Review: Mayday

Artist: Lady Maisery
Album: Mayday
Label: Rootbeat

Track List:

1. The Crow on the Cradle
2. The False Young Man
3. Palaces of Gold
4. Katy  Cruel
5. Lady Maisery
6. The Factory Girl
7. Constant Billy/ The Lie of the Land
8. This Woman's Work
9. The Lady and the Blacksmith
10. Intro - The Grey Selkie
11. The Grey Selkie
12. Let No Man Steal Your Thyme

Overview
I had not, in fact, heard of Lady Maisery until I happened to see a friend listening to them on Spotify four days ago, but have since then become a staunch supporter.  This process took something like half an hour.  This is an album full of traditionally presented British ballads - some familiar, some less so - presented by three people with a wonderful understanding of harmony and expression.  There is a nice mix of texture throughout this album - their namesake is presented very simply with the three ladies (Hannah James of Kerfuffle and, unsurprisingly, Hannah James and Sam Sweeney; Hazel Askew of the Askew Sisters and; Rowan Rhenigans of Fidola - all astute and well-rounded folkies) relating the tale in a driving unison; meanwhile the Grey Selkie is given the harp fiddle vocal and accordion treatment.  If you are a fan of pared-down and simply but sympathetically presented Folk, you really ought to check this out.  There are also some nice Norwegian/Generically Scandinavian overtones to a few of the tracks - The Grey Selkie in particular, unsurprisingly, as it is set in Norway and Rowan is something of a Scandinavia Enthusiast (Me too Rowan, me too.)

Lady Maisery pull off a particularly folky thing with this album, which is the tendency to swing from tear-jerking to jolly without missing a beat.  Good work.

Favourite Tracks
I really, really like the Lady Maisery version of The Lady and The Magician (You may know it as Twa Magicians, or Two Magicians or something similar).   Close vocal harmony with really simple percussion in the form of stamping, clapping and tambourine (or maybe Morris Bells?  Hard to tell without watching them perform, something I really hope to do at some point soon).  Charming, very sweetly sung and full of humour and meaty harmonies.  It is tricky to pick it out exactly who is singing what, but I think it's Rowan hitting the low D (my tuning is not great...) on "..but HE became....".  That is a sexy note right there.  Props also to the wonderful Constant Billy/Lie of the Land.  I would happily dance a ceilidh to Lady Maisery singing tunes in three part harmony (Ladies, if you get to read this - any chance of that becoming a reality?).

Least Favourite Tracks
I don't have a least favourite track to declare here.  It's all lovely.  It feels like a cop out, but Lady Maisery do not put a foot wrong in my opinion.

Closing Comments
At the very least, go to the website and check out some of the sample music on their website; http://www.ladymaisery.com/album_categories/albums/  I promise, if you're a folky, you'll thank me - and, more appropriately - them.

Review; Ghost on Ghost

Artist; Iron and Wine
Album; Ghost on Ghost
Label; 4AD

Track list

1. Caught in the Briars
2. The Desert Babbler
3. Joy
4. Low Light Buddy of Mine
5. Grace for Saints and Ramblers
6. Grass Widows
7. Singers and the Endless Song
8. Sundown (Back in the Briars)
9. Winter Prayers
10. New Mexico's No Breeze
11. Lover's Revolution
12. Baby Center Stage

Overview

Sam Beam (The one man act that comprises Iron and Wine... I assume there are other musicians involved but I'm damned if I know who they are) has come an AWFUL long way since The Creek Drank the Cradle back in 2002 in a number of ways.  Where Creek Drank The Cradle was basically just Sam and his guitar and a four track cassette recorder, every album since has built on this in terms of complexity and in general polish - to the point where, if not for his pretty distinctive voice - I don't think you would ever believe CDTC and Ghost on Ghost were made by the same person.;  Sam has eschewed his Guy & Guitar (or, occasionally, Boy & Banjo) roots for a larger richer sound, and in a lot of ways this works for him.  Ghost on Ghost, even more so than his last album, Kiss Each Other Clean and the one before that, The Shepherds Dog, seems to incorporate a lot more by way of blues, jazz and gospel elements, such as horn sections, choral work and honky-tonk style piano.  It's easy to understand why he would have such affinity for these things, being as he was born and raised south of the Mason-Dixon line, but for me personally, I'm not sure it always works.   Because these elements are used less than sparingly the whole way through the album, there is very little to distinguish one track from the next.

I have been listening and listening and listening to this album, not because it has particularly captured my attention, but because I really, desperately, want it to impress me the same way The Shepard's Dog and our Endless Numbered Days did.  It hasn't though.  All of the things I love about those earlier albums are still there; Sam Beam's unique vocal style - soft,  narrative and comforting; his wonderfully understanding guitar playing (never overpowering, always sympathetic to the tone of the piece), his grasp of lyric and expression... But there is nothing stand-out across the whole album.   There is something soulless and repetetive about the production across the album, which I think is as a result of Sam Beam making a conscious effort not to make the same album again and again - and bravo to him for recognizing this possibility and striving for new sounds - but which results in a general missing of the mark, with little textural variation across the dozen tracks on offer here.

(In a slightly nit-picky aside - I'd also like to express disappointment with the album artwork... But that's not really a reason to buy/not buy it)

Favourite Tracks
I'd like to stress again that I didn't hate this album, and there are some real high-points - Caught in the Briars is a great start to the album and made me hopeful for another stonking release from Iron and Wine.  Starting with some distant "percussion" and sustained Hammond organs before jumping in with a rich, deep guitar lick which forms the basis of the song, with a lot of the classic Sam Beam chorus-effect backing vocals and some lush chord changes around the chorus.  The other stand out track for me is Lovers' Revolution, I think because it has such a wonderful build up in texture and a punchy farty sax line - it passes as a sort of Art Blakey-era jazz/blues piece.  Sam Beam's expression reaches a pitch on this album around the two minute mark in this track, and the shouted chorus lines work nicely - very work-song.

Least Favourite Track
I struggled to write this section for the last review I did (Blackbeard's Tea Party - Whip Jamboree) because I struggled to find a track I didn't like, but I do actually have a least favourite track here... "Joy".  Dull, overly saccharine in nature, highly forgettable.  Next please.

Closing Comments
I so desperately wanted to love this album and I feel a little bit cheated by the whole thing, truth be told.  The album is largely flat and uninteresting save for a few moments.  I don't think that it is, in and of itself, a bad album, but I think it is tempered by my relatively high expectations of Iron and Wine.  By all means check it out, especially if you're generally a fan of Americana, and folk tempered by blues and jazz, but if you come to it expecting something of the rich variety seen in Shepherd's Dog, think again.

Mitosis Circle Ceilidh Dance

Greetings Folkies!  I'm going to share today a dance of my own devising.  It is known, for reasons which may or may not become obvious, as the Mitosis Circle (32-bar Jig or Reel).

It's a circle dance for a fixed number of people (unusual for a circle dance, I'm let to believe) and can be danced to any 32-bar reel (although I think a jig would work just as well to be honest).  The dance is quite simple once it is set up, but may throw people who are expecting a balanced number of left-right steps.  The dance involves left-right circles, with each circle splitting into two smaller ones at the end of each section.  So, how does it work;

Forming Up
This is, by a long margin, the hardest part of this dance.  Because the circles need to be constant each time to avoid people fighting over partners, you are best off getting people to organise themselves in the following way;

1. Everybody find a partner
2. In your couples, find another couple to dance with
3. Each group of four, find another group of four
4. Each group of eight find another group of eight to make a circle of 16 people.

Which all sounds simple enough, but I guarantee there will be people confused by this.  You will need to stress that they remember the groups they were dancing in at each stage.

So, from there it's a case of some simple counting and basic fractions;  join hands and circle left for a count of eight, then back round to the right for a count of four, before breaking the circle and forming two smaller circles in a count of four.  The dance just repeats this figure until they are reduced to groups of four, at which point the figure becomes left hand star, right hand star, and then couples doing a left hand turn followed by a right hand turn, before everybody rushes back to the big 16-person circle to start the dance over again.  Simple right?

Dealing with rogue groups

Very few ceilidhs have the right number of people for every dance, but with this dance you can cope with incomplete circles by getting the group to perform the first step twice and to not break the circle until the second time through.

Variation
If you feel you have a big enough group, you might consider trying to work out a version where the circle splits into multiples of three.  Good luck to you if you try.

Potential problems

I've said it before, the biggest problem is the initial set up.  Take your time and let them sort out the couples, fours, eights and sixteens in their own time.  Start the dance slow so they get into the rhythm of breaking and reforming circles, but once you've spotted that they have this down pat, don't be afraid to tell the band to really start getting silly with it.

Music

As I said before, any 32-bar reel or jig will suit this nicely.  I've called it to Cooley's Reel and Drowsey Maggy before now, and that works quite nicely.  Possibly the constant Em chords in those tunes are a little serious for this silly little dance...

Review; Broken Down Gentlemen

DISCLAIMER

This is my first blog article, and you may well notice that it is a review for an album which has already been out for more than a month.  Bear with me whilst I exercise my writing muscles and get this somewhere on track.


Album: Broken Down Gentlemen
Artist; Faustus

Label: Voyager Records

Track List

1. Broken Down Gentlemen
2. American Stranger
3. Blow The Windy Morning
4. Prentice Boy
5. Banks of the Nile
6. Captain's Apprentice
7. Og's Eye Man
8. I Wish, I Wish
9. Lovely Johnny
10. Thrashing Machine

Overview
This is the second album from Faustus, following their self-titled debut back in 2008 (That is, not counting their stint as Dr. Faustus 2003 - 2005.  So that I have to do less research/writing, we're discounting Dr. Faustus as a different band entirely)  So, we've been waiting getting on for five years for this, and frankly (for me at least) Broken Down Gentlemen (BDG) has a lot to live up to.   For me, the first Faustus album was a wonderful palate cleanser after hearing both Benji and Paul performing in Bellowhead.  Where Bellowhead are a massive stage presence with stacks of bombast and some cunning takes on what folk music actually is, Faustus pare things right down to a three-man operation putting out really solid, emotive and traditional songs.  That's not to say that I don't like Bellowhead, but a man can't survive on horn sections alone.

Favourite Tracks
For me, as a fan of sea shanties, the stand-out track on this album has to be Og's Eye Man.  The opening Bouzouki lick and Saul Rose's driving melodeon bass notes set a really punchy tone for the song, setting a wonderful counterpoint for Paul Sartin's (typically) languorous vocal style and some wonderful harmony lines.    It is listed in the sleeve notes as being paired with a Benji Kirkpatrick-penned tune called "Ring her bell", but for me it was hard to pick out a tune that was particularly distinct from the melody line of the song.  Perhaps that's just my poor ear, who knows?
Frankly, any song which finds a way to include the phrase "the cheeks of her arse going chuff-chuff-chuff" get's an instant thumbs up from me.  Make of that mental image what you will.

Special mention also to Banks of the Nile, a wonderful version of a classic "man goes to war - woman wants to go with him - man says no and goes off to kill Johnny Foreigner" story.  Poor Johnny Foreigner.  Such an unfortunate name :-(  Good track though - wonderful textural build up taking nearly the entire length of the track.

Least Favourite Tracks
I'm brought to mind of a review I heard Saul Rose quote last time I saw Faustus live which was that "nobody does misery like Paul Sartin."  I can see what the reviewer meant - Paul seems especially keen to find the most depressing folk songs he can find to drag out and lament over.  Sometimes it works wonderfully - Brisk Lad off of Faustus is one of my favourite folk tracks ever, and I think Paul Sartin's voice suits it wonderfully. However, his slow, lamenting tracks on BDG just seem to slow the album right down.  Which is not to say that they are poorly done, but for me at least they are perhaps poorly placed on the album.  I'd like to hear Paul Sartin doing something more upbeat (more like Og's Eye Man... see above).  Perhaps on the next album we can convince him to record Summer is Icumen in.  I'd like that.

Review
Broken Down Gentleman is a well-craft album from people who obviously have a very good working relationship and sense of musicianship.  Aside from a few pacing problems brought about by Paul Sartin over-indulging in melancholy, I think this is likely to be one of the best albums we see all year.  On a ten-track album, it would have been nice to see another tune set - the three self-penned tunes on Faustus were stonking (Google has not told me that word is wrong...  I thought Stonking was a Yorkshireism), and another set like that would have been a welcome addition.

Still, fully recommending this album if you don't already have it, and you should definitely track them down next time they're playing live somewhere!

~Phill.