David Evans Peter Funk Atse Tewodros Project
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fR373 PAGES 58-71 (10 Pgs)_Layout 1 31/05/2014 20:34 Page 7 65 f with Sophie Cavez and as a member of I ATSE TEWODROS PROJECT schottische was composed by JJ Kimmel while Fratelli Tarzanelli and Laurent Geoffroy in the second is also of US origin). There are also Passaires. The double accordeon lead gives Atse Tewodros Project Own label plenty of Sligo influences at work here too, the quintet their distinction. Zef was formed but Mórga’s greatest achievement is to Atse Tewodros, proud Emperor of Ethiopia in 2001 and this is their fourth album. All the absorb all of these inspirations and, thanks to many years ago, forced a band of unwelcome compositions are by members of the band the combination of their collective imagina- English chancers to wash themselves and their and seem to be derived ultimately from a tion and dynamic instrumental interplay, cre- clothes before booting them out. They carried ate a truly pleasurable album. range of French styles. The outstanding track a message for Queen Victoria: “I know these is Balthazar’s Castle Of Q with its zappy, lively men are your scouts. I forced them to wash www.morga.ie take on Parisian café jazz swing. Elsewhere themselves to make it clear that you will not Geoff Wallis the playing is much more thoughtful and carry even a speck of dust out of Ethiopia.” restrained in places; at times almost border- ing on the sombre though there is no doubt- Good bloke, eh? Recorded in Addis Ababa by an Italian-Ethiopian group, this CD ing the quality of the playing and the BONNIE DOBSON & bearing his name was made possible by arrangements. crowdfunding. No label behind it, just various HER BOYS www.denappel.be small investors. The project is propelled by Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew Vic Smith singer / composer Gabriella Ghermandi, an Hornbeam HBR0003 Italian who grew up in Addis, and a small group. Instruments and styles are a mix of A contemporary of Joan Baez, Carolyn Hester DAVID EVANS traditional Ethiopian and Western. and Karen Dalton on the early 1960s Green- The music is clear, thoughtful and wich Village folk scene, Canadian singer Bon- Under The Yam Yam Tree Blind Lemon unforced. The contrast between Gabriella’s nie Dobson recorded a handful of albums Records BLR-CD1401 warm, accurate voice and washint (flute) and between 1961 and 1972 before retiring in the dry, aching krar (lyre) and calm, jazzy rhythm ’80s to concentrate on her career as an PETER FUNK section is powerfully evocative. Worth seek- administrator at London’s Birkbeck College. Thanks to those nice folks at Hornbeam Slidewalk Blind Lemon Records BLR-CD1303 ing out – and you will have to seek it out, being a self-published album at present, Records she’s now joined the likes of Beverley Those Blind Lemons just keep rollin’ on with though a label to take it up must be likely. Martyn, Linda Perhacs and Shelagh McDon- two brand new albums of good acoustic ald in ‘doing a Vashti’ and has returned to the www.atsetewodros.org recording studio after a lengthy absence. music from this new German label. Hot on the heels of his previous CD, Live At The Alte Rick Sanders Hornbeam initially established their rep- Post, David Evans comes across with Under utation with Tom Paley’s 2012 Roll On, Roll The Yam Yam Tree, a second well-recorded On and three of his Old-Time Moonshine live album, which also contains tracks record- MÓRGA Revue – Ben Paley (fiddle) Jonny Bridgwood ed at the Alte Post, plus other material For the Sake of Auld Decency Morga 002 (double bass) and Dave Morgan (drums) re- recorded at a similar intimate venue, the Zum surface here as Bonnie’s ‘Boys’. They’re joined Schwarzen Ross, both venues located in the Irish / Danish quartet by Ben Phillipson (guitar) Felix Holt (harmoni- north west of Germany where (aural evi- Mórga’s second album is an ca) Ruth Tidmarsh (vocal) Sean Read (trum- dence indicates) audiences really appreciate effervescent affair, often as pet) and the justly ubiquitous BJ Cole on David Evans’s interpretations of old country thrilling as a whirligig ride, pedal steel guitar and dobro. Dobson’s stated blues performed with genuine commitment though sometimes at twice dissatisfaction with those earlier recordings, and fervour. As ever, Evans displays an exem- the speed. The blend of the particularly her eponymous, 1969 RCA plary choice of songs encompassing the Mis- accordeon of David ‘Bullet release, may have prompted the decision to sissippi blues of Tommy Johnson, Robert Pet- from Belmullet’ Munnelly, replicate that record’s opening two tracks way, and Johnny Temple, the sanctified song Danny Diamond’s fiddle, with I Got Stung dropped by a semitone and The Ship Is At The Landing (learned from Jonas Fromseier’s banjo and bouzouki, and delivered with a tougher, bluesier backing bluesman Babe Stovall), Washboard Sam’s Dominic Keogh’s bodhrán and flute often than the jaunty Sunshine Superman-alike ear- light hearted Who Pumped The Wind In My calls to mind 1980s versions of De Dannan lier version, and Morning Dew (her signature Doughnut? and (a personal favourite) Aunt when first Jackie Daly and then Máirtín anthem, covered by the Grateful Dead, Caroline Dye Blues, one of three tracks on O’Connor were on the box. Such is clearly the Robert Plant and Lulu, among many others) case on a set of tunes kick-started by Devlin’s finally receiving a definitive reading. which label owner Thomas Schleiken plays jig and culminating in an old-timey swing appropriate second guitar. In the early ’60s She may have ditched the schmaltz, but tune Birdie, all replete with the appropriate Evans’s friends Bob Hite and Al Wilson went Dobson’s classic pop and rock instincts are fits and starts so beloved by Messrs Finn and on to form the band Canned Heat and in thankfully undiminished, as variously evinced Gavin in former times. doing so staked their claim on blues legacy. in the Shangri-Las spoken style intro to Living Due to his exemplary musicology work David However, in renditions of tunes such as a On Plastic, the Tex-Mex Come On Dancing, Evans is often thought of as purely an aca- sprightly Fitzmaurice’s Polka and two schot- the extended, psych-out jam that closes Win- demic but this live CD, plus its recent compan- tisches, Kelly’s and The Sunflower, Mórga’s ter’s Song (one for the Espers fans) or the ion, prove that he too is a blues musician sound is utterly redolent of the Irish-American band joyously blasting through Sandy Boys worthy of similar note. recordings made in the early part of the 20th like the Full House-era Fairport at Glaston- Century (and not surprisingly since the first bury Fayre in 1971. German slide guitarist Peter Funk has produced a nice, easy-on-the-ear album that Mórga pays homage to his beloved resophonic gui- tars. He has quite a few of them: two Nation- als (a 1930 triolian and a 1932 style O), a 1925 Weissenborn Lapsteel, a squareneck1928 Tri- cone, and a 2006 squareneck Manzanita reso- phonic guitar. He plays them on a variety of blues and rags, Hawaiian pieces, some Gospel tunes and a few self-penned items. He har- vests some lovely sounds from his various gui- tars, but when he sings his vocal prowess is no match for his instrumental ability, especially on the Mississippi delta standards Walking Blues (on which he gets some help from Axel Kustner’s harmonica blowing) and Rollin’ And Tumblin’. A second guitarist and a jug blower add some jug band verve to Tell Me Mama, and Peter is backed by upright bass on a couple of other tracks but mostly it’s solo performances with the various instrumental pieces providing the brightest highlights of Slidewalk, including the charming last track By And By (I’m Going To See My Saviour) on which Peter plays… an autoharp! www.blindlemonrecords.de Dave Peabody.