REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk
At the Racket play unpretentious Irish music, with banjo, piano, saxophone, flute and guitar, with occasional bursts of fiddle and some vocal tracks, and a fine job they do of it too.
Their inspiration centres on the Irish-American recordings of the Flanagan Brothers in the 1930s, and, no doubt considerably to do with their use of the piano, they can produce that between-the-wars swing. It's the Jimmy Shand style that by the time of the Lloyd/MacColl folk revival we thought of as old hat, but in a historical context can be seen to be a ground-breaking fusion between the contemporary popular music and tunes of/or in the tradition.
They whack away at a medley of polka and reel named after the dominant tune 'Turkey in the Straw', the hornpipes of 'Where Would the World Be Without Women', or the military two-step 'Dancing Dustman', which is as reminiscent of the work of the New Victory Band as of anything specifically Irish.
Sometimes groups of this kind can go down a storm at festivals and ceilidhs and not translate elsewhere, but there is enough subtlety in their playing to make this a rewarding home alone experience as well.
Bob Harragan
 |
Buy
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 46 of The Living Tradition magazine. |