EMBER - Full Circle
Salt & Slate Records SALT005CD
This one grows and grows. A nice selection of contemporary songs with obvious traditional influences, both British - mainly musically - but mostly American in style and language. This is the fifth album put together by Emily Williams and Rebecca Sullivan, and if the others are of this quality - and I see The Living Tradition has raved about them before - it shows the sad state of our radio and TV that I have never come across them until now.
Apart from eight self-penned songs, there are grab-you-by-the throat editions of Woody Guthrie's Do-Re-Mi, the hymn Down to the River To Pray, made popular by 'O Brother' (the George Clooney version, not the Derek Nimmo), and even some Gillian Welch and Gabriel Yacoub.
Particularly noticeable is the fiddle playing from Williams, ranging from old-timey to Cajun. She also plays the 'whirly' according to the sleeve notes. I always thought that was an ice-cream. She's also given recording credits, and the music has a lovely immediate in-your-living room sound. Altogether the two girls’ music can best be described in the ice-cream theme: Delicious.
www.embersong.com
Bob Harragan
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this CD online from The Listening Post The Listening Post is the CD mailorder service of The Living Tradition magazine. This album was reviewed in Issue 86 of The Living Tradition magazine. |