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DISCOVER A WORLD OF MUSIC
REVIEWS
Bassekou
ENGLISH FOLK Steps out of the Celtic shadow
KOUYATE
MAKING IT THROUGH THE COUP
FANFARE CIOCARLIA The best brass in blow biz
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Ten tracks from the best new releases
+ 5 PLAYLIST TRACKS FROM CHARLES HAZLEWOOD INCLUDING THE HOT 8 BRASS BAND, DUNCAN CHISHOLM, MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND, SHOW OF HANDS, WU MAN, ANTÓNIO ZAMBUJO, YOUSSOU N'DOUR & MORE...
SACRED HARP The global phenomenon or choral cult?
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Best Albums of 2012
The Songlines’ editors pick their personal favourite albums of the year.
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Best Albums of 2012
Bassekou Kouyaté
The ngoni star recorded his latest album, Jama Ko, amidst the chaos of Mali’s coup. Rose Skelton was there and reports back.
Our favourite ten releases of the year
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Sacred Harp
A look into the weird and wonderful world of shape note singing that’s coming to a community centre near you.
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English Folk Revival
The burgeoning English folk scene is witnessing a revival – is it finally stepping out of the shadows of its Celtic cousins?
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Lo’Jo
Andy Morgan travels to Georgia with the free-spirited, maverick French band.
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UPFRONT
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7 Welcome 9 Top of the World CD 10 M y World: Charles Hazlewood 12 N ews 16 Obituary: Martin Fay 18 Grooves: Wu Man, Sam Carter and Joe Driscoll 19 Homegrown: Trio Tekke 21 Cerys Matthews 22 L etters & Reader Profile 25 Globe Rocker: Seckou Keita 27 S onglines Music Travel 27 S onglines Music Awards
REGULARS
52 Beginner’s Guide to
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Fanfare Cioca˘rlia
54 Festival Profile: Shrewsbury Folk Festival
57 Postcard from Santorini 58 E tnisk Musikklubb Advertorial 63 Subscribe +GET A FREE CD 93 G ig Guide 96 You Should Have Been There... 98 Backpage from Poland
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JAN/FEB13 COMPETITIONS
14 Win Richard Thompson tickets 15 W in Tiger’s Milk releases 25 W in Seckou Keita’s album 55 W in Shrewsbury Folk
REVIEWS
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Europe
Festival tickets
59 W in Etnisk Musikklubb albums 89 W in Last Shop Standing DVD
89 DVDs
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The Americas
Africa Australasia & Pacific
Cinema
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Fusion
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90 World 25
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83 Asia
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UPFRONT
Welcome
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Songlines Publishing Ltd PO Box 54209, London, W14 0WU, UK www.songlines.co.uk General Enquiries +44 (0)20 7371 2777 info@songlines.co.uk Subscriptions +44 (0)20 7371 2777 subs@songlines.co.uk Advertising +44 (0)20 7371 2834 james@songlines.co.uk Fax +44 (0)20 7371 2220 Reviews We only review full-length world music albums (not singles or EPs) with UK distribution. Please send a copy marked ‘FOR REVIEW’ to the address above.
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THE TEAM
Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Assistant Editor Alexandra Petropoulos Art Director Jenni Doggett Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Subscriptions Manager and Social Media Co-ordinator Edward Craggs Podcast Producer Nasim Masoud Reviews Editor Matthew Milton News Editor Nathaniel Handy Listings Tatiana Rucinska listings@songlines.co.uk World Cinema Editor Ed Stocker ed@edstocker.com Production Consultant Dermot Jones Financial Controller Iwona Perucka Commercial Consultant Chris Walsh Editorial Director Lyn Hughes Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham, Sue Steward & Nigel Williamson Assisted this issue by Birikiti Pegram, Rebbecca Neofitos (interns) and Alex Harvey-Brown (design) Cover Fred Shambar
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“Music isn't something you can suffocate or suppress”
e had the world’s most famous Touareg group Tinariwen performing at the Songlines Music Awards concert last month (pictured below). They have said very little in public about the political events that have taken over Mali this year. Their lead singer Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is still not touring with them, preferring to stay at home in Mali. But before the show, their bass player Eyadou Ag Leche talked to journalist and Songlines contributor Andy Morgan about the situation. What came across most strongly was his insistence that the Islamists who have taken over in northern Mali, imposed sharia law and banned music, have nothing to do with Touareg culture or that of the other ethnic groups there. “What’s your answer to the Islamists who have forbidden music?” asked Morgan. “I don’t know what to say to them,” replied Eyadou, suggesting that there isn’t really a logical discussion to be had. He went on to talk about how the Touareg strong man Iyad Ag Ghaly, now leader of the Islamist Ansar Dine, used to write songs for Tinariwen. “The Touareg have nothing to do with this hardline version of Islam,” he said, “and the Touareg are fighting against it.” He added that these Islamists weren’t just their enemy but of the whole of the civilised world and felt that the Touareg had been abandoned in their fight against them. “Music isn’t something you can suffocate or suppress,” Eyadou said, “at home there is music going on virtually every night. I don’t feel these ideas of ‘the Bearded Ones’ are a part of Touareg culture. But I feel that music will survive and go beyond all of this.” One of my CD picks of the year (see p28) is Songs for Desert Refugees, a great collection of Touareg music in aid of the refugees from northern Mali. It opens with a previously unreleased track from Tinariwen with an insistent bass riff (Eyadou, I assume), lead vocals from Ibrahim and nice female backing vocals. In this context it sounds like a fitting defiance against the Islamists. And we have Bassekou Kouyaté on the cover this issue, an artist who has worked with all the greats, but has stepped into the spotlight himself in the last few years. Rose Skelton was with him in Bamako during the coup in March while he was recording his new album – you can read her report on p30. From this issue, we’re pleased to announce that Songlines becomes available in three digital formats – on the iPad, Kindle Fire and Android – with live weblinks and go-faster stripes (see left). So all the more reason to get your friends or yourself a subscription – there’s still time to get a last-minute Christmas or New Year gift subscription. Finally, best wishes to everybody for 2013.
PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION
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Printing Polestar Colchester Ltd, Severalls Industrial Estate, Colchester, Essex CO4 4HT. Record trade distribution Worldwide Magazine Distributors. Tel: 0121 788 3112 UK newsstand & overseas newstrade distribution COMAG Specialist Division. Tel: 01895 433800 All rights are reserved. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden without the prior written consent of the publishers. No responsibility for incorrect information can be accepted. The views expressed in the articles are those of the author, and not necessarily of the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in Songlines, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or for matters arising from clerical or printer’s errors, or for advertisers not completing their contracts. Songlines is also available in audio format from the Talking Newspaper Association, tel: 01435 866102, www.tnauk.org.uk Songlines USPS 4638 is published Jan/Feb, March, April/May, June, July, Aug/Sept, Oct, Nov/Dec by Songlines Publishing Limited. Published by Songlines Publishing Ltd, PO Box 54209, London, W14 0WU. ISSN 1464-8113 © 2009 Songlines Publishing Ltd Songlines logo trade mark, registered under No. 2427714. Directors: Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, Paul Geoghegan, Lyn Hughes and Chris Pollard
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UPFRONT
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On your free CD – the editor’s selection of the top ten albums reviewed in this issue
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The Hot 8 Brass Band ‘Steamin’ Blues’
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Duncan Chisholm ‘The Flooded Meadow’
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From The Life & Times Of... on Tru Thoughts Back and brimming with raucous swagger and New Orleans style. See p70
From Affric on Copperfish Records Beautifully conceived final album of trilogy: an homage to ancient lands from young Scottish talent. See p74
From Quinto on World Village Instantly recognisable fadocum-bossa nova voice brings a bit of Lusophone Africa to his repertoire. See p80
António Zambujo ‘Algo Estranho Acontece’
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Laïla Amezian ‘Love Song’
From TriOde on Music & Words A solo debut of monumental maturity from Belgiumborn Moroccan, singing profound ancient poetry with mesmerising poise. See p86
5
Solorazaf ‘Zoma Dance’
From Solonaïves/Sculptures with GAD on Acoustic Music Records Masterful Malagasy guitarist pays tribute to two major artists on this exquisite double album. See p67
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8 TURN OVER TO SEE WHAT’S ON CHARLES HAZLEWOOD’S PLAYLIST + Bonus track from Jon Anders Halvorsen. See p58
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Mexican Institute of Sound ‘México’
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Malick Pathé Sow & Bao Sissoko ‘Bilbasi’
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From the album Político on Chusma Records Fiercely political, with a little fun on the side, MIS raises a middle finger to the Mexican establishment. See p71
From Aduna on Muziekpublique Two of Senegal’s finest come together to create something sublime: ancient harps and soothing vocals transport you to other worlds. See p69
From Y’Anbessaw Tezeta on Terp Records A new collaboration on old Ethiopian folk tunes. Hymnal dirges to hypnotic jazz, delightfully executed by sax legend and friends. See p66
Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Friends ‘Zerafewa/Eregedawo’
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Show of Hands ‘Coming Home’
From Wake the Union on Hands On Music Long-established folksters present another rousing call for community, featuring top talents homegrown and from across the pond. See p78
New to Songlines? Subscribe now and get a
10
Wu Man ‘Improvisation for Three and a Half Instruments’ From Music of Central Asia Vol 10: Borderlands on Smithsonian Folkways Pipa virtuoso joins forces with musicians from the borderlands. See 83
album for free!
We’re giving away a choice of Malick Pathé Sow & Bao Sissoko, Duncan Chisholm or The Hot 8 Brass Band’s new albums (to new subscribers only). See the flyer inside your covermount CD for details, visit www.songlines.co.uk/cd89 or call +44 (0)20 7371 2777. www.songlines.co.uk
Songlines 9
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UPFRONT
My World CHARLES HAZLEWOOD Simon Broughton talks to the conductor, TV presenter and founder of the British Paraorchestra, Charles Hazlewood, who has a passion to bring classical music to new audiences Also on your CD: five tracks chosen by Charles Hazlewood
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Dimpho Di Kopane ‘Hot & Dusty’
From the album U-Carmen: eKhayelitsha on Milan Music Hazlewood toured Bizet’s opera Carmen with the Cape Town based theatre company, Dimpho Di Kopane. This is the opening soldiers chorus: ‘Sur la place, chacun passe,’ which becomes a Xhosa song with its distinctive clicks.
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Dimpho Di Kopane ‘Lulamile’s Arrival’
This is a traditional Xhosa welcome song. “The score is a fiery mix of high protein Bizet, and equally high protein Xhosa and Zulu music,” says Hazlewood.
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Youssou N’Dour ‘Li Ma Weesu’
From the album Nothing’s in Vain on Nonesuch Records “I love the way the vocal line dances its way around the percussion and talking drum.” Hazlewood first encountered Youssou N’Dour performing live at the Anvil in Basingstoke.
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Bellowhead ‘Cold Blows the Wind’
From the album Hedonism on Navigator “Pete Flood is an extraordinary musician. He can hit anything and make it sound idiomatic – he’s like Keith Moon [The Who’s late drummer] to watch – across everything, all of the time.”
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Baluji Shrivastav ‘Raga Pahari’
From the album Classical Indian Sitar & Surbahar Ragas on ARC Music “The single most important thing to me with the British Paraorchestra is, at the end of the day, it’s great music-making.” 10 Songlines
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hen I started talking to Charles Hazlewood about his Songlines playlist, he was preparing for his extraordinary Orchestra in a Field festival in Glastonbury last summer. His mission was “to prove that you can have exactly the same kind of visceral experience at an orchestral concert that you might at a rock festival.” I’ve got to know Hazlewood at the BBC Proms when he’s been presenting for BBC4 and I’ve been doing the TV direction. We’d usually end up chatting about music far from the concert we were working on – so I was aware of his desire to bring music to a wider audience, his passion for world music and particularly South Africa. From 2000 to 2007, Hazlewood was music director of Dimpho Di Kopane, a theatre company in Cape Town with whom he toured Bizet’s Carmen and made the film U-Carmen: eKhayelitsha, which sets the story within the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha. “It was sung entirely in Xhosa, and for me it was an exciting new discovery,” says Hazlewood. “The score is a fiery mix of high protein Bizet, and equally high protein Xhosa and Zulu music. If you put any melody by a Western composer like Bizet into the mouth and the soul of a black South African singer, it sounds like folk music and has authenticity. “What was exciting about it was that it wasn’t like dealing with hothouse opera stars of tomorrow. If you are coaching a South African singer in an aria, you don’t talk about technique, you don’t talk about a bit of vibrato here or how to colour a consonant there. You talk about the truth of the line, and once you’ve established that, all the technique learnt the hard way will just fall into place. That’s what’s so liberating about it, plus the fact that in black South African culture people trust their ears. They learn music hourly, so you can teach a bunch of South Africans in about five seconds flat, and then as if by magic they will improvise 14-part harmony around a tune, because that’s something they can just do.
“I would cross several continents to hear Sibongile Khumalo sing Richard Strauss, but I wouldn’t cross several continents to hear Renée Fleming sing it. Sibongile Khumalo will always imbue it with her truth, which is not inherited or copied from others. I’m not suggesting that Renée Fleming copies other people, but she’s part of a world that is self-referential, and Sibongile Khumalo is not. You hear Sibongile sing Strauss and it is bloody revelatory, but then you can hear her singing jazz, à la Ella Fitzgerald, or a township jive song, or a Xhosa lament, all of which she does with such authenticity.” Hazlewood’s favourite Sibongile track is ‘Umhome’, a Zulu song from her album Live at the Market Theatre – you can hear an excerpt on the podcast. The Carmen tour was a big success, in London and on Broadway, but it was the out of the way places that made the biggest impression – like Charleston, South Carolina. “I have to say it’s a city I will never ever, ever visit again. Wild horses could not drag me to that filthy den of prejudice. I mean they still fly the Confederate flag over the parliament building in Charleston. But in a way, taking 40 extraordinary young black South Africans in there and blowing the place apart with the shows we were doing was wonderful, because you saw these awful old, unreconstructed men watching this stuff and just not having words to describe what they were experiencing.” The first track on the playlist is by Bizet, but sung in U-Carmen: eKhayelitsha by South African policemen, full of Xhosa clicks. The second track is a Xhosa welcome song for the hero Lulamile, a successful singer arriving back in the township with a flash car (in the original opera it’s the bullfighter Escamillo). Another African musician Hazlewood admires is Youssou N’Dour. “It was in Basingstoke – not a place I like very much – that I first saw Youssou and his Super Étoile in the Anvil, and they virtually set the place on fire. Around seven of the most jawdropping musicians I’ve ever seen or heard anywhere at any point in my life. January/February 2013
UPFRONT
“This was when he released Joko which had a couple of tracks with Wyclef Jean. There were various so-called purists saying it’s preposterous that Youssou N’Dour is singing with people like Neneh Cherry and even worse, Wyclef Jean, and what will that do to his great Senegalese purity? I must say I laughed like a drain, because to me the notion of musical purity is rubbish. Music has been migrating, gallivanting round the world like a Gypsy whore since the dawn of time, and fertilising, cross-fertilising, re-morphing, changing and developing. You look at any so-called pure musical form anywhere on the planet, and you’ll find it’s a confection of a million and one different things, so the very idea that Youssou is going to be perverting his Senegalese purity by singing with a New York [Haitian-born] star is just laughable.” Although Hazlewood talks a lot about singers, as a conductor he has his ears across www.songlines.co.uk
“Every country should have a Paraorchestra… there aren’t platforms for brilliant gifted musicians who happen to be disabled” the instrumental textures as well. He loves the playing of Assane Thiam, Youssou’s tama (talking drum) player and he mentions Pete Flood, the percussionist in England’s most successful folk band Bellowhead. He’s chosen ‘Cold Blows the Wind’ from Hedonism to illustrate that. Another ensemble that made its debut in Orchestra in a Field this summer is the British Paraorchestra – the country’s first ever national ensemble for musicians with disabilities who shared the Olympic stadium with Coldplay at the closing ceremony in
September. A founding member is sitar player Baluji Shrivastav – whose albums have often been reviewed in Songlines. “He’s an extraordinary musician and the fact that he’s blind is totally irrelevant, except it made me realise how few disabled musicians I see in orchestras. The Paralympics has achieved miracles in sport, so why not in music? Fifty years ago, how many women were there in orchestras? None. Now that’s unimaginable. We’re trying to launch a global initiative. Every country in the world should have a Paraorchestra, because there aren’t platforms for brilliant gifted musicians who happen to be disabled. That’s got to change.” ONLINE www.orchestrainafield.com PODCAST Hear an additional track from Charles Hazlewood’s playlist by Sibongile
Khumalo on this issue’s podcast
FESTIVAL Orchestra in a Field will take place next summer, July 20-21 2013 Songlines 11
SING OUT SHAPE UP Can’t sing? No problem, just join your local shape note group and become part of the global phenomenon of sacred harp. Kate Mossman delves into this strange world at the first Sacred Harp convention in Poland P H OTO G E O R G E PU L L E N JAC K S O N
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here’s a scene in the new Nick Cave movie, Lawless, where Shia LaBeouf stumbles into a weatherboard church in 1930s Virginia and interrupts a load of people in headscarves making a terrifying sound at the top of their lungs and waving their arms up and down like they’re in a religious trance. Their music sounds like plainsong but louder, with stark, ancientsounding harmonies (lots of parallel fifths) and a kind of shambolic energy, as though the four tight vocal parts could collapse into chaos at any minute. This is sacred harp, or shape note, singing and believe it or not, it’s coming to a community centre near you. There are now three singings a month in London, more in the north-east, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Poland and all over the music’s heartland, the US. In September this year, 60 singers converged on a village near Gdańsk in Poland for the first European sacred harp ‘boot camp’ organised by Camp Fasola; last month, sessions started up in Australia… Choirs are hot at the moment, everyone knows that – whether you’re working up to your annual Christmas Messiah or singing Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ complete with choreographed bum slapping. But there’s something about those weekly rehearsals that makes you feel like you’re back at school. Imagine a choir where there are no practices and no performances; where you sing each song once only, crossing off 40 or 50 in a single session; where the terrific volume is all the warm-up you need. No one quite knows how this strictly unaccompanied music got its strange name: some say ‘sacred harp’ is a poetic term for the human voice. It grew out of the remote communities of the American South, with a simplified notation for those who » 36 Songlines
January/February 2013
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Songlines 37
BEGINNER’S GUIDE
FANFARE CIOCA˘ RLIA f
BEGINNER’S GUIDE
Garth Cartwright gives the low-down on the trailblazing Balkan brass band
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anfare Ciocărlia are the planet’s foremost Balkan brass band. Hailing from Zece Prăjini, a tiny village created for freed Gypsy slaves, in north-eastern Romania, the remarkable Gypsy ensemble have gone from rural obscurity to rocking the world’s finest concert halls, featuring in films, inspiring club nights, soundtracking Guinness and Ikea ads, covered and copied, remixed and sampled, winning international awards and, night after night, taking their furious brass blast to the stage. Yet the musicians who make up Fanfare Ciocărlia remain humble men who proudly describe themselves as “the hardest working band in the blow biz.” Most Romanian Gypsy music features strings (violin/cimbalom) or accordion. Brass bands are rarely found in Romania, except in this area of the Romanian province of Moldavia. But why should an obscure village with intermittent electricity and no telephone line be home to an
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ensemble who rocked harder than the rest? Fanfare state that they learnt from their fathers who learnt from their fathers. Maybe there’s also an influence from Russian military bands. But the tradition goes back a couple of centuries. Until Henry Ernst, a young East German sound engineer, arrived in Zece Prăjini in 1996, the village’s musicians had only played at local weddings and funerals and were completely unknown beyond their hamlet. Ernst named the musicians Fanfare Ciocărlia – ‘fanfare’ is the common Romanian term for a brass band while ‘ciocărlia’ means lark and is the name of the most famous encore piece in Romania. He then returned to Germany and booked the band a ramshackle tour that he imagined to be a one-off. Yet audience reaction to Fanfare was so strong the band quickly became a fixture on the world music tour circuit. Berlin’s Piranha Records signed Fanfare and their 1998 debut album Radio Pașcani blew minds and sold 80,000 plus copies.
Their 1999 sophomore effort, Baro Biao: World Wide Wedding, proved the band were no fluke and 2001’s Iag Bari found Fanfare extending their sound: a wild rip of Louis Armstrong’s ‘West End Blues’, two vocals from underground Bucharest Gypsy icon Dan Armeanca and a haunting take on ‘Lume, Lume’ (joined by Bulgarian vocal group Angelite). This magnificent album showcased both the muscle and the subtlety in Fanfare’s sound and Ralf Marschalleck’s fine documentary Iag Bari: Brass on Fire followed the band as they left Zece Prăjini to tour Europe and Japan. By now Fanfare Ciocărlia had developed into the planet’s hardest working, highest grossing Balkan Gypsy band. The sheer energy and uplift of Fanfare’s brass blast meant their concerts attracted ravers, rockers and everyone else who wanted a fabulously transcendent concert experience. Club DJs began playing Fanfare and remixing them with a techno beat while the likes of Kočani Orkestar (Macedonia) and Boban Marković January/February 2013
BEST ALBUMS
These former farmers really are the hardest working band in the blow biz
Radio Paşcani, Baro Biao & Iag Bari (Piranha, 1998, 1999 & 2001) The first two albums – Radio Pașcani and Baro Biao – are brass explosions: the speed, groove, energy, vibe. They remain startling (and hugely enjoyable) today. But it’s Iag Bari which is their masterpiece, both irepressibly fast and frenetic and with the sour horns digging some deep Balkan blues. It also became the basis of a documentary by Ralf Marschalleck (see below). Gili Garabdi (Asphalt Tango, 2005) One of the great party albums of all time, Fanfare open with the Bond theme, turbo-charged jazz standard ‘Caravan’ and more. Reviewed in #30.
Orkestar (Serbia) followed in Fanfare’s wake with their own distinctive brass sounds. Fanfare stayed on the road, not issuing a new album until 2005’s Gili Garabdi, on their new label Asphalt Tango. This album found the band at their most confident and, aware of their popularity with a wide Western audience, delivering brilliant Balkan brass interpretations of the James Bond theme and Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan.’ Not long after Jasmine Dellal’s documentary feature, When the Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan, was released. This showcased a major US tour Fanfare had undertaken with a host of Roma musicians from Macedonia, Spain and India. The spirit captured by this tour had lingered with the band and they decided to recreate the Caravan in Europe. Before rehearsals could begin, disaster struck when Ioan Ivancea, the band’s elder and leader, died of cancer. Devastated Fanfare Ciocărlia threw themselves into rehearsals for what would become Queens & Kings. The 2007 album found Fanfare joined by Macedonian Gypsy Queen Esma Redžepova, Perpignan’s Kaloome, Serbia’s Šaban Bajramović, Hungary’s Mitsou, Bulgaria’s Jony Iliev and others. Fanfare then took Queens & Kings on the road with Redžepova, Iliev, Kaloome and other guests joining them. What a spectacular party this turned out to be. And what a great celebration of Romani www.songlines.co.uk
Gypsy music making across the continent. The producers of Borat commissioned Fanfare to record ‘Born to be Wild’ for the soundtrack to Sacha Baron Cohen’s supremely funny-obnoxious film. After years of extensive touring Fanfare needed a break and the band settled back into Zece Prăjini for a year, most members now living in houses of the kind the locals had never seen before. What got the band hungry to play again was the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the Boban and Marco Marković Orkestar. The two brass bands had wearily circled one another for years – Fanfare being famed for their great grooves, the Markovićs’ for their sublime virtuosity – and now they took the battle to the stage, both bands whipping audiences into a joyous frenzy (and released as Balkan Brass Battle, reviewed in #78). This December Fanfare Ciocărlia have the honour of representing Eastern Europe at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo and next year they’ll be recording a new album with Canadian Manouche guitarist Adrian Raso. On stage night after night Fanfare Ciocărlia continue to kick out the jams – they really are the hardest working band in the blow biz! DATES Fanfare Ciocărlia play in London on January 20 2013. See Gig Guide for details PODCAST Hear music from the band on this issue’s podcast
Queens & Kings (Asphalt Tango, 2007) This celebration of European Gypsy music finds Fanfare accompanying a host of Roma stars including Esma Redžepova, the late Šaban Bajramović and Ljiljana Buttler. Huge energy and excitement abound – a triumph! A Top of the World review in #43.
BEST DVD
The Story of the Band (Asphalt Tango, 2004) One of world music’s finest DVD packages. The two discs include the excellent Brass on Fire film directed by Ralf Marschalleck, which gives a vivid picture of the band in their home village with some gloriously surreal scenes, plus a Berlin concert and a host of extras. Reviewed in #28.
IF YOU LIKE FANFARE CIOCA˘ RLIA, THEN TRY…
KOCˇANI ORKESTAR
L’Orient est Rouge (Crammed, 1998) A magnificent album of Balkan trance music from the Macedonians with a denser, more Eastern flavour than Fanfare Ciocărlia. Songlines 53
FE STIVA L
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FESTIVAL PROFILE
SHREWSBURY FOLK FESTIVAL Every August bank holiday folk’s finest gather in the Shropshire town for its highly respected festival WORDS JO FROST M AIN PIC TURE DER EK HOUGHTON
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quintessentially English market town, Shrewsbury is situated in Shropshire on the River Severn, complete with a castle, abbey, cobbled streets galore and an abundance of listed buildings. So in keeping with English tradition, it’s no real surprise that every August bank holiday weekend it holds a folk festival. But this is one with a difference and which has made a name for itself for its specially commissioned projects involving various folk luminaries, such as the highly acclaimed Darwin Song Project – an appropriate subject
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matter because the world renowned naturalist was born in Shrewsbury, the most famous of Salopians. The festival hasn’t always been in Shrewsbury. It began its life in nearby Bridgnorth in 1997 when Alan Surtees, a former steel stockholder, and his wife Sandra (they met at a folk festival), decided to start their own event. The very first edition had just 700 people in the local school hall and gym, and rapidly outgrew its original home until it moved to Shrewsbury in 2006. After a rocky first year at the Quarry in the centre of town, its current location is at the West Midlands
Agricultural Showground, a 50-odd acre site right on the banks of the River Severn. Since its modest beginnings, today the number of tickets sold has multiplied tenfold – they cap it at around 7,000 in total, which is a mixture of weekend and day tickets. Festival director Alan Surtees says that around 4,000 people camp – and unlike other festivals where you end up trudging miles across muddy fields with all your gear, at Shrewsbury you’re able to pitch your tent right alongside your car, which makes the whole experience for camping softies like myself far more pleasurable. Surtees reckons around 70% of festivalgoers come back each year – and they’re an impressively hands-on, participatory lot. “Our audiences want to be entertained,” says Surtees, “but there’s a high percentage of them that want to be part of the festival and play themselves, and the Tuneworks project has been hugely successful.” Tuneworks started organising the music workshops at Shrewsbury in 2007 and they’ve now expanded out to other festivals too. There’s a dizzyingly eclectic range of workshops on offer every year: from hamboning, Welsh clog dancing, even a drinking song workshop. Of course it just January/February 2013
wouldn’t be a proper folk festival without plenty of real ales on tap – they average around 30 different types – “and they all go,” says Surtees. “But the great thing about folk is they drink a lot of beer, but, I say this with fingers crossed, we have not had an incident in 15 years… I think they can take their drink without feeling the need to punch somebody!” The free-flowing beer no doubt helps some of the more rhythmically challenged punters when it comes to the Dance Tent, which is a hugely popular feature at Shrewsbury. At the last edition they held their first ‘Silent Ceilidh’ masterminded by folk singer and ceilidh DJ Jim Moray. And for those who don’t necessarily want to dance themselves, there’s always the Village Stage. It’s easy to locate – just follow the jingling trail of Morris men heading in that direction. Over the years there’s been a huge variety of dance groups, from the most traditional sides such as the Hammersmith Morris Men and Newcastle Kingsmen, rappers and cloggers and this year there was some Punjabi folk dancing, courtesy of Birmingham-based group Nachda Sansaar. The festival has deservedly gained a great reputation for being very kid-friendly, with lots of new skills for them to try their hand at: from singing and song-writing to circus skills and taiko drumming, plus there’s Refolkus – like a mini festival within a festival – for youngsters aged from 12 to 25. The music programme is spread across three main marquees – the largest having a capacity of 2,200 seats plus room for 500 standing for those who fancy some folk moshing. Festival-goers are
Flags, Morris men and bubbles – key ingredients for a successful folk festival
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encouraged to complete a feedback survey and in doing so are able to have an input on who they would like to see back on the billing the following year, which does inevitably mean that some very familiar names crop up year after year such as Bellowhead, Oysterband and Show of Hands. As it happens, both Steve Knightley and John Jones are patrons and will be performing a one-off set together at next year’s festival. “But I think it’s equally important to send our audiences on a voyage of discovery,” says Surtees, so there’s a sizeable amount of Celtic music and artists from across the Atlantic as well, with Abigail Washburn, the Sweetback Sisters and Caroline Herring being firm favourites at the last edition. Surtees is keen to increase the international presence at the festival: “We spend a lot of time looking for emerging stars from the folk world, both from this country and from across the world.” He really wants to push the boat out and take the programming in different directions. Even though they sell out every year, there’s no room for complacency, as Surtees concedes: “we just can’t rest on our laurels; we’ve got to continue to discover new ways to make the overall visitor experience more attractive. We bring people the best of what is around in the UK whilst gently introducing them to a little bit of world music. And I think that will continue and we’ll probably bring more world music in as we go along.” Confirmed so far for next year is the southern Italian group Nidi d’Arac who will kick off proceedings on the Friday night. Then of course, there are those special
song projects that have become part of Shrewsbury’s USP. “It’s enhanced our reputation. People are always asking, ‘when’s the next one?’” The very first one was in 2009 to coincide with Darwin’s bicentenary and featured Chris Wood and Karine Polwart among others, followed by the Cecil Sharp Project in 2011. In 2012 however they took a different tack and instead of a song project, they commissioned the Global Dance Project, under the direction of Hannah James, who also performs as a duo with Sam Sweeney and with the trio Lady Maisery. On paper it reads like a scarily mixed assortment – Northumbrian clog dancing, bhangra, African, Irish and Caribbean dancing but Surtees was delighted by the result: “it was absolutely brilliant, everything that I wanted it to be.” Another recent initiative has been the live streaming of concerts which this year meant more than 27,000 people across 49 countries watched performances beamed from the main stage via a webcast. On evidence of its loyal following and growing reputation, the festival’s broad-minded approach seems to be working. On the one hand they’re always looking in different directions for new projects and commissions, but manage to keep one foot firmly rooted in tradition so as to keep their regulars happy. “I think getting the total mix right is key to our continued success,” says Surtees. DATES Next year’s festival is August 23-26 2013 and tickets are now on sale ONLINE www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk
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WIN TICKETS TO SHREWSBURY
We have a pair of adult weekend tickets to the 2013 Shrewsbury Folk Festival (normally £250) to give away. To enter, simply answer the following: In which Shropshire town did the festival first begin in 1997? See p7 for Songlines competition rules and address. Closing date February 8 2013 Songlines 55
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