Review: Whip Jamboree

Artist: Blackbeard's Tea Party
Album: Whip Jamboree
Label: Proper Music

Track List

1. The Valiant Turpin
2. Devil in the Kitchen
3. Ford O' Kabul River
4. Bulgine
5. The New Jigs
6. Lankin
7. Polka Against the Clock
8. rackabella
9. The four Hour Shovel
10. Landlady
11. Whiststable Cottage/Superfly
12. Whip Jamboree

Overview.

Wow.  Well, you could never get Blackbeard's Tea Party (BBTP for short from here on in...) confused with any other act.  They have a sound entirely their own (the only group coming even close at the minute is The Monster Ceilidh Band). They have this wonderful, meaty, almost sinister sound to a lot of the things they do.  I think this is in part down to the interesting balance of instruments in the band - somewhere between Rock/Metal (Overdriven guitar, electric bass, drums) and Trad Folk ,(Capital T, Capital F, - Violin, melodeon, percussion).  I think it's telling that the band is obviously aware of this dichotomy - they stand on stage with trad on one side and non-trad on the other.  That isn't to say that the two elements don't mix well together.   I was lucky enough to see them play live at the Talking Heads last night, and they are keenly aware of each other's presence and abilities, and that sympathy shows with how all of their pieces fit together.  So yeah, this is an album which could ONLY have been made by this group, which given the tendency folk music has to sound a little.... umm... samey, is a high compliment.  

Going back to their stage performance for a minute, I heartily suggest that you go and see them live if you get the chance - if you aren't convinced by their album work, you will be convinced by their humorous  lively self-aware performance.  Even better, actually - if you get a chance to go to a BBTP ceilidh, you should definitely do that.  I went to their Sidmouth 2012 Bulverton ceilidh, which for me was the highlight of the festival.  

Favourite Tracks

As I mentioned in the Broken Down Gentlemen review, I am a sucker for sea shanties, so it is perhaps unsurprising that my favourite track on this album is Bulgine.  It is preceded by a solo tune from fiddle player Laura Barber (who to my mind, is one of the finest fiddle players on the folk scene today) before the rest of the band come in with the main theme and vocalist/melodeon player comes in with the vocals.  Stuart is possessed of an extremely characterful voice, particularly suited to the sort of work BBTP are doing.  The track is punctuated with some wonderful percussion work from joint percuissioneers (It's a word now, get used to it) Dave Boston (Djembe, Cowbell, Woodblock) and Liam 'Yom' Hardy (Cajón, tiny cymbal) who are clearly very much in tune with each other and the rest of the band, demonstrating characterful and precise stops throughout the whole BBTP canon.  Honourable mention to Landlady, which I played about three times in a row the first time I heard it.  I can give you an insight into the sort of  performances you can expect if you get to see Stuart singing with BBTP - when I saw him sing at Sidmouth last summer he introduced the song "Jolly Bold Robber" with the following joke;

"This is one of the most homoerotic songs in the whole folk canon - and believe me ladies and gents, it is a very large cannon"

It is a very large canon ladies and gents, and the bits of it that BBTP choose to polish are very shiny.  Very shiny indeed.

Least Favourite Tracks

I actually dislike writing this section, and I can't think of anything overly constructive to say in criticism....  If I have to make a criticism to make of BBTP, something I'm not keen to do, it would be that their love of stops sometimes gets the better of them.  In The New Jigs set, there is something like thirty seconds worth of stops on guitar, bass and percussion and I feel it just breaks up the set a little too much. 

Closing Comments

Blackbeard's Tea Party are doing some wonderful, if occasionally unsettling things with folk music, and this album is well worth your time and money, as are their live shows.  I should perhaps warn you though, if Steeleye Span's rendition of "Summer Is Icumen In" is your idea of the pinnacle of folk music, you may not find everything here to your liking, but you should definitely stray out of your comfort zone a little just to check ;)