgh - Queens Hall
 R e v i e w s

Arturo Sandoval
Dear Diz (Every Day I Think Of You)
Concord Jazz 33-020-02
Sandoval calls Gillespie the man
who changed his life, and in turn Dizzy
embraced the Cuban trumpeter as the
son he never had. No surprise then that
Dear Diz is more than a simple tribute
from one legendary trumpet player to another: it is nothing
less than a love letter. In cahoots with Gregg Field, Sandoval
has assembled a host of star arrangers (Shelly Berg, Gordon
Goodwin et al) to rework a host of Gillespie’s better known
tunes. The result is a bop band extravaganza: part party –
there’s a riotous Salt Peanuts with Gary Burton swinging his
socks off – and part hymn of praise to the talents of Sandoval
and Gillespie. Sandoval gets to showboat splendidly,
showering stellar bursts of notes across the inevitable A Night
In Tunisia, like God throwing a necklace of bright stars across
the heavens. But there are sombre tones too, as on the dark
blues of Con Alma which segues perfectly into the African
grooves of Tin Tin Deo, rich with Gimenez’s vox. But ultimately
Dear Diz is a song of joy, with guests like Eddie Daniels, Bob
Mintzer and notably Plas ‘Pink Panther’ Johnson, ensuring
Sandoval doesn’t hog all the glory. AR

Chris Sarjeant
Heirlooms
Wild Goose WGS386CD
From the delicate finger-picked
guitar and quietly confident vocal
delivery of opener, Bonny Labouring
Boy, the message is clear: this person
knows their stuff. So should he too,
bearing in mind his parents’ (Derek and Hazel) prominent
position in the 60s revival glory days. “You can take the boy
out of folk music but you can’t take…” and a projected
classical musical career was soon side-swiped by ‘our’ pesky
insidious music. “A number of the songs [here] I grew up
with,” Chris asserts and absorbed influences then, are an
obvious reference point. Naturally there are some
old-stagers on this debut – Streams Of Lovely Nancy being
one, but add a syncopated dynamic on his version, with
Jackie Oates’ harmonies/viola, and it springs incredibly
fresh. Other peaks are the mildly risqué Chilbridge Fair and
the valedictory Lord Marlborough. With help from, among
others, Jonny Dyer and Vicki Swan, added to Pete Flood’s
inventive percussion, you’ll gather the playing here is
serious! If you’re up for a forthright album with a timeless
quality, look no further – you’ll be hard pressed to find a
better one than this. CP
Tamara Schlesinger
The Procession
Tantrum TANTRUMCD008
Best known hitherto as
sweet-toned lead singer with alt-pop
outfit 6 Day Riot (whose jangly
brilliant albums Have A Plan and On
This Island have so charmed both fans
and critics), Glasgow-born Tamara has now gathered
together a crew of capable Scottish musicians in her
Photo: thom vollenweider
Eve Selis
Family Tree Hippie Chick Twang HTC1111
Eve Selis has been steadily building a
following from her San Diego base since she released her debut
album in the late 1990s and her many visits to the UK have
developed a dedicated following this side of the Atlantic. She
has always retained artistic control of her recordings and her
latest release, Family Tree, was actually financed by donations
from her fans.
Selis is both an excellent interpreter of songs and an experienced songwriter
and this album is a mixture of original material and covers, in a similar vein to her
previous releases. Her distinctive voice has effortless, natural power (apparent on
the barnstorming opener Rubber And Glue), but she’s also capable of sensitive and
subtle singing (Any Day).
Selis writes with a variety of different songwriters and often with her guitarist
and long-standing collaborator Marc Intravaia. Most of the rest of her band have
also been with Selis for some time. Among their ranks is veteran guitarist “Cactus”
Jim Soldi who’s played with many of the greats including Johnny Paycheck, Waylon
Jennings, Johnny Cash and Ricky Skaggs. There are also a handful of guest
musicians including legendary guitarist Albert Lee.
The varied bunch of songs on Family Tree cover a rich variety of subjects that
include a pondering of the nature of destiny on All Roads Lead To Here, musings on
the superficial pleasure of material possessions on When Is Everything Enough
(both Intravaia, Selis and Rich Wiley cowrites) and a desire to flee the rat race on
Stop The Train (written by Kim McLean and Robert Arthur). Stylistically, the
album combines helpings of blues, rock, country, folk and a touch of soul into an
engaging concoction.
Selis closes the album with an ambitious rendition of Leonard Cohen’s
Hallelujah, a brave choice given the number of high profile versions recently, but it’s
a fitting conclusion to the album and the perfect vehicle to highlight the dynamic

native city to help her in crafting a solo album. Inevitably and emotional range of her voice.
The Procession’s 11 songs feature plenty of showcases for If you haven’t heard Selis’ music before, then this is an ideal starting point and
that gorgeous voice, which tends often to be bathed in any fans familiar with her earlier material will enjoy this varied, well-rounded
self-generated harmonies around wordless motifs, these addition to her canon. MH

PROPERGANDA 47
 enhancing Tamara’s basic tonal quality. The musical
backdrops to this latest crop of songs tend to be quite
intimate, reflecting their more personal nature, and in the
main involve soft-textured electric guitar with occasional
violin, cello, bass and drums. Although Tamara’s
trademark electric uke figures in the mix, it’s not by any
means a dominant feature of the texture, which remains
light and delicate yet not insubstantial, with quirky
percussion touches that mirror Tamara’s gently
soul-searching lyrics. Not least because of its virtuous
understatement, The Procession requires closer listening
than you might think. DK
Sheelanagig
Cirque Insomnia
Big Badger Records BBR12950
This Bristol-based band took
shape in Dartington College of Arts in
South Devon in early 2005 and
quickly built up a solid live following
on the Bristol music scene, as well as
on the festival circuit; thoroughly road-tested they soon
recorded three albums. Their relentless touring has
continued and the band are now a fixture of European
festivals, often adding an extra ‘guerrilla set’ in the dance
and chill-out tents to their official billing, enthralling
crowds with their party antics and dizzying virtuosity.
Although they’re named after an ancient Celtic fertility
goddess with an enlarged vulva, that doesn’t mean you
should expect to hear Irish jigs and reels. Instead,
Sheelanagig draw largely on Balkan roots, so their music
boasts plenty of asymmetrical time signatures, and the
occasional spot of klezmer. This new album consists of
traditional pieces and darkly humorous original
compositions such as Vlad The Inhaler and there’s subtlety
too in tracks like the closing waltz of The Magic Lantern.
They should be at a stage near you this summer – a good
time is guaranteed. JL
Chris Smither
Hundred Dollar Valentine
Signature Sounds SIG2047
Lurking on the hinterlands of
folk, blues and rock, Chris Smither
would be a legend in a parallel
universe. One of life’s inveterate
troubadours, he’s long since absorbed
all the many flavours of the road, emerging – gruff of voice,
lithe of guitar and indomitable in spirit – with a battery of
hard-bitten, gritty songs that make him one of the unsung
greats. On this, his twelfth studio album, he clearly
maintains a full-on appetite for the struggle, his voice no
less engaging for the cragginess it has acquired as he moves
into his late sixties. If there’s a better blues this year than
What Might Have Been – harmonica to the fore and
everything – then I want to hear it. It’s an album of chilling
resignation and reflection full of telling, homespun
philosophy as he reunites with producer David Goodrich and
surrounds himself with some hardy veterans of the Boston
scene to add guile and atmosphere to an exceptionally
well-rounded, timeless and gloriously rewarding album
that might have been made any time over the last 50 years.
If Smither’s hypnotic grumpiness is a symbol of the ageing
process, then bring it on. CI
Mike Stern
All Over The Place
Heads Up Records HU13318602
The guitarist has as distinctive
a sound as fellow Miles Davis alumnus
John Scofield, but it’s cleaner and has
shinier edges, without ever being
overly smooth. This disc has
something of an all-star cast and ranges wide and free
over dignified funk (AJ), bright smiling Afro-jazz
(Cameroon) and, more unusually for the man who is best
known for his electric sound, some serene nylon acoustic
work (As Far As We Know) and some bluesy slide (Halfway
Home). Joining him on different tracks are saxophonists
Kenny Garrett and Chris Potter; bassists Anthony Jackson,
Esperanza Spalding, Dave Holland, Victor L Wooten, Victor
Bailey and Richard Bona; drummers Al Foster, Keith Carlock
and Dave Weckl. A more consistent partner is keyboardist
Jim Beard. What is most striking with all this range in
styles and changing personnel is how cohesive the whole
album sounds. That’s a tribute to Stern, who despite being
able to take a different musical path on every track, often
with a different guitar sound, also manages to always be
identifiably himself. Despite being over 75 minutes long,
this disc keeps on delivering. PB

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 R e v i e w s

Tarras
Warn The Waters
Horsefly HFR001
Exploding out of the Cumbrian
borderlands in the early 1990s, the only
thing holding Tarras back from world
domination was timing. At a point
when a teenage band associated with
the F word – folk – couldn’t get arrested, the energy,
technical skill, versatility and ingenuity so enterprisingly
expressed on their two fine albums Rising and Walking Down
Mainstreet disappointingly failed to achieve the widely
predicted crossover breakthrough. They did, however, help to
kick the door open for others and their return – albeit with a
rather different line-up – is richly accomplished, especially
now they’ve added maturity, exquisite harmonies, a guest
appearance by Jackie Oates and an impressive welter of new
self-composed songs to a fuller, heavier armoury that now
strongly features drums and piano alongside cittern, violin,
accordion and guitar. Only two originals remain (Ben Murray
and Rob Armstrong) and, perhaps mindful that their diversity
may have previously confused the issue, they concentrate on
a strongly contemporary approach, even while vigorously
updating traditional themes like on Joys Of Brotherhood and
New York Trader. Welcome back people – the timing is now
surely right. CI

TG Collective
Release The Penguins
Stoney Lane Music SLM1888
The band that started as a Gypsy
jazz guitar trio has grown into a much
more interesting affair, with the two
central Spanish guitars of Jamie Fekete
and Sam Slater now surrounded by
flute, sometimes trumpet, violin, bass and percussion, plus
added occasional cello. The material is wide-ranging, from
the jokey Hot Club meets the Marx Bros style of the title
track, through to classical with a beat for Silhouette, to a
thoughtful interpretation of Horace Silver’s Song For My
Father, with the father possibly relocated to Andalucia.
Sutta heightens the flamenco atmosphere with some
gloriously entwined guitar work, while Homage takes Bach
as its starting point, and that’s never a bad place to start.
The Long Arm is possibly the most musically adventurous
piece, with a very delicate and gentle denouement. The
album ends as it began – on the sunnier side of this
particular flamenco jazz street. Bassist Percy Pursglove
switches to trumpet as Fekete and Slater hit seriously jolly
mood for The Sheik Of Araby. All that’s missing is flamenco
dancer Ana Garcia, who often appears with the band in
performance. PB
The Toy Hearts
Whiskey
Woodville Records WVR04
Whiskey is the fourth album
from Birmingham (that’s Brum, not
Ala-bam) trio The Toy Hearts, who
comprise sisters Hannah (lead vocal,
mandolin) and Sophia (acoustic
guitars and harmony vocals) and their father Stewart
Johnson (pedal steel guitar, banjo and dobro). Those
already on the Hearts bus will acknowledge their command
of country music styles, but Whiskey sees them include
Todd Snider
Time As We Know It: The Songs Of Jerry Jeff Walker Aimless Records 467562
Well, it takes one to know one; great
singer-songwriters, that is. Anyone with more than a passing
interest in the alt country scene of the last 15 years or so should
know the name Todd Snider – a composer and performer who’s
won lots of friends and quite possibly influenced people with a
selection of great albums and energetic live tours.
As Todd is the first to admit, it is Jerry Jeff Walker to whom he owes perhaps
the greatest musical debt, for it was the 19-year-old Snider seeing Walker perform in
Austin, Texas, that set him on his way to a musical career. Snider is viewed by many
as a writer who has picked up the inspirational baton of Jerry Jeff, and moulded his
off-kilter, wry and witty style for his (younger) audience. Todd finally repays some of
that debt by way of his splendid new album, Time As We Know It: The Songs Of Jerry
Jeff Walker.
Tribute albums can be frequently desultory affairs, most instilling in the listener
the desire to go and listen to the originals. However, in this instance, the obvious
esteem and respect that Snider has for the songs and the man shines through with a
set of fine interpretations that stand up as a great album in its own right, and a
marvellous complement to his recent Agnostic Hymns And Stoner Fables, which has
been garnering terrific reviews.
Reuniting with producer Don Was, Snider offers up 14 excellent workings of
Walker favourites; the mood relaxed, but purposeful. What’s apparent, as soon as the
rollicking Vince Triple O Martin kicks in is that there is some serious good times
being had here. Snider’s in fine voice, fronting a great band that swings and swaggers
righteously. The swampy Moon Child has something of the Creedence smokiness in
its late-night, muted vibe, whilst Snider lets loose with an appropriately vulpine
vocal howl. Of course, any celebration of Jerry Jeff Walker wouldn’t be complete
without a version of the bulletproof Mr Bojangles, and Snider’s solo take is one of the
best of a notable bunch, serving to remind you of what a moving, elegiac song it is.
Time As We Know It is a fine addition to Snider’s growing catalogue of
recordings; Todd and Jerry Jeff make for a winning, irresistible combination. ACR

PROPERGANDA 49
 R e v i e w s
western swing, rockabilly and the blues into their act – with
some sparkling results. Yoking their majestic close harmony
voices to some splendid musical back-ups, theirs is a classic
sound that somehow belongs very much to the here and
now, and the neat musical juxtapositions work just fine: for
instance, the smoky jazz confection Mary Jane sits alongside
Wayne Hancock’s gorgeous Thunderstorms And Neon Signs
like the kind of neighbours who shouldn’t necessarily get
along – but do. As the title track, Pass The Jack and Me And
My Gin suggest, the Hearts acknowledge the dubious
comfort provided by the demon drink, but there’s plenty of
good humour across the 12 tracks, too. The many charms of
Whiskey ensure that you’ll be making plenty of trips to The
Toy Hearts bar. ACR
trioVD
Maze
Naim CD 174
Forged on the anvil of Leeds’
splendid improvised music scene,
trioVD are vibrant proof that the
House of Jazz has many rooms. Critics
may scoff that these loud and lary
noise merchants veer between the painfully hip and the
pain threshold, pushing the limits of musicality in
between. But for all their avowed ‘modernity’, there’s
something splendidly old school about trioVD: their
iconoclastic attitude and fierce brevity echo punk of 35
years ago and other gnarly predecessors include Frank
Zappa, indeed Interlocking could be King Crimson having a
particularly sulky tantrum. What makes Maze a step up
from their startling debut Fill It Up With Ghosts is trioVD’s
tense rigour: static bursts of musical info are Sten-gunned
at you then fade and die while barked vocals evaporate as
swiftly as they startle you. It’s all stitched together with a
fiercely layered, studio-processed veneer, snatches of
electronica lacing together seemingly random acts of
violence and the occasional moment of love, as on Ducks.
A Maze indeed, and amazed you may be…and I swear
that’s the Knight Rider theme buried deep in the epic
grunt of the closing Pet Shop Boys… AR
Federico Ughi
Songs For Four Cities
Skycap Records CAP070
Drummer and composer Federico
Ughi came to Brooklyn via Rome and
then London (with a brief, chilly stint
in Montreal). His third album seeks to
capture that journey. The geographical
range is reflected in the music, which straddles the
American and European jazz traditions. In Through You, a
New York piece with a bluesy tinge, Darius Jones’s alto sax
runs the gamut from sonorous murmurs to raucous
incantations reminiscent of John Coltrane. Meanwhile, in
Pasolini The Painter, Eri Yamamoto’s piano lines, languid at
first, gradually gather impetus in a way that echoes the late
Esbjörn Svensson. Bassist Ed Schuller and Ughi provide a
lean, adaptable rhythm section, quietly shimmering in Uno
Fa Tanto and bristling with tension in Tolmin. Many of the
tracks are slow burners, at seven or eight minutes long,
giving the quartet time to explore different corners of each
territory. White, inspired by the Canadian winter, is highly
evocative. After a sparse opening the pace picks up, with
snow-like flurries from Jones and Yamamoto, before ebbing
50 PROPERGANDA
away into stasis and silence. Songs For Four Cities needs
time to take effect, but its scope and intensity promise an
exhilarating ride. OB
Various Artists
British Traditional Jazz: A Potted
History 1936 – 1963
Lake Records LACD300
Congratulations to Lake Records
for this exceptional CD set, as good a
history of British traditional jazz as you
could wish for. Bigger, more
comprehensive compilations could be
done, but none with the obvious passion that Paul Adams
has for this music. I’d even say it was timely, as there is a
bubbling retro scene which fashionistas are apparently
calling ‘heritage’. For many jazzers, however, trad has never
been hip, being the preserve of a bunch of eccentrics and
refuseniks, who simply wouldn’t or couldn’t follow the
music as it pushed new frontiers through be-bop and
beyond. For you, these three CDs may just be life changing.
The story is compelling and well told through carefully
sequenced track listings and heartfelt liner notes, but most
of all through the superb sound. Given the start date of
1936, you would expect creaks and crackles, but Paul’s
attention to cleaning up the sonics is breathtaking and the
full joy of the performances comes shining through. As a
jazz fan, you may not need any more trad jazz, but you do
need this. TM
Various Artists
Harbour Of Songs
Stables Trading STABLESCD001
A boat built of wood donated by
the public, on the understanding that
each offering comes with a story
attached, has inspired an artist-in-
residency project at Milton Keynes’
Stables. It’s a modern exercise in storytelling curated and
produced by Adrian McNally and including Guy Chambers,
Nick Hornby, Janis Ian, Ralph McTell, Alasdair Roberts and
The Unthanks amongst the roll call. Some artists worked
directly with McNally, but others with unavoidable
commitments recorded a vocal, with basic guitar or piano
guides and left the rest in his hands. The tracks have then
been worked up at various studios with an even wider
cast of players, but the subtle textures and orchestration
hold together very well indeed. As Adrian is part of the
Unthanks, they naturally feature most and the use of
Becky and Rachel’s voices in support of the likes of Nick
Hemming (from Leisure Society), Alasdair Roberts, Ian
McMillan and Adrian himself, bring an almost spectral
grace. The stories are varied and engaging and beautifully
realised, creating one of the most unlikely, but brilliant,
concept albums ever. SH
Noam Weinstein
Clocked
No Songs MM1212
There’s a groundswell of praise
for Noam that hasn’t quite burst
through the surface as yet, but maybe
Clocked is the album to do it. He’s been
attracting comparisons to every
famous, literate, American songwriter going, which might
saddle him with some unreasonable expectations, except
he really is very good indeed. The album is produced by
Mike Viola who had a band called the Candy Butchers and if
you’re none the wiser then associations with Fountains Of
Wayne, Ron Sexsmith, Semisonic and Sparklehorse should
steer you in the right direction. It all adds up to Clocked
being an album packed with a dozen fine songs, dressed in
classic sounds and neat production ideas that keep things
moving along. There are hooks aplenty – try the gentle
orchestration of Moments, the classic Rhodes, strings and
guitar arpeggios of As It Fell, or the angular guitar and
swooping Hammond of Hollywood with its clever
double-tracked vocal – lyrically too it’s clever. All in all, a
real find and if not quite a knockout, it’s ahead on points
after 12 rounds. SH
Donovan Woods
The Widowmaker
Aporia APCD-038
It might have taken a while for
this second album from Canadian
musican Woods to reach these shores
(it came out in his homeland two
years ago) but it’s one of those treats
that’s worth the wait. He might have the breathy voice so
beloved of indie singer-songwriters everywhere, but he
has substance to back it up – memorable melodies and
incisive, conversational lyrics that actually say something.
There’s a tiny touch of Bon Iver here and there in the
atmospheric softness, especially on Jail and I’m Still Sweet,
but very much stripped-down, and you can even hear
echoes of Paul Simon on Let Go, Lightly. As a writer he’s
every bit their equal, with the lost love of Your Daughter,
John both biting and wistful, while Lawren Harris, just
mournful electric guitar and voice, is enigmatically
powerful. It’s an album full of compassion for the human
condition, sharply and lovingly observed, songs that stick
to the heart as well as the memory, with melodies and
lines that tug hard at the emotions. Woods is the
complete, finished article. CN
Samuel Yirga
Guzo
Real World Records CDRW190
I first heard this young Ethiopian
pianist fleshing out Dub Colossus’s live
sound, so perhaps it’s no surprise that
much of his debut album sounds like
Dub Colossus but without the dub. This
may be a solo album, but Yirga is remarkably generous to
the impressive array of talented musicians he’s invited on
board. For example, the funky Ethio-jazz opening track Abet
Abet focuses on the unique sound of the Ethiopian
one-stringed fiddle and the sexy, sinuous sax work of Ben
Somers. However, once track two kicks in with some
deliciously laid-back piano bass notes recalling the work of
South Africa’s Abdullah Ibrahim, it’s clear who’s the star
here. After that, Yirga repeatedly proves himself on what is
a remarkably diverse set which includes a cover of I Am The
Black Gold Of The Sun featuring the recognisable vocals of
one-time Massive Attack collaborator Nicolette as well as
the Creole Choir Of Cuba, no less. But it’s on the solo piano
pieces that his talent really shines, both as a gifted
composer of original haunting compositions and as a
sensitive, measured performer of these works. HM
 AN SJM CONCERTS, METROPOLIS MUSIC & DF PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH DMF

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