Arfur Doo & The Toe Rags – Till Death Doo Us Part
Self Released – 01 October 2019
Formed in Essex twenty years ago by guitarist Tim Bennett and violinist wife-to-be Judy and initially featuring mandolin and banjo player Hippy Joe Hymas who would go on to be part of Hayseed Dixie, they’re not what you might call prolific in terms of output. Indeed, this is only their second album, the line up now also featuring bassist Wayne Hunt and Fran and Simon Foote from Stick In The Wheel on flute and drums, respectively.
A mix of traditional English and Irish folk tunes alongside original material, the playful evidenced by the punning title is further announced by having the Dr Who music underpinning album opener, Doctor Doo, a rousing instrumental jig driven by flute, fiddle, recorder and what sounds like a bodhran.
The rhythmically lolloping Katie Shaw provides the equally lively first vocal track, written by Roger Watson of the Muckram Wakes and previously recorded by Kerfuffle on their 2008 album To The Ground. It’s back then to instrumentals with another folky romp in the form of Tim Bennett’s cider-swigging For A Mouse’s Ear interpolated with the traditional Cúnla.
There are several instrumental cuts, the next up being another trad pairing with a brace of polkas, the Flemish The Bear Dance and, from 16th century France, The Horse’s Brawl or Branle des Chevaux. This, in turn, is followed by Irish recorder and fiddle slip jig The Butterfly by Tommy Potts segued into Welsh fiddle tune Hunting The Hare. Recorded by, among others Van Morrison and The Chieftains, Boffyflow and Spike return to Ireland for a bodhran, fiddle and whistle-led reel, staying there for the slip jig Fig For A Kiss, here with a jazzy guitar intro, coupled with John Kirkpatrick’s clattering The Gas Almost Works.
The remaining instrumental comes from a wholly different source, being a terrific reading of Music For A Found Harmonium with some find percussion from Foote, written by Simon Jeffes for the 1984 Penguin Café Orchestra album Broadcasting From Home and subsequently covered by a number of folk artists, including as a reel by Patrick Street and arranged for accordion by Sharon Shannon on her debut album.
The remaining vocal tracks are all traditional, the first, featuring pizzicato intro, being a five-minute Alison Gross, “the ugliest witch in the north country”, perhaps best known for the Steeleye Span version from Parcel of Rogues. Bushes and Briars, originally collected in Essex, has been much covered, most famously by Sandy Denny, though usually sung unaccompanied the inspired version here is taken at a more uptempo pace with guitar and clopping percussion.
One of the saucier numbers in the folk canon, the deliver a suitably rumbustious The Widow Of Westmoreland (more strictly The Widow of Westmoreland’s Daughter), in which, in typically chauvinistic folk style, a Grenadier guard deflowers a maiden who he then ends up marrying instead of his intended bride when he learns she’s not a virgin. The album ends with a classic but controversial folk staple, again popularised by Steeleye Span, everyone coming together for an initially a capella reading of Blackleg Miner before the fiddle and drums kick in, the song a 19th century Northumberland ballad with lyrics advocating violence against strikebreaking miners.
Their band name and fondness for bad puns suggest a bit of a laugh and a joke, but while they clearly set out to create a good time, their consummately played approach to a celebration of traditional folk music is every bit as serious and as passionate as the Carthys and Watersons of this world.
Order via Bandcamp – https://arfurdooandthetoerags.bandcamp.com/
Launch gig – 19 October at The Fisherman’s Chapel, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex
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