Salut! Live

Andrew Curry writes: The end of the year is always a good time to look back at the records we have enjoyed over the last 12 months—in fact, I think it’s compulsory for a site like Salut! Live. Editor Colin Randall and I sat down for a virtual conversation. The rules: they don’t need to be records released in 2024, just things we’ve been listening to. 

And to encourage that sense of the way that people actually mix and match their music, we’ve adopted a cheesy format: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blues.

There can be more than one pick in each category. We’ve split this across two days: Old and New today, Borrowed and Blues tomorrow. The links go back to coverage on Salut! Live.

(Photo via pxhere.com. Public domain/CC0)

Andrew: Let’s start with Something Old. I realised when I was researching something on Sandy Denny that I hadn’t really listened to Fotheringay 2, so I got hold of a copy. It wasn’t released in Denny’s lifetime—she left the band with the record unfinished to start her solo career—and Jerry Donahue finished it from the tapes in 2008, almost 40 years after the sessions. And it’s a really fine record. When you listen to it, you wonder what Fotheringay could have done as an electric folk band had they stayed together, and you realise how tragically self-destructive Sandy Denny was.  

One other quick ‘Old’ record: I was listening to Nic Jones’s Penguin Eggs while doing our ‘12 Days of Winter’ series before Christmas, and that’s such a perfect record. 

Colin: Let me add a little more flesh to the bones of Fotheringay 2. I interviewed Jerry about it for a piece in, of all places, a newspaper published in Abu Dhabi. I was working for that paper, The National, at the time. The feature appeared in 2009 and I updated it slightly several years later.

I binge listen. I decide I’m in the mood for an artist or band and devote hours to listening to them. It’s a mix of Something Old and Something New. In 2024, Kate Rusby (Old), Christy Moore (New, with lots of Old), the Watersons (Old)  and the Unthanks (New) have been among my choices.

In particular I’d mention Moore’s Unfinished Revolution from 1987 and the Watersons' eponymous second album (1966). Moore’s journey towards opposition to the ‘armed struggle’ had barely begun so I found plenty on the album to quarrel with. But 1987 was also the year of the Enniskillen atrocity and that was a significant turning point for his outlook. The Watersons grab my attention for the simple joy of hearing such lusty harmonies. 

Andrew: In the Something New category, I’ve got a lot of things I could choose from—I’d say it’s been a good year for folk recordings. I’ve had to leave out some fine records here. But in no particular order, and without much space to say anything about any of them, here we go. Linda Thompson’s Proxy Music felt like it distilled 50 years of music making into a single record, and we wrote about it here on the site. The title?—She’s not able to sing any more, so the vocals are by an array of other performers.

Katherine Priddy’s The Pendulum Swing felt completely timeless. North of the border, I enjoyed Mairearad Green and Rachel Newton’s record Anna Bhan, about the land raiders of Knoydart, which opens up part of Scotland’s radical history. And finally, I saw Beth Malcolm singing John Riley with Niteworks in their farewell concert in London (review here), and since she has a great voice I wondered about her story. It turns out that she has recently released FOLKMOSIS, a fine biographical record out, about growing up with folk music, growing away from it, and then coming back to it.       

Colin: I’m also fond of Katherine Priddy. She’s just obtained official recognition of The Pendulum Swings taking top spot in the folk album charts and posted this lovely tweet:

“One of my proudest achievements of 2024 was releasing my 2nd album 'The Pendulum Swing'. Today I got this - my first & only trophy. I almost didn't get one because I was worried it was obnoxious & then I thought - f*** it. Own your achievements. Be proud. Thank you all.”

It’s worth following her on Twitter just to see the photos she posted.

I mentioned Christy Moore in terms of New because this year’s album. A Terrible Beauty, would be good from an artist of any age but feels special from one pushing 80. His older albums are an endless source of magic but some of the newer songs, not his own but brilliantly interpreted, are seriously compelling, 

I think especially of Black and Amber, about a woman’s struggles with a druken, abusive partner, and Lyra McKee, so powerfully evoking the last moments of a young journalist shot dead while covering a republican riot in Derry.

Also New was the surprise of really liking a Scottish bluegrass band Sociograss’s album, Made It All Up,  which they had to nag me about until I gave it a listen. Now it’s on the car stereo all the time. Unadulterated fun. 

Andrew: Maybe we should do a more regular round-up of what we’ve been listening to, every few months or so, on the site next year. Tomorrow, it’s Something Borrowed and Something Blues.

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Read more: What we’ve been listening to in 2024 (part 2)

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