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Spiers and Boden
Tunes (Fellside)
$16.99
The third album from the fiddle-accordion duo of Spiers and Boden is devoted almost exclusively to tunes from the English tradition.
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| While quite rightly there's much attention this summer on Bellowhead's quest to educate and excite, its two driving forces get back to the bread and butter. As the hugely imaginative title - there's another on the way called Songs - indicates, there are few of the Boden vocals that tend to polarise opinion and we get to concentrate on the thing that probably caught our eye about them in the first place. The Spiers melodeon has such a chunky sound and chipper effect that it swiftly lures you into the fray, and even on the slower tunes, combines so well with the Boden fiddle that they imperceptibly gatecrash the sedate dinner party and turn it into an English dance session. In many ways it's a very simple collection. They don't seek to smash down barriers or break new territory, but their incorrigible verve and natural drive naturally reinvents a tune as well-known as Cuckoo's Nest, and as they hop, skip and jump through a hugely likeable selection of hornpipes, jigs, reels and polkas, they seem to emanate a warm glow that imperceptibly sticks a large grin on your face. You'll feel very stupid when you look in the mirror, but you'll still feel good. It won't change the world and it won't even change your world, but listening to a tune as beautiful as John Spiers's own Union and it'll look a little more attractive for a few minutes. In the broad scheme of things that's a good deal.... Mention must also be made of the curt line at the bottom of the credits thanking their mates. "No thanks to: the ridiculously antiquated licensing laws, the crap new entertainment licensing laws, Samuel Smiths and the bastard who stole John's boxes." Shine on, you crazy diamonds, shine on. - Colin Irwin, fROOTS |
UK england britain mayx
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