Press blubs and info from the artist:
"A cornucopia of music played on Anglo-concertina" is how Brian Peters describes his latest CD, Anglophilia. Brian is well established in the English folk music world as a singer of traditional ballads and songs, and a leading exponent of the melodeon, but to concertina afficionados he is best-known as an eclectic performer of Anglo music and a popular teacher. After five solo CDs featuring a variety of material and instrumentation, this time Brian focusses exclusively on the concertina. Instrumentals including English dance music, slow airs, ragtime, and Peters' original compositions, are interspersed with songs ranging from traditional to Beatles and Music Hall. Arrangements are kept deliberately simple, Brian's concertina played either solo or occasionally with guitar accompaniment, although there are two settings for multiple concertinas on which Paul Walker of Rising Sun Band adds treble and baritone English.
From the liner notes:
Concertina nomenclature has always been a puzzle to me. Why invent one fingering system and call it English, then name another - utterly different - system Anglo? Not the clearest semantic distinction, one might think. Dig a bit deeper and you find that "Anglo" is shorthand for "Anglo-German", which begins to make a bit more sense. But stick on a few extra buttons, and what you have is now called "Anglo-chromatic". Very confusing, and that's even before you get to the four different types of duet concertina system, all of which are different again. Let's not even go there.
The Anglo-concertina is the kind where each button produces a different note depending on whether you're pushing or pulling the bellows. None of the other sorts does that, so at least we've put clear blue water between us and them. This push-pull system is often held to imbue the music with intrinsic rhythm, since successive notes of a melody are generally punctuated by changes in bellows direction, but of course it's perfectly possible to play Anglo with all the rhythm of a drunkard falling downstairs, or to produce crisp and driving music on any of the other types. Nevertheless, the common conception is that the Anglo is good for bouncy dance music, the English for smoothly-phrased melodies and subtle song accompaniments, and duets for really clever stuff. The Anglo is also notoriously limited as to its range of keys, and its ability to play tunes containing accidentals. A barbed rivalry exists between factions of the concertina fraternity: English players look down on Anglo exponents as musical illiterates who can't play outside the key of C; Anglo afficionados, on the other hand, regard players of the English as effete snobs who wouldn't attempt Three Blind Mice without setting up a music stand first. Both views are a little unfair, but it's certainly easier to knock a basic tune out of an Anglo without prior musical knowledge - it's only a glorified mouth-organ, after all. This, and its low price compared with the other types during the late Victorian period, made the Anglo the instrument of choice for traditional musicians.
My aim with this record is to allow the Anglo free rein on the kind of music you'd expect it to play, like morris dance tunes or jigs, but also to cajole it into other areas it's less well known for, like slow airs, ragtime, music hall and baroque. For most of my career I've been an adherent of the Anglo style commonly followed in England, and derived from the playing of William Kimber, in which the melody is carried on the right hand side of the instrument and chordal accompaniments added on the left, so you get that wonderful one-man-band effect. Recently, however, I've discovered the joys of playing bare melodies, and allowing the pure tone of the single reeds to sing out. Also, like any musician colliding with the limitations of their chosen instrument (and by heck, does an Anglo-concertina have limitations!), I try to push back the boundaries a bit by exploring keys outside the comfort zone.
The instrument I play was made around 100 years ago by Harry Crabb of the celebrated family of concertina builders, whose grandson George is still making fine instruments. It's in the keys of C and G, and has 39 bone buttons plus C drone and air valve. Having those extra buttons - 30 is standard and some instruments have fewer still - gives you a lot of accidentals and also some push-pull duplicates, which allow you to play more smoothly and also to use alternative chording. I love my Anglo and wouldn't swap it for anything. - Brian Peters
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"Brian throughout this CD shows his ability with the Anglo and its content
is interesting, with variety of music, changes of styles and absolutely
superb arrangements.... It is players like Brian who are pushing Anglo
playing forward.... All in all outstanding playing and content, my
suggestion would be to buy it." - Alan Day, Anglo International
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Tracks:
- 1. Kissing Stones (Peters) / The Spud-Spattered Piper (Peters) /
Go Away Miss Ashton (Peters)
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2. Farewell Manchester
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3. Chips And Fish (Anon / Peters)
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4. The Northern Lass
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5. Polkas: Nymph / Babes in the Wood / The Black Cat Piddled in the White Cat's Eye
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6. Turk's March / Tom Fowler's Hornpipe
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7. Things We Said Today (Lennon / McCartney)
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8. Winder Minuets, Nos. 3 & 2
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9. The Entertainer (Joplin)
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10. Jigs: The Peasant / The Celebrated Quadrille / Matthew Briggs
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11. Adieu My Lovely Nancy
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12. Morris Dance Tunes: Old Mother Oxford / Young Collins / Trunkles
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13. The Tankard of Ale
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14. Dallas Rag
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15. Accordion (Service / Parry)
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16. Vive La Bagatelle / Bachelors of Every Nation / Double Lead Through
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17. Sweet Sorrow (Peters)
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Brian Peters