The Unbearable Lightness of Brian

So as mentioned in the last post, I am reviewing two of the latest albums that I've bought; two that I've been waiting for a long time to hear and two that are at opposites in terms of style but equally brilliant.

Let me start by saying that ' The Ravishing Genius of Bones' is a terrific album, pushing boundaries whilst staying within a defined feel of Irish trad. Brian Finnegan shows his capability as a modern tune writer and arranger bringing a definite feel to the proceedings that is unmistakably his.

When I look at the modern day composers to whom he might be compared, I instantly think of Michael McGoldrick and Aiden O'Rourke: heavyweight company indeed. There are, of course, clear differences, McGoldrick's style routes itself in the trad style but, especially on his latest album 'Aurora', arranges larger group work with strong funk overtones with mixed results; the main drawback being how the rhythm was recorded which, although making the sound bigger doesn't fill the space like it should. On the other hand, O'Rourke's arrangements on 'Sirius' are a masterclass on how to work the space for maximum results though his tune writing is less conventional than those that McGoldrick pens.

So where does this album fit in? To start off with, from just looking at the artwork, the album starts to set itself apart by creating a fantasy, dreamlike world with a melancholic/ contemplative figure sat cradling a ball of light whilst large dandelion fairies float past, a fish swims through the air past a distant mountain backdrop and tall tree stems stretching up beyond the inlay's edge. If ever the cover art represented an album's intention and setting, this is it! The music ranges from the fast and furious (night ride to Armagh) to the delicate (Marga's moment) and on to the sublime (last of the stars) and shows BF as a tune writer who wants to present you with his visions and experiences though they are not necessarily of this world.

The list of musicians playing on this album is essentially a role call of who is hot on the circuit right now, notable mentions being Rex Preston, Ed Boyd, Aiden O'Rourke and Ian Stephenson (with whom BF formed KAN who are on tour this spring and summer and well worth catching), all of which present the music in perfect fashion.

In my last post I referred to June Tabor's album 'Ashore' as being real in every sense of the word, this, however, is the reverse. It is a flight, a journey through BF's imagination and memories that stays with you as if they were your own.

Listening to right now:

Various artists: 'Come let us buy the licence: songs of courtship and marriage'. topic records

Jim Causley: 'Dumnonia'. wild goose records

Martin Green: 'The Martin Green machine'. navigator records

New reviews

I got hold of two new releases over the last week, June Tabor's 'Ashore' and Brian Finnegan's 'The Ravishing Genius of Bones' distributed on Topic and The Singing Tree respectively and will be reviewing them over the next couple of posts.

June Tabor: Ashore

Topic has a high reputation within the folk community for providing top quality releases from within the folk genre, indeed it is now rare that they take on another artist the most notable exception being Fay Hield (The Looking Glass) and that same reputation precedes any release by JT, her albums carrying a sense of poise and dignity to each song that she delivers with care and this album does not disappoint the expectations of either party with each song arriving as a masterclass on how to tell a story, emote each character and draw the listener into the world that surrounds the sea: for the sea is at the heart of this album. When introducing the CD in he sleevenotes, she writes how she was born and brought up about as far from salt water as it is possible in these isles and this is reflected by both the album title and the delivery of the songs; a sense of wistfulness, of wonderment at the tales told and the ever present mystery that the sea has held for so many over the history of man. This is someone looking out at the sea from land, not the other way around.

As for the tracks, there are eleven songs and two tunes, some of which JT has recorded before but reworks to dramatic effect. I don't think I've ever heard her voice as clear, soft and full as on this album and used so well, in addition her beautiful deep tones she adds in passages of speech to accentuate two of the tracks, giving them extra lift and presence to the listening ear but it is her treatment of Les Barker's brilliant 'Across the wide ocean', a song written for the folk opera 'The stones of callanish' and one that I have been waiting to appear on record since I heard her perform it live seven years ago where she excels; it becomes more than a song, it is an experience. Let it not be said however that this album is just about June Tabor; her musicians, whom she has worked with over many years, show their knowledge of her style and each other's parts, flowing seamlessly in harmony with each other to the rising highs and the diminutive shallows; this becomes not just about a singer with her musicians but a group playing as one and bringing a collective feeling that swirls around your ears, pulling you ever further down into the music. Trying to find words for this album, this experience, is so hard as superlatives seem to only stretch so far or do not demonstrate the fullness that it exhibits... it's just real. The playing, the stories, the tunes, the world in which they inhabit and the worlds that they extend into are so real that you want to be a part of them, and I think the feeling is mutual.

This is a must have.

2011, or why I am not Laura Marling and sons...

Well, here we are: second month of a new year already... I have some catching up to do!

The first month passed me by pretty readily as I was preparing for a gig to launch my e.p (previous blog posts). The night was as long as it was incredible, thank you so much to Ali George, John Wilson, Rob Winder, Katie Stone-Lonergan for the music as well as all the people who came and supported the night!

Recently I have been musing on the idea of folk music; what it is, isn't and what it is that really bugs me when the term is thrown every which way at the current wave of acoustic singer-signwriters that pop up around the shelves of HMV.

I guess I could write a thousand word rant on what boils down to semantics and definitions, citing examples that can be broken down seconds later... I will try not to! This is because the term folk music originally had a very clear definition, it was an extension of the term folk lore, coined by William Thoms, meaning: "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes."

I also like the further definition: "The folk song is one of the most functional, portable, adaptable and accessible arts of human history."

Highlighting the word adaptable is key as it helps us to address what has happened. From the original definition, another sprung up in the 19th-20th centuries, folk music became not just the music of a people but it also became music of the people. These I relate to as very different ideas, the latter being more linked into the music that came out of the (generally Northern) working populace through the 19th century. These are people in a different generation, a world away in terms of social and economic structure and relating their experiences accordingly, uniting themselves through song. In the changing political climate it is unsurprising that folk music and those who performed it went hand in hand with the socialist and communist parties as well as the unions, humans are sociable by nature but that nature was being broken down bit-by-bit by industry. The term subsequently got connected to several other genres: -rock, -adelia, -metal etc the overarching idea being that these genres were being linked back to and influenced by the former definition, the dichotomy made clear.

The development has continued, as has the need for people to find more and farther reaching definitions for each form, some wanting to stop at the collections produced during and before the early 20th century, collections that have come under (I feel unjust) criticism because of the material that had been selected, rewritten, written down at all. Others embrace the idea of folk music continuing to develop and be amalgamated into different styles and so on... everyone draws their lines and borders at some point now, hence the difficulty of definitions.

Chris Wood expressed his feeling on the term as "Folk music needs no definition. It emerges from the un-schooled to articulate the wonder and richness of the ordinary..."

My brother recently went to see Frank Turner perform in London where he said (paraphrased) "when did folk music stop?"

Does this debate get us anywhere? Does it really get me anywhere? This has filled my mind recently but I think I'm getting somewhere, personally at least.

After many debates between my friends and (patient) partner, I realised the songs that I choose to sing are good songs, they are songs that shouldn't die out nor be endangered as they are a living link that we hold to our history as a people, our national identity: something that we should be proud of.

I am English. I am proud of that and as such my belief is that our traditions and cultural history should be respected, taught and spread in the same way that other cultures have done with theirs, not through xenophobia and the closing up of borders (not always literal) but through respect of what people had to say about their lives and the methods that they used to achieve this. This isn't an argument purely about the music that is performed by others and how they choose to define it (though I have mistakenly centred it in such a way previously) but whether, when it comes to the performance of a song, it is a story that I wish to tell, that I wish to continue in the world.

and breathe

so, what does this mean in terms of my direction this year? Well over the last month I've started putting together a selection of songs and tunes for a new album, arranging them and planning a larger band to play with. These tracks will be focussing on my pondering and my clearer perception of what I personally want to achieve through my music, keep an eye on the myspace for the developments.

On a further note, June Tabor's new album is out on the 21st this month and is something I've been waiting a long time for!

Other singers I've been enjoying recently (old and new):

Alasdair Roberts

Pilgrims Way

Trembling Bells

Ali George

Davy Graham and Shirley Collins

Andy Cutting

6. Prickly Bush

Tuning: DADGAD, Capo: 5th

This tune (Child ballad 95) has appeared in many different guises around different countries, 50 different versions alone being found in Finland! The plot is based around someone (originally a maid) awaiting execution at the gallows pole and trying to buy herself time and release through her family. There is a basic pattern to each verse:

Hangman stay your hand

stay it for a while

I think I see my mother come

over yonder stile

Mother have you brought me gold

silver to set me free?

For to save my body from the cold, cold ground

and my neck from the gallows tree

No I have not brought you gold

nor silver to set you free

for to save your body from the cold, cold ground

or your neck from the gallows tree.

The verses repeat for sister, brother, father (extended as desired) before the true love comes and provides the fee for releasing the accused.

As I wrote, the original narrator was a maid though the change in gender could well have happened when the song was in America, the execution of women being less common there.

The version that I first heard was Spiers and Boden's on their album 'Bellow' and subsequently (as is the way when you actually start looking for something) I found Nic Jones singing it on 'Unearthed'. My version was created one afternoon when I realised I needed something more upbeat in my set and so worked out the basic melody and noodled around until the arrangement fell into place... I now want to work it into a nice set of tunes (possibly Playford) as the song's pretty quickly over but I don't want to extend the family who wander past!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maid_Freed_from_the_Gallows

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=122664

Well, that's the e.p! A massive thank you to Doug for recording it, Captain Wizard for mixing and taking the photos and anon, may we meet soon...

5. Geordie

Child ballad #209, this song is another with countless versions though mine was from the penguin book of English folk songs, a seminal collection by Lloyd and Vaughan Williams. This song has been found all over England and Scotland and so if it relates to actual events, it is unclear who is 'Geordie' though most versions have him as one of 'royal blood' a close relation to the monarchy is invariably implied: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie_(ballad)#Geography.

The words that I use mention London bridge but, more cryptically 'he sold them in Boheny'. At first I took this for a corruption of the word 'Bohemia' inferring that Geordie sold the royal deer to travellers however this definition of the term bohemian did not occur until the 19th century and so is not applicable to the lyrics. There is, on the other hand, a town in Scotland called Bohenie so possibly the setting got partly changed as the song was passed around...

As far as the imagery of the song, the judge looking over his left shoulder is not literal, though one could imagine that the lady has arrived just as he was leaving the court, but relates to the belief that the right and left hands were good and evil (think about the superstition of throwing spilled salt over your left shoulder to blind the devil).

There are many brilliant threads on mudcat that relate to this song, have a look through the related threads here :http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=29130.

4. Sammy's Bar

Tuning: EGCGCE, Capo: 7th

They talk about writing what you know and with the late Cyril Tawney's words, that's exactly what you get.

I first heard this song through Martin Simpson when I saw him in the Dorchester Arts Centre on his 'Bramble Briar' tour in 2001, a sensitive performance of the song encapsulating the depth of the lyrics, something I have worked on recreating since... I think that I am settled on this one, even though I have subsequently learned that a verse is missing from the lyrics!

The song itself and its history should be best explained by the man himself, see: http://www.cyriltawney.co.uk/depth.htm#sammy but in brief; this song is set in Malta, the places are real and the people and plot represent different occasions in Tawney's life whilst stationed there.

To clarify, word 'di-so' in the second refrain is the the phonetic pronunciation of the Maltese 'dghaisa' which is a hired craft that took sailors back to their ship after a night on the shore.

As far as drunken laments go, this is a keeper!

3. Seven Yellow Gypsies

Tuning: EACGBE, Capo: 3rd

Child ballad #200. I've known this song for a long time in the back of my mind without really knowing it and when I started playing around with the chords, it seemed to fall into place without any trouble. The simple unresolved chord structure paired with the warmth that I find the dropped-C tuning and the slightly blue-noted melody brings a certain soft feel to the song that had a definite impact as I rewrote the final stanza, a twist that makes the story more realistic, though real it most certainly isn't!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gypsy_Laddie

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/child-ballads/ch200.htm

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/shirley.collins/songs/sevenyellowgipsies.html