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| Track list: 1. Prickle Eye Bush 2. Sloe Gin Set: Frozen Gin/Vinegar Reel/The Sloe 3. Courting Too Slow 4. Dawn Chrous 5. The Outlandish Knight 6. Jiggery Pokerwork/Haul Away/Seven Stars 7. Go And Leave Me 8. Jack Robinson/Argiers/Old Tom Of Oxford 9. Copshawholme Fair 10. Princess Royal/Cuckoo's Nest 11. Brown Adam 12. Ginger Up Lustily/Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket Running time: 58 minutes Released: 2003 |
Ah, a true favourite now, indulging my folky side. Spiers & Boden (leading lights of Bellowhead) are my go-to guys for folk songs and tunes. Don't they look young on the cover!
It is a great shame that they no longer perform as a duo because I always found their gigs much better as a pair than when they had all the brass and all to back them too. I shouldn't complain too much, Bellowhead are dear to me too, but still... these two, when they were on song, were fantastic live and great on record. Assuming you like that sort of thing. Many a well known Bellowhead track appears on this album (which features Benji Kirkpatrick in places too) but perhaps my favourite track here is Brown Adam, one of 5 that as far as I am aware were not redone with Bellowhead. Most of them are grand, though, so on with it!
Prickle Eye Bush is our opener, a criminal's promise to go straight if given a chance. It is a catchy tune, but a repetitive one... three times telling the same tale with a new person coming to see the condemned and - mayhap - to pay for his freedom. Naturally the first two don't but (spoilers!) the third, his true love, does. The repetition makes it a song that does not work so well on record. You can forgive the retreads much more in live performance where the mannerisms of the performers make up for the sameness of the song.
It has been too long since my last post, but things have gone a little awry and not made progressing this one before now easy. I am doing it now after a long day's gardening with sore hands and a head with no focus for anything more strenuous (like writing up yesterday's RPG session). Good job I know this one well and like it well too.
That said, the Sloe Gin Set is a bit of a bête noire of mine - I have been to so many Bellowhead gigs now that I am truly bored of it as it was ever present until last years tour of Revival where it didn't feature at the date I made. In truth it is the first tune in the set that bores me, the latter two being a bit more lively and here it works better than with the full band. That goes double for Courting Too Slow, where the wider arrangement available on Burlesque offers so little extra that the slow number is just a weight against the songs it accompanies. Here there is a great mournful tone to the combination of fiddling and squeezing that I cannot picture in my head for the Bellowhead version and it saves the song for me.
Dawn Chorus is the first track not repeated with Bellowhead - it simply wouldn't work as it is really a John Spiers solo (I wouldn't swear it, but I think I have seen him perform it as such) with a bit of support. This tune is one of the first by Spiers & Boden that I remember being fully sold on - the rise and fall of the melody, the slightly twee change up, the phasic pattern of how it returns through the theme. Its repetition done in a way that does not get old.
Ah, that staccato violin... from the first second The Outlandish Knight is thoroughly recognisable and totally arresting. I love this song for its improbability, its roots and its implementation. I love this stripped back rendition, I love the full band effort. Here, like many other pieces, I am continuously surprised and delighted at the apparent complexities that a fiddle/squeezebox duo can get into their playing, the themes they can support alongside each other, the variation in the playing. That sense only increases with the next track, a medley which is probably also my favourite Bellowhead track. The haunting nature to the tune that Spiers carries on Jiggery Pokerwork sets a tone that is then snapped in balls-to-the-wall gusto as it opens up. I maintain it is impossible to listen to Haul Away without being compelled to tap your feet and to sit still whilst hearing Seven Stars. Actually, Haul Away is such a favourite that even as I am trying to concentrate on writing this I find myself starting to mouth along with the simple shanty lyrics. To me, this set is a perfect representation of why I fell into folk music - energetic, emphatic, enthusiastic and simply about enjoyment and entertainment. If I could only take one folk track to listen to on a trip, I reckon it would be this one.
Jon Boden is if not the most charismatic person I have had course to see in the flesh then very close to it. His command of a stage is mesmeric, his love of performance highly infectious. His voice is strong, but whilst I increasingly see it as rather one-tone his sheer showmanship makes up for that and then some. It is John Spiers though who inspires me - since getting into their music I have several times thought fleetingly about the idea of getting some kind of organ and trying to learn to play. Every time one of his tunes comes up I imagine being able to produce such engaging sounds from the often ungainly-looking apparatus he uses and find myself wondering about what it would take. The expense and likely terrible realisation that I have no talent at all stay my hand (to the relief of my neighbours).
Copshawholme Fair was how I found myself getting into these guys. I don't much like this song now (I think the playing is exemplary mind), but Bellowhead's version came up on a LastFM station I was listening to based on The Imagined Village and it was a very interesting sound, which I was compelled to follow up on after reading a little about the band and their make-up. From there interest expanded and remains strong. However it is the more stripped back sounds of the duo that I find myself drawn to. At this moment I cannot think of a song done both by Spiers & Boden and by Bellowhead where I prefer the Bellowhead track. I don't know why this is, perhaps as I grow more curmudgeonly I resent having to track quite so much with my ears and mind when I have such good "simple" versions? Hah, as if.
Into the final straight now, two tune sets and the favourite amongst favourites to go. The tunes are well and good, but it is the evocative images conjured by Brown Adam that I love. The combination of the players, their voices (often in harmony here) and the song itself has a magical quality that just works for me. It's not perfect - it has more than a hint of gender inequality about it as you might expect from traditional material. I think, though (and I hope I am remembering this right) it was the liner notes that mentioned the cult of Wayland and brought folklore into the mix that sold me completely and utterly on the song. It remains a favourite.
All has gone quiet as the disc ends, finishing before I could articulate a short thought on a 6 minute track which I started to type before it started to play. Sometimes our brains just don't behave. I'm off to see if I can persuade mine to start working again.
It is a great shame that they no longer perform as a duo because I always found their gigs much better as a pair than when they had all the brass and all to back them too. I shouldn't complain too much, Bellowhead are dear to me too, but still... these two, when they were on song, were fantastic live and great on record. Assuming you like that sort of thing. Many a well known Bellowhead track appears on this album (which features Benji Kirkpatrick in places too) but perhaps my favourite track here is Brown Adam, one of 5 that as far as I am aware were not redone with Bellowhead. Most of them are grand, though, so on with it!
Prickle Eye Bush is our opener, a criminal's promise to go straight if given a chance. It is a catchy tune, but a repetitive one... three times telling the same tale with a new person coming to see the condemned and - mayhap - to pay for his freedom. Naturally the first two don't but (spoilers!) the third, his true love, does. The repetition makes it a song that does not work so well on record. You can forgive the retreads much more in live performance where the mannerisms of the performers make up for the sameness of the song.
It has been too long since my last post, but things have gone a little awry and not made progressing this one before now easy. I am doing it now after a long day's gardening with sore hands and a head with no focus for anything more strenuous (like writing up yesterday's RPG session). Good job I know this one well and like it well too.
That said, the Sloe Gin Set is a bit of a bête noire of mine - I have been to so many Bellowhead gigs now that I am truly bored of it as it was ever present until last years tour of Revival where it didn't feature at the date I made. In truth it is the first tune in the set that bores me, the latter two being a bit more lively and here it works better than with the full band. That goes double for Courting Too Slow, where the wider arrangement available on Burlesque offers so little extra that the slow number is just a weight against the songs it accompanies. Here there is a great mournful tone to the combination of fiddling and squeezing that I cannot picture in my head for the Bellowhead version and it saves the song for me.
Dawn Chorus is the first track not repeated with Bellowhead - it simply wouldn't work as it is really a John Spiers solo (I wouldn't swear it, but I think I have seen him perform it as such) with a bit of support. This tune is one of the first by Spiers & Boden that I remember being fully sold on - the rise and fall of the melody, the slightly twee change up, the phasic pattern of how it returns through the theme. Its repetition done in a way that does not get old.
Ah, that staccato violin... from the first second The Outlandish Knight is thoroughly recognisable and totally arresting. I love this song for its improbability, its roots and its implementation. I love this stripped back rendition, I love the full band effort. Here, like many other pieces, I am continuously surprised and delighted at the apparent complexities that a fiddle/squeezebox duo can get into their playing, the themes they can support alongside each other, the variation in the playing. That sense only increases with the next track, a medley which is probably also my favourite Bellowhead track. The haunting nature to the tune that Spiers carries on Jiggery Pokerwork sets a tone that is then snapped in balls-to-the-wall gusto as it opens up. I maintain it is impossible to listen to Haul Away without being compelled to tap your feet and to sit still whilst hearing Seven Stars. Actually, Haul Away is such a favourite that even as I am trying to concentrate on writing this I find myself starting to mouth along with the simple shanty lyrics. To me, this set is a perfect representation of why I fell into folk music - energetic, emphatic, enthusiastic and simply about enjoyment and entertainment. If I could only take one folk track to listen to on a trip, I reckon it would be this one.
Jon Boden is if not the most charismatic person I have had course to see in the flesh then very close to it. His command of a stage is mesmeric, his love of performance highly infectious. His voice is strong, but whilst I increasingly see it as rather one-tone his sheer showmanship makes up for that and then some. It is John Spiers though who inspires me - since getting into their music I have several times thought fleetingly about the idea of getting some kind of organ and trying to learn to play. Every time one of his tunes comes up I imagine being able to produce such engaging sounds from the often ungainly-looking apparatus he uses and find myself wondering about what it would take. The expense and likely terrible realisation that I have no talent at all stay my hand (to the relief of my neighbours).
Copshawholme Fair was how I found myself getting into these guys. I don't much like this song now (I think the playing is exemplary mind), but Bellowhead's version came up on a LastFM station I was listening to based on The Imagined Village and it was a very interesting sound, which I was compelled to follow up on after reading a little about the band and their make-up. From there interest expanded and remains strong. However it is the more stripped back sounds of the duo that I find myself drawn to. At this moment I cannot think of a song done both by Spiers & Boden and by Bellowhead where I prefer the Bellowhead track. I don't know why this is, perhaps as I grow more curmudgeonly I resent having to track quite so much with my ears and mind when I have such good "simple" versions? Hah, as if.
Into the final straight now, two tune sets and the favourite amongst favourites to go. The tunes are well and good, but it is the evocative images conjured by Brown Adam that I love. The combination of the players, their voices (often in harmony here) and the song itself has a magical quality that just works for me. It's not perfect - it has more than a hint of gender inequality about it as you might expect from traditional material. I think, though (and I hope I am remembering this right) it was the liner notes that mentioned the cult of Wayland and brought folklore into the mix that sold me completely and utterly on the song. It remains a favourite.
All has gone quiet as the disc ends, finishing before I could articulate a short thought on a 6 minute track which I started to type before it started to play. Sometimes our brains just don't behave. I'm off to see if I can persuade mine to start working again.
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