MADDY PRIOR WITH HANNAH JAMES & GILES LEWIN - 3 For Joy
Park Records PRKCD123
If you had to choose three musicians to bring you joy, you could certainly do worse than Maddy, Giles and Hannah. Maddy and Giles have worked together since the 1990s, but Hannah, whose reputation is rightly ever-growing as a singer, accordion player and dancer (and yes, there is dancing on the album!), is an unexpected and delightful addition.
The sound is deliciously rich, warm and full, with Giles and Hannah providing fulsome harmonies to Maddy’s lead vocals, which, by the by, somehow manage to surpass themselves at every listen. Yet there is no feel of a ‘backing band’ here: the album is very much a team effort. Hannah ably leads on three tracks and her accordion, as well as Giles’ renowned fiddle playing, are showcased on the instrumental Gankino Horo. Opening with the rousing reiving anthem Lock The Door Larriston and closing with Giles’ bagpipes on Oh My Nanny, there is a wealth of variety in between, from sacred harp song Wondrous Love, three Eastern European numbers and a song from a New York klezmer band.
The album surprises at every turn, but what I find most gratifying is the opportunity Hannah has on here to show off her lower vocal registers, something which she has not necessarily occurred in her work with Sam Sweeney and Lady Maisery. Nauchila Sa Hubava Doina for example, is a breathtaking example of Hannah’s vocal versatility and strength, as well as a pretty convincing rendering by all three of Eastern European-style harmonies. So if you’re anything like the magpie implied in the title, swoop down and snatch up this jewel of an album.
Clare Button
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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 94 of The Living Tradition magazine. |