MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
Folk album reviews with Steve Johnson
The Star reviews Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds's Singing It All Back Home, Folklaw's We Will Rise, and Hickory Signals's Turn to Fray
https://youtu.be/FALVRGjdqyY
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
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JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds
Singing It All Back Home
(Dusty Willow)
★★★★
THE MUSIC of the Appalachian mountains has its origins in many old English and Scottish folk songs which found their way across the Atlantic as a result of migration and this album, a collaboration between Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds of The Men They Couldn’t Hang, pays fitting tribute to that legacy.
[[{"fid":"12442","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]Traditional opener I Must and Will Be Married is followed by new interpretations of classic folk songs like Hangman and Foggy Dew. But the highlight is the version of the tragic ballad Matty Groves, a near-perfect example of the art of storytelling in song with its tale of doomed love across the class divide.
For anyone interested in the influence of British folk song on US roots music this album is a must, with Bedford and Simmonds’s innovative recordings reinterpreting the songs while remaining true to their legacy.
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