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Lid geworden op: do jul 21, 2011 3:38 pm
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En dat is Folk !

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Album Reviews British & Irish Folk Music

OLD BLIND DOGS: KNUCKLEHEAD CIRCUS

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Old Blind Dogs – Knucklehead Circus

Independent – Out Now


A new album from Old Blind Dogs has become a somewhat irregular event over the last decade or so, hardly surprising given the vast array of other projects engaged in by the band’s members.
But, as with Room With A View, their 2017 release, Knucklehead Circus, has been well worth the wait.
There’s a cohesion to the album that is undoubtedly a product of the comparatively stable line-up the band has enjoyed since 2008.
That was the year Ali Hutton took over on pipes and whistles, the slot Rory Campbell had occupied for nine years.
Since then, the only change came in 2016 when Donald Hay replaced Fraser Stone on percussion and vocals; Fraser had been with the band for thirteen years. Despite having some long-serving members, the first eighteen years of the band’s existence was rather a merry-go-round with several different line-ups, the longest-lasting four years.
But throughout that time, one man ensured that Old Blind Dogs survived as both a gigging and a recording band, the fiddle playing and vocals of founding member Jonny Hardie have been the band’s bedrock.
Alongside him since 2003, Aaron Jones has played citterns, guitar and bass, also adding vocals.
With Knucklehead Circus, these four outstanding musicians give us twelve tracks, songs and tunes that combine tradition and contemporary, interweaving their own compositions with those from others.
The result, nearly an hour-long, is a comfort zone of irresistible music.

The title track kicks off the album.
Its initial section, written by Jonny, opens to a relatively sedate rhythm set by Donald’s trademark “soft” percussion, brushes rather than sticks, Aaron’s strummed chords and a simple pizzicato riff from Jonny’s fiddle.
This is soon joined by Ali’s whistle introducing a melody, the whistle quickly supplemented by the fiddle, now bowed.
The pace picks up, and the track’s second half has Ali on pipes playing Nan’s Jig, a lively piece from Pipe Major George Johnstone.
One of the band’s declared aims for this album was to put out music that could get people up and dancing again after the long enforced absence of live music.
There’s no doubt after listening to this first track; they’ve immediately hit that target.

The following track dives straight into the pool of traditional, or almost traditional, songs that Old Blind Dogs have long cherished.
John Barleycorn has been collected from innumerable places throughout the UK.
Still, the version here is undeniably Scottish; the lyrics are those of the Burns’ poem from 1782 and with a vocal delivery emphasising the Scots pronunciations even more than in Burns’ printed text.
And, of course, the drink the song celebrates is whisky.

The remaining four songs on the album make no pretence at being traditional but do deal with themes commonplace in folksong through the ages.
Farewell Tae The Haven, written by the much-missed Davy Steele, bemoans the decline of Scotland’s inshore fishing industry along its east coast.
Written from the point of view of a man finally forced to take a land-based job, the lyrics powerfully capture his conflicting emotions.
Chords and percussion wisely take a background role, letting the words do their work, short fills from Ali’s whistle the only decoration.
Here We Go Again and Harry Brewer both look at the world from a similar standpoint to Farewell, that of the ordinary man whose fate is defined by forces he hardly understands much less controls.
The first of the two, a song from the pens of Mark Bloomer and Andrew Cadie, the Germany-based duo Broom Bezzums, looks at economic injustice, “how the rich men steal the toil of working men” is one of the lines and sums it up nicely.
Harry Brewer’s fate was rather more extreme; he was one of the victims of the indiscriminate slaughter that was World War I.
The song bearing his name is from Nick Burbridge, a songwriter, poet and novelist who’s been described as having an “outspoken and angry disposition”.
His version of the song is far calmer than you might expect given that reputation, and in the hands of Old Blind Dogs, it’s been given an easy-paced, lyrical treatment with an abundance of whistle and fiddle with pipes for the ending.
But this gentle treatment highlights the stark messages of the lyrics, not merely pointing to the waste and futility of any war but carrying a less predictable final message.
This contrasts the battlefield at Salonika and the deaths of men there who could have only a vague idea of why they were fighting with the contemporaneous events of Easter 1916 on the steps of the Dublin Post Office.

The fourth song is in marked contrast to these last three but with a subject, a return to a much-missed homeland, that’s equally well entrenched in folksong.
Wild Mountainside was written by John Douglas of The Trashcan Sinatras and has been much recorded, including by his wife, Eddi Reader.
However, in what might be either a brave or a rash move, Old Blind Dogs have recorded it with a new melody, written by a good friend of the band, the now sadly deceased Rick Taylor.
The gentle lyricism of both words and tune makes a fine contrast to the remainder of the album and, if listeners have followed the band’s advice and been dancing to most of the first seven tracks, this song would be a welcome chance to sit down.
However, while still gently paced, the lengthy closing section from Ali’s pipes could easily tempt them out of their seats.

The instrumental tracks that alternate with songs throughout the album are mainly split between compositions from Ali or Jonny and traditional pieces; Thin Man is one of the exceptions.
A fast-paced composition from the late piper extraordinaire Gordon Duncan gives Ali a chance to show us just how brilliant a piper he is, pairing this tune with a traditional French-Canadian piece, Hommage à Edmund Parizeau, nominally a reel, but you wouldn’t risk trying to dance it at this pace.
The other exception also brings in a French, or more properly a Breton influence.
Suite Bretonne has three components, opening with Stajerien Chapel Nevez a piece by Breton flautist, Jean-Michel Veillon, a traditional Breton dance piece, Ridée, follows and the set closes with another ridée, Ridée Pour Jean-Michel Veillon, composed by Juan Almaraz.
While Aaron and Duncan look after the rhythms, these pieces highlight the interplay between Jonny’s fiddle and Ali’s whistles, each taking a turn to lead, the other always there to weave around the melody.
The rapport between these two has become a standout feature of the Old Blind Dogs sound. I
It’s a delight to hear it here in full flow.

In contrast, Akins turns the spotlight on Aaron, pairing his playing with Jonny’s fiddle for the first section, the traditional Earl of Jura, which, uniquely, dispenses with any percussion.
Jonny composed the second section, Akins Reel, and this features all four musicians in a moderately paced reel that would certainly allow for more dancing.

The Road is a set of three pieces, all composed by Ali.
The opening tune, Tom Banks’ 72nd, features his whistle along with gentle percussion.
The pace picks up with the second part, Gus Sicard’s, Ali switching to pipes that continue through to the final tune of the set, Carrying the Fire.
The album closes with two linked tracks, Highland Lassie Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 is traditional; its full title Highland Lassie Going To The Fair, is a well-known pipe march.
This arrangement, though, starts with fiddle and whistle, the pipes only taking over halfway through.
Part 2 was written by Ali and, from the start, sets a faster pace.
It comprises two tunes, Nigel Richard of Pathhead and Lupin Drive, with pipes leading throughout, but when the piece approaches its climax, it’s Jonny’s fiddle that lets rip, guiding the pipes into their final flourish.

It’s rare that, in reviewing an album, I would write about every track, but the variety and quality of Knucklehead Circus pretty much demanded it.
I first became aware of Old Blinds Dogs music sometime around the Millennium when joined at work by a colleague who’d moved down from Aberdeen.
I confess I hadn’t then kept up with their new material until I saw them live, for the first time, at last year’s Wickham Festival.
Now, this latest album has reignited an evangelical flame.
I’m likely, soon, to be found doorstepping unsuspecting folkies, educating them on the second, or maybe it’s the twenty-second coming of Old Blind Dogs.
Knucklehead Circus is an album that can change lives.

Knucklehead Circus is out now (Digital/CD). Order via: https://www.oldblinddogs.co.uk/listen

They are performing at Celtic Connections on Celtic with Calum Stewart on 4th February (Tickets at https://www.celticconnections.com/event ... um-stewart)


Een video van een eerder optreden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCxORyl08UE&t=3s

Van dit album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFqxu5YXxI4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_A2Fg0SEzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwA3HEeVeFk

Het hele album: https://www.oldblinddogs.co.uk/listen

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