SALTFISHFORTY - Netherbow
Cellar Records CRSFF0310
Third album from the Orkney based guitar/fiddle duo with lots of tunes and a few songs, mostly originals written in the style of the tradition.
The fiddle kicks up a storm, which will be handy as they have recently been supporting those noisy devils, Spiers and Boden, on tour. There is plenty of subtlety in their playing as well though. Fiddler, Douglas Montgomery, switches to viola for a tune named to commemorate the Swedish ship Svecia, wrecked off North Ronaldsay in 1740; a tune dark and pounding as befits its tragic subject. The viola Montgomery uses was actually made with wood from the wreck.
The vocals of guitarist and songwriter Brian Cromarty are reminiscent of the late Davey Steele. In A Ring On Her Hand, he has produced a plaintive tribute to Norwegian Princess Margaret, drowned, as all good folkies remember, by Sir Patrick Spens.
Outside their own material they feature tunes from the postman, and a song from the butcher, showing that the tradition in Orkney is alive and well and not a thing of the past. There's even a song learned from Kris Drever, who probably comes into the traditional category of neighbour.
www.saltfishforty.co.uk
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. |