Salut! Live

Andrew Curry writes: At the end of each year, Reinhard Zierke, who runs the essential folk site Mainly Norfolk, publishes his list of the best records of the year.

Each year, he chooses five record, of which four are ordered by their release dates, and one is his Album  of the Year. His list for 2024 has just been published.

He has a penchant for the more traditional end of the folk spectrum, and his selection is often the best guide to new traditional-influenced music.

(Laura Jane Wilkie. Photo: Hudson Records)

There’s only one record on here that made Jim Wirth’s list of Top Ten Folk Records for Mojo, which we mentioned here in December. And that’s Martin Simpson’s Skydancers.

Martin Simpson: Skydancers

Martin Simpson doesn’t need any introduction from us—he is certainly the best folk guitarist playing in England today, and Skydancers is his 24th album release. Reinhard Zierke links to the record review on KLOF by Glenn Kimpton, where it was their Record of the Month in April:

“Skydancers is a wonderful album and is packaged beautifully, with track explanations, guitar and banjo tunings, and details of the instruments used...

“The music exudes class and quality; the traditional song choices are interesting and (unsurprisingly) impeccably performed, while the originals are ace.”

Molly Donnery and The Ciderhouse Rebellion: A Little Bit Slanted

Ciderhouse Rebellion are Adam Summerhouse on fiddle and Murray Grainger on accordion, and the addition of Molly Donnery on vocals means that this is three quarters of the line up of the Anglo-Irish quartet The Haar, who I saw recently at the Irish Cultural Centre in Ireland.

Donnery is a fantastic singer, and the idea of the record is that she revisits with Ciderhouse Rebellion some of the songs that have shaped her as a singer. The recording apparently grew out of a late night conversation while The Haar was touring.

Graham Brown’s review on Folking has this to say:

“In keeping with The Ciderhouse Rebellions ethos of spontaneity, the tracks on this album were recorded in single takes. Throughout, the musicianship is top class, while the imaginative and sensitive arrangements enhance the beauty of the songs. Molly’s vocals faultlessly evoke a range of emotions, and her deep connection with the material shines through.”

You can hear more on Bandcamp.

Rachel Newton: Sealladh

Rachel Newton is the only other musician who was on Jim Wirth’s Mojo list who reappears here. Reinhard Zierke prefers her solo record Sealladh to her collaboration with Mairearad Green, An Bhan, which Jim Wirth listed. From the Mainly Norfolk site:

“Sealladh (pronounced ‘shall-ugh’) began as a commission for the National Galleries of Scotland, celebrating over eighty years of live music programming at the Gallery... Each track on the album is based on a particular painting and draws on the mythology, language, history, culture and landscapes that originally set the scene for these artworks.”

Seb Stone: Young Tamlyn’s Away

I knew nothing of Seb Stone before I saw him on this list, but some online research put me right. He’s 22 and has already picked up some awards for his singing and playing. Young Tamlyn’s Away, released in March, is his first record. Most of the tracks on here are from the traditional repertoire, in one form or another. Given the title, there is, inevitably a version of Tamlyn.

Stone sings and also plays the uillean pipes and whistle, and his credits on Young Tamlyn’s Away also include the hurdy-gurdy, melodeon, and the kantele.

Again, you can hear more of the record on Seb Stone’s Bandcamp page.

Molly Donnery and The Ciderhouse Rebellion: A Little Bit Slanted

Ciderhouse Rebellion are Adam Summerhouse on fiddle and Murray Grainger on accordion, and the addition of Molly Donnery on vocals means that this is three quarters of the line up of the Anglo-Irish quartet The Haar, who I saw recently at the Irish Cultural Centre in Ireland.

Donnery is a fantastic singer, and the idea of the record is that she revisits with Ciderhouse Rebellion some of the songs that have shaped her as a singer. The recording apparently grew out of a late night conversation while The Haar was touring.

Graham Brown’s review on Folking has this to say:

“In keeping with The Ciderhouse Rebellions ethos of spontaneity, the tracks on this album were recorded in single takes. Throughout, the musicianship is top class, while the imaginative and sensitive arrangements enhance the beauty of the songs. Molly’s vocals faultlessly evoke a range of emotions, and her deep connection with the material shines through.”

Again, you can hear more on Bandcamp.

Laura Jane Wilkie: Vent

Which leaves us only to mention the Mainly Norfolk record of the year—Vent by Laura Jane Wilkie. Wilkie is a Scots fiddle player, and this is the first record with her name over the title, although she has collaborated with lots of performers, including Siobhan Miller, Ross Ainslie, and Shooglenifty, Niteworks and Elephant Session.among others.

Vent draws on the waulking songs, as the Gaelic-language women’s work songs are known, to create new instrumental versions based on the originals. Some of these come from archives, some were passed on to her by the Scots bagpiper Rona Lightfoot, whose mother, Kate MacDonald, collected them.

This was a featured record of the month on KLOF, where Glenn Kimpton had this to say about it:

“[I]t is a set that immediately shows her as a dynamic and creative arranger and astute interpreter of songs... Laura’s arrangements are intricate and happy to shift multiple times during songs, altering the mood and emotion of the music, while adding depth and creating many points of interest.”

These are fine rich arrangements and performances. Listening to it, you can understand why it’s the Mainly Norfolk Album of the Year.

As with the Mojo Top Ten folk albums list, we have created a sampler playlist on Spotify to give you a flavour of the Mainly Norfolk best-of-2024 list.

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