Topette!! – Live at the Jam Jar
Topette!! celebrate 10 years together, with the release of their fourth album. With their UK base in Bristol, and their French home in Burgundy, it’s apparently a rare treat when Topette!! get together to play. Julien Cartonnet is a powerhouse on both bagpipes and banjo. Fiddler James Delarre’s innate melodic and harmonic sensibilities make him the perfect match for accordion virtuoso Andy Cutting. Tania Buisse’s propulsive bodhrán playing and Barn Stradling’s singularly distinctive bass grooves complete a sound that is irresistible to ears and feet alike. This live album features a couple of great guest players from France, Romain Chéré and Antoine Turpault, who join the band for the last few tunes
A brilliantly recorded document of a warm June night in Bristol, UK. The album is brimming with the joyous atmosphere of a roomful of happy dancers and listeners, and a band at the top of their game, all having the best time. This album captures a truly unique band, melding styles and traditions
with a delightful sense of risk and vibrancy. There’s no fuss, no messing about, this is just the best kind of folk music – loud and lively, joyful and uplifting, collaborative and instinctive, energetic and hypnotic.
Confession – my son has recently taken up border bagpipes and northumbrian smallpipes to add to his more contemporary instrument collection, and so I have been a happy camper at a number of joyous sessions in Rothbury and elsewhere – so this album makes my month! Life-giving.
Malcolm MacWatt – Dark Harvest
Growing up in the Scottish Highlands, MacWatt has a deep respect for tradition and heritage, but considers himself a contemporary folk artist, following a trans-atlantic folk journey. With the exception of piano (Phil Dearing), he plays almost all the instrumentation on the album, with much of the ornamentation being improvised at the moment of recording. Most of these songs were recorded at home (aka But n Ben Studio) and the finished tracks are as natural sounding as possible.
As a songwriter, MacWatt mixes Americana with British folklore, uncovering the past to explore contemporary issues. As a multi-instrumentalist, Dark Harvest displays the Appalachian and Celtic influences that underpin MacWatt’s music. From the opening song ‘Strong Is The North Wind’ to the closer ‘Semi Scotsman’, MacWatt lays out his personal politics and beliefs with sensitivity and compassion, and without apology. This is a sombre collection of songs gleaned from the shady side of history with underlying themes of karma and repercussion. While the lyrics speak of horror, violence and oppression, there’s also heroism, bravery and love, all delivered with beautiful melodies and a delicate touch.
www.facebook.com/malcolmmacwatt
www.twitter.com/@MalcolmMacWatt
www.instagram.com/malcolm.macwatt
Kitewing – Kitewing
The great thing about the folk seen and sessions such as those I mention in the top review is the opportunity for great musicians to combine and create great music. And that’s what happens with this album. Georgia Shackleton, Christina Alden, Nic Zuppardi, Alex Patterson and Aaren Bennet (who have appeared in previous reviews as ‘The Shackleton Trio’ and ‘Christina Alden & Alex Patterson’), combine here in a new project, recorded live in two days. Played and sung in one room and miked individually, no overdubs, just enthusiasm, spirit and energy.
The pulse of the natural world is the core of this band. I’ll combine some other reviews to sum them up like this – beautiful songs that glide across land and water, history and the present. Soaring and gorgeous harmonies and melodies as roaring fiddles combine with guitar, mandolin and banjo to play songs of the sea, migration and our environmental struggle. Driving tune sets and compelling instrumentals weave throughout. There’s an astonishing spirit, an infectious energy and an effortless interplay of instruments and voices, a testament to their chemistry. My second top album of the month. Breathtaking.
https://www.kitewingmusic.com/
https://www.shackletontrio.co.uk/
https://christinaaldenandalexpatterson.com/
John Meed and Friends – A Sudden Rain
This is the ninth album from the Cambridge-based storytelling songwriter, this one featuring string arrangements from Matt Kelly and Lucinda Fudge as well as production help from Rhys Wilson. Hedy Boland plays kora on Le boulevard de Strasbourg while Mnatobi provide choral backing on a re-recording of Thessalonika. The album was recorded after time in Nepal, influencing some of his music and topics, but merely one of many diverse subjects ranging from a Strasborg workers strike, American civil war impacting cotton supplies in Lancashire, a Greek freedom-fighter, and a nod to Shakespeare.
Meed has been compared to that of Al Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Christy Moore, Jacques Brel and Richard Thompson. His other influences also include John Lennon, Ray Davies and Eric Bogle. His songs are thoughtful and deep, paced for you to soak in the arrangements and content. It is uncomplicated yet thought-provoking, his voice having an almost spoken, poetic quality, yet with strong melodic timbre that suits the clear melodies. A shout out to the sparse yet clever arrangmenets, whether violin, viola, keys, kora on Strasbourg and on the re-recorded Thessalonika a choir. Noteworthy.
Richard Trethewey – Two Halves
Richard spent four years (2007-2011) studying Folk and Traditional Music before working with adults with physical and learning disabilities and then graduating as a Music Therapist in 2017. A worthy cause – we all know how therapeutic music can be. Richard is currently performing with The Rowan Tree, Brother Sea, Didjan, Cousin Jack’s Theatre Group and solo. This is his second album, a singer, guitar and fiddle player, but on occasion having brass band quartet, as well as other friends and musicians for accompaniment – including his father singing Cornish!
A CD that ought to be a vinyl record – two halves. One about Cornish river estuaries, songs of smuggling and piracy and forgotten castles and bountiful harvests along the River Fal. The other half looks at the Cornish industrial heritage, with true stories about his family, the mining industry, an ice skating vicar (Tiger Moth Tales you are not alone) and ending with a lullaby. Trethewey has a unique and distinctive Cornish vision and voice, authentic, fiercely Cornish, breathing life and emotion into forgotten history. Personal.
https://www.richardtrethewey.org
Alex Cumming – Homecoming
After a decade and a half of work including The Teacups, Nicola Beazley, Ange Hardy, Bellwether, folk singer and accordionist Alex Cumming has a debut solo album. Audrey Leigh Jaber provides some fiddle, guitarist Max Newman is on guitar, mandolin and quebecois. It was recorded, mixed and produced by Haystack Records’ Pete Ord who also is on electric guitar drums. Other collaborators on the album include an orchestral string performance from The Unthanks Kathleen Ordand guest vocalists including Will Finn & Rosie Calvert (The Teacups), Laurel Swift (Gadarene, Morris Offspring, The Gloworms) and Cate Clifford.
Since moving to America in 2015, Alex has embraced American traditional music whilst continuing to celebrate the music of his homeland in England and this album is a true celebration of Cumming’s musical journey. This album effortlessly covers the more vibrant rocking folk arrangements through to the sensitive and emotional. Original dance tunes mix with an Appalachian version of Lord Bateman, Lord Beichan. Ceilidh to ballad, rollicking riff to reflective emotion, it is all here. From start to finish, Homecoming is a wonderful celebration of traditional folk song, dance music and the traditions of England and the US. Captivating performances mixed with stunning production create an iconic album and a triumphant debut from Alex Cumming. Full on.
Eric Bibb – Live at the Scala Theatre Stockholm
Performed in front of a live audience at Stockholm’s Scala Theatre in 2023,the performance follows his 2023 Grammy-nominated album, Ridin’ and contains a selection of songs cherry-picked from blues troubadour Bibb’s history. Eric’s father, the late Leon Bibb, was an activist, actor, and folk singer who marched at Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. Eric’s youth was spent immersed in the Greenwich Village folk scene. Names like Dylan, Baez, and Seeger were visitors to his home. He was deeply influenced by Odetta, Richie Havens, and Taj Mahal. With special guest vocalists Sarah Dawn Finer, Rennie Mirro and Ulrika Bibb, his band also includes orchestral strings.
As Eric reflects on his musical journey, gratitude pervades. Evolution is evident in his voice and guitar playing, with his words grounded in truth and fostering a vision of unity in a world filled with divisive rhetoric. Eric Bibb is more than a blues troubadour – he is a storyteller and philosopher. His legacy is not just in the notes he plays or the stages he graces but in the questions he poses and the hope he instils. Combining his history into his own unique voice, Bibb is known and revered globally for having carved his own musical destiny with authenticity and grace. Hat’s off to him.
www.facebook.com/EricBibbMusic
www.instagram.com/ericbibbmusic
Advance Notice! We seem to be getting a lot more requests for reviews in recent months, so to try to please everyone all of the time, future months might have some shorter reviews – but hopefully they’ll be just as informative and interesting!
Spirit of Progressive Rock 