Through The Wild The Willows Elk Records
Released
November 30th
2018
The
Willows have been described as a “Cambridge Supergroup.” Well,there's enough of them,they have an immaculate pedigree and they
certainly look the part. They've been going for some eight years now,
recording three studio albums since 2013,so you might well expect The
Willows to make a decent album.
Which
they do. They have a stellar line-up. Ben Savage also collaborated
with Hannah Sanders to record one of my favourite releases of 2018.
Percussionist Evan Carson is occasionally one of Sam Kelly's Lost
Boys.Jade Rhiannon,her husband Cliff Ward,Katriona Gilmore and
John Parker complete the line-up. Collectively,that assembles
together bass guitar, electric guitar,acoustic guitar, dobro,banjo,
fiddle,drums, mandolin and double bass.
The
Willows have played support to Richard Thompson,Seth Lakeman and
Peatbog Faeries. Whispering Bob Harris describes them as “gorgeous”
and some bloke called Mike Harding,(never one to sit on the fence)
extols their “fabulous
music.”
No pressure for the first listener then,on giving it a spin.
In
fairness,the sound on the 10 tracks is lavish,with the production
expertly layered by Mark Tucker. Those seeking Trad.Arr. will find
none in the accepted sense,as virtually the entire album features
original material only. That said, they are often narrative
songs,recording events which actually happened. And
instrumentally,you can hear subtle influences,distant echoes and
faraway strains from many genres throughout.
Vocally
adept and musically sublime,it is essentially a very showy studio
album. However I have no doubts that they can (and apparently they
do) reproduce this high standard in “live” performance. The
breathy and distinctive vocals of Jade Rhiannon hallmark each song.
Sounding by turns like a chain-smoking Sandy Denny and a Folky
Melanie Chisholm, Jade's voice has a distinctive smoky timbre. It
possesses that very marketable commodity, the ability to distinguish
and identify her singing instantly within a few opening bars of
music.
Standout
tracks for me were the accurately researched and written “Perfect
Crime,”
the atmospheric “False
Lights” (results
of too much Adnams?) and the opening track “Coda”
“Pearl
Hart” is
a noisy,quirky piece which celebrates the life and times of the
eponymous lady who ran off to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. My
Grandad once featured in an iron-bending contest at one of those
shows. I wonder if they ever met?.
Released
late in November this collaboration between the West Country Folk
Mafia and the renowned East Anglia Folk Posse is a very capable piece
of work. It will be competing in a very crowded arena, that of the
multi-faceted Folk “supergroup,”
with new releases flooding in monthly. “Through The Wild” holds
its own in this congested market,though I remain to be convinced that
comparisons with Alison Krauss or Fairport Convention are either
accurate or helpful. It seems to me that they are The Willows. First
and foremost. Just take it as that.
Turn To Fray Hickory Signals GFM/Proper Music
Turn To Fray Hickory Signals GFM/Proper Music
Released November
16th
2018
Quite
independently this October (and from three separate sources), I was
sent three different Brighton-produced albums with a view to
reviewing them. When I began listening to them and reading the
backgrounds of the respective artistes,it soon became evident that
two of them had a lot of shared characteristics. Hickory Signals
are Laura Ward and Adam Rochetti, a Sussex duo whose debut album was
released in November 2018.
They are also both part of the Brighton collective “Bird In The
Belly,” whose debut album was released earlier this year.
Turn
to Fray has
a nice Retro feel to it. It features an eclectic mix of
instrumentation and some very distinctive vocals. Recorded in
Brighton at Studio 95,Laura's singing and flute playing form an
effective counterpoint to Adam's work on guitar and banjo. Also
contributing are Tom Pryor,Scott Smith,Phil Ward and Deborah Stacey.
Some
artistes write and sing about challenges and difficulties third
person or from a distance. Which doesn't necessarily demean the end
product-but you could never point a finger at Hickory Signals and
sugggest they are writing about something second hand. Laura and Adam
have lived active and varied lifestyles which is reflected in their
work. Living home and abroad supporting charities,displaced persons
and victims of substance misuse. Aiding refugees or Special needs
teaching are all within their direct experience. So there is a
wordliness to their arrangements and their delivery. There's a
knowing air to some of their work that says “been
there, done that.”
The
title track is about women coping with change and risk. Laura herself
describes it as “a
song about a woman leaving one place for another.”
“
Here I Am” is
an American flavoured romp with twinkling banjo sections and U.S.
Style choral harmonies. It has an earworm of a chorus,whereas by
contrast, Frankie Armstrong's “Doors
To My Mind”
is almost bleak, in its resonance with the subject matter. Laura
delivers it unaccompanied save for a muted percussive background.
“Bushes
and Briars”
has a rustic feel to it which is entirely appropriate. A
hollow,echoing vocal,by turns single tracked and harmonised. “Kana”
features a sensitive string arrangement and is beefed up by another
emotional vocal. “Zelda”
is the brief story of F.Scott-Fitzgerald's wife. Based on letters
written to her husband, it is mature and serious:a layered
arrangement which is symptomatic of the measured and thoughtful
production throughout.
Mixed
by Stick In The Wheel's Ian Carter,re-mixed by Nigel Palmer and
produced by Tom Pryor,“Turn
to Fray”
is a mature,inventive and imaginative album. Seven originals and two
Trad.Arr songs,all packaged in a plastic watch case with a
comprehensive leaflet which includes all credits and lyrics. All
of which made me turn with enthusiasm to explore......
The
Crowing Bird In The Belly GFM Records
Released
earlier in the year than “Turn
to Fray,” this
album also features both Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti, plus Hickory
Signals's Producer Tom Pryor and performance artist Jinwoo,aka Ben
Webb Also included are Epha Roe and Barry Ward. Ben Weedon and Tom
Pryor oversaw the production engineering and mixing. The
personnel,content and delivery on both albums are similar,but not
identical. If you liked one, you will probably (as I did) like both.
Some
websites have labelled The
Crowing
as Americana. Although there are recognisable transatlantic
influences,I'm not so sure they are as easy to pigeonhole as that.
BITB themselves describe each song as “an
old British story:long forgotten or never recorded.”
Song titles like “Horace
in Brighton,”
or “Shoreham
River”
tend to prove the point. The research and background put in
beforehand by the band on this project is impressive. It speaks
volumes that they intend to release a film of the interviews recorded
whilst collecting material, some time in 2019.
“Give
Me Back My Heart Again” is
a high point. It is an orginal piece of work released as a single. It
adapts a lyric they found in the Bodleian Library. A powerful and at
times anguished vocal by Laura opens out into a more rollicking folk
classic. “The
Lilies”
is an almost gothic, an eerie,a capella piece of vocalisation
complete with sound effects. Not everyone's cup of tea perhaps,but I
loved it.
The
Crowing
is (obviously?) more musically complex than Turn
to Fray and
slightly more sophisticated. The imagery in both albums is at times
melancholy metaphysical and atmospheric. The BITB album contained a
lyric sheet but no information about the origin of the songs. Each of
the tracks are a very compact and listenable size. Which is a Folk
Show's presenter's dream when working out the complicated mathematics
of a one hour format radio programme.
Both
albums have really grown on me. They demand some hard work
concentrating in order to pay them due attention-simply because they
are emotion-filled pieces of work and require serious listening. I'll
play them both again. When the lights are low,with a glass of red
wine in my hand and the wind is moaning outside. But not before I've
locked all the doors,maybe.
