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THE LIAM ROBINSON DANCE BAND - Welcome Here Again

THE LIAM ROBINSON DANCE BAND - Welcome Here Again
Private Label NKM010

Liam Robertson is the very personification of Lincolnshire traditional music, being a singer, melodeon and concertina player, dance caller and MC. He also runs workshops and makes presentations about his music, so he can’t have had much time left to make this recording, but we should all be delighted that he did.

Liam, on the aforesaid instruments and vocals, is joined here by Tim Walker, percussion, cornet, flugelhorn and vocals, and Nina Zagorski on piano, with guests Frances Kelly on hammered dulcimer and Nils Koster (who also took charge of the recording) on fiddle.  There is a fine, direct no-nonsense approach to the playing, as the sub-title “traditional dance music from Lincolnshire” would suggest.  As well as there being plenty of finesse and balance in the instrumentation which gives a great swing and oomph to the tunes, there is a clear recognition that this is music for dancing, so the rhythm is tight and precise, without feeling restricted as some strict tempo playing can be. There’s also a lot of feel-good spirit shining through, which lets you know that they thoroughly enjoy playing their music, and this enthusiasm is always a great help to dancers as well as casual listeners.

The tunes themselves are largely drawn from source material, much of it from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and, although these sources are from Lincolnshire (including Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s mother), there are intriguing similarities with tunes from other areas, illustrating perfectly the folk process in action, as they are all given a local touch.

An excellent recording which deserves a wide audience.

Gordon Potter

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This album was reviewed in Issue 89 of The Living Tradition magazine.