The Gigspanner Big Band’s new album, Natural Invention (reviewed here), already looks set to be one of the musical highlights of the year. The group – made up of former Steeleye Span violinist Peter Knight, Bellowhead founder-member John Spiers, Hannah Martin and Phillip Henry of Edgelarks, percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack – have created one of the most inventive sets of folk songs heard in recent times, a perfect complement to their incendiary live shows, and a perfect tonic at a time when those live shows seem a long way away.
The Big Band – as their name suggests – are influenced as much by the world of jazz as by the folk music scene. Knight is the de facto bandleader, but each member gets their fair share of the limelight, soloing and often improvising much in the way that a jazz band would. They are a many-headed monster, which presents a challenge for an interviewer, particularly as during a time like this it’s impossible to get them all in one place. Still, Knight’s methods are admirably democratic – as they are in his music-making process – and everyone gets their say.
But first, I want to go deeper into Knight’s relationship with jazz. He has embraced the improvisational side of folk music in recent years, and his love of jazz found an outlet with his lengthy collaboration with saxophonist Trevor Watts, which began in 1982.
‘Working with Trevor was a musical life-changer,’ Knight tells me. ‘I had always improvised but had no idea that it would form the basis of my relationship with music to this day. Gigging with Trevor made me aware of a completely different musical scene, where audiences expected the musicians to be spontaneously creative, and not to interpret existing pieces of music.’
He suggests that, up to a point at least, improvisation has played a part in the history of British and Irish traditional music: ‘Historically, improvising around dance tunes has always been part of the tradition, embellishing the tunes with the characteristic rolls and turns of that particular music. Also changing the melodic phrases within the structure and key of the tune is part of the tradition. Spontaneous open improvisation in the moment within the area of Folk music from the British Isles is not something I am aware of. I may be wrong. Traditional music from other cultures would have been more open, I think.’
What makes Gigspanner such a unique and thrilling prospect is their own openness, both to genre and to culture. The way they use folk instruments to apply these various influences is genuinely experimental. They are a million miles away from dyed-in-the-wool traditionalism, but they also have a genuine affection for – and knowledge of – the musical heritage of the British Isles. A clutch of songs on the album come from the Cecil Sharp collection. Knight acknowledges how vital that particular source has been for him down the years: ‘I used to go to Cecil Sharp House a lot in the early days of the first folk revival in Britain, accompanying Maddy during her searches for new material for Steeleye.’
Martin and Spiers are also frequent denizens of the Sharp collection. I ask whether Sharp was the single biggest influence on the folk revival and whether his immense song-horde is still capable of turning up new or overlooked gems.
‘I think it’s always hard to place things in a fixed order of precedence’, says Martin. ‘There are so many angles to consider. There are many people who contributed a lot to folk song collecting and that first revival, who get a lot less credit than they should (you never hear so much about the women involved, for instance). However, Cecil Sharp was undeniably very important and collected some fantastic material. It’s a big archive, and I can’t claim to be any kind of expert, but there is a wealth of material there, and certainly, there is ample opportunity for re-discovery!’
Spiers adds, ‘Cecil Sharp for me is very important in that he was interested in both folk songs and folk dances (and the melodies that were danced to). His collecting was extensive and while many people have researched the material he collected, there is fresh potential to be found in little snippets of a dance tune, or a half-remembered song with missing verses with every fresh pair of eyes that find them. Folk music, despite relying on a core of traditional repertoire, is very much a creative art where how you approach song or tune is just as important as the source material itself.’
Seeking and adapting material, collaborating on it, improvising around it and committing it to record: these are the component parts that form an overarching whole, and in Gigspanner’s case each of those parts seems to be of creative importance. There is an endlessly questing feel to their music, and this is reflected in their wide range of influences extends far from Cecil Sharp House, to Ireland, eastern Europe, Appalachia and beyond. Knight is keen to talk in detail about the importance of such openness.
‘The band has a wealth of musical influences that weave into the songs and tunes, each player bringing different influences to the song or tune. The reason why it works so well is down to the sensitivity of the musicians, and our shared love of not just Folk music, but music from other genres and cultures. We do each have a prime influence that is at the heart of our playing. So, yes. For me, it is important that folk music is open to cross-pollination from other cultures as well as other genres, but of course, it has to be how you do it and why.’
He goes on to give a fascinating insight into the subtle process of how a musician can engage with the music of other cultures. It’s a question he tackles with characteristically self-effacing intelligence.
‘Every genre of music has a recognisable accent, and as musicians, we have the choice of whether to adopt that accent in our playing or not. We can adopt a bit of the accent if we like. Is there a difference between an adopted vocal accent and an adopted instrumental accent? When I am freely improvising, for instance, I am probably the closest I come to making music with my own accent, whatever that is. Of course, my playing will always be influenced by the early years: classical when I attended the Royal Academy of Music, and Irish and English Folk music, but I do think that it’s best to let influences feed into the music subliminally, and not learn the licks. Having said that, I spent hours slowing down LPs of Irish Fiddlers from 32 to 16 so that I could hear the rolls and turns and learn them. I still love playing the odd Irish tune here and there. It’s a big subject. I do know that I can’t sing a song with any other accent than my own, which is the accent of my speaking voice. I have heard singers who do adopt accents when they sing, and some are very good at it and the delivery sounds honest and true. I would sound as silly trying to sing with a typical traditional folky accent, for instance, as I would singing a song with an American accent.’
It’s a subject you feel Knight could write a book on, but essentially, he says, it boils down to one thing: ‘Play what you are comfortable playing.’
This brings us, in a roundabout way, to the elephant in the room. One of Natural Invention’s most impressive songs is Betsy Bell And Mary Grey, an old Scottish ballad whose subject – two women attempting a kind of self-isolation in plague-ridden Britain – has suddenly become frighteningly relevant again. The song was recorded long before anyone became aware of Covid-19, but its striking parallels are stark evidence of folk music’s universality. So, in hindsight, is Knight comfortable playing something so close to the bone?
‘I probably wouldn’t bring it to the table now,’ he admits. ‘It would be a touch insensitive. I remember, some years ago, watching a televised concert by a singer who I really like. Halfway through his set, he started a song that I didn’t know, and I became aware it was about the death of another famous singer, who actually hadn’t been dead that long. As I was thinking about how uncomfortable I felt, a member of the audience got up on the stage and began saying something. He got escorted off the stage by security. I reckoned that this member of the audience must have been thinking much the same as me. Writing songs about death and disasters maybe depends on how long you leave it. But how fascinating that a ballad that is several hundred years old, is now probably one of the most globally relevant songs.’
Spiers adds: ‘With the knowledge that we recorded this song before we’d even heard about the pandemic that has turned everyone’s lives upside down, I don’t think there’s much more I can say than there’s a lot of humanity and history in folk songs. Because human beings remain the same animal, and history always repeats itself, almost all folk songs are in danger of becoming relevant again, whether we like it or not!’
https://soundcloud.com/peter-knights-gigspanner/betsy-bell-and-mary-grey
But the album’s relevance extends far beyond this one song. With such a talented array of musicians, the Big Band are clearly comfortable playing a considerable range of styles and genres. They are also confident in each other. The resulting alchemy is what inspired one reviewer to coin the seemingly paradoxical phrase ‘natural invention.’ The words struck a chord with Knight, and he chose them for the album title.
‘Thinking of an album title is always difficult. Natural Invention seemed to describe not only the musical endeavour, the way we invent in the moment, but the songs too. Perfectly natural for folk to write songs, and perfectly natural for this band to play in the way it does. We could have taken a song title. We nearly did, but then you have that “title track” thing, suggesting that it’s the best track. Now that the album is released and out there, I like the title a lot. Thanks to the reviewer I say.’
Knight has a rich collaborative history, and in recent years one of his most fruitful partnerships has been with former Bellowhead melodeon player John Spiers. As well as their work together within Gigspanner, the pair released an acclaimed album – Well Met – in 2018. But Spiers always seems in his element when playing in sizeable ensembles, so is there anything that attracts him to ‘big bands’ in general and Gigspanner in particular?
‘I don’t really look at it that way. I love making music in every kind of combination from solo and duo gigs to big band gigs. I prefer to “fall in” to musical collaborations rather than drive them myself; I think that there’s something more organic about musical projects that spring from chance encounters. So Bellowhead came about because of being in the pub with Tim Healey, the organiser of the first Oxford Folk Festival, he was scratching his head looking for a headline act and Jon Boden and I jokingly suggested we put a band together and he took us up on it! I also met Jon Boden randomly in the same pub a few years earlier. My involvement in the Gigspanner Big Band comes from my playing duo gigs with Peter and being invited to just jump on stage and join in during a special doubleheader concert. They asked me to join at the end of last summer and I jumped at the chance. It’s a great band. There is a certain something that comes from making a big noise on a big stage; I can’t deny it!’
There certainly seems to be an infectious joy in Gigspanner’s music that spreads to each of its members. I read an interview with Hannah Martin and Phillip Henry in 2017 in which they emphasised just how much fun it was to play with the band. When I ask Martin about this, she implies that fun isn’t merely a bonus, it is a necessity for making good music.
‘Music doesn’t really come out sounding right if the people involved aren’t having a good time. I think you can sense the lack of conviction and emotional investment if someone doesn’t want to be there. We’ve refined the touring method to a fine art, and there are always plenty of late-night curries and hotel room parties involved.’
The pair take a central role in a number of the album’s songs, particularly those with American roots, with Henry’s dobro and Martin’s vocals to the fore. Henry also makes good use of the harmonica, an instrument which has come in recent years to seem like little more than a folk musician’s prop. His theory is that people just need to learn how to play it properly.
‘The harmonica has a bit of a bad rep, largely because people often don’t learn how to play it before performing with it! I think it’s a very powerful instrument. The harmonica is only half the instrument, the other half is the player, so you can be very expressive.’
Certainly, there are one or two extremely expressive passages of harmonica on Natural INvention. The same can be said for the electric guitar of Roger Flack, which provides, superficially at least, a kind of callback to Knight’s days as a folk-rock pioneer. Flack does not necessarily see it that way, though, and his inspiration as a guitarist comes from right across the musical spectrum.
‘Personally speaking, I don’t consider the genre-divided avenue for music to be of much of a focus. The lines are all very easily blurred for me as a listener and a player. Ultimately, my earlier background generally leaned more towards blues, rock and funk, but for some time now I’ve mainly played in bands that are more based in the folk area. At home, I am still as likely to listen to ZZ Top or the Crusaders as I would be the Bothy Band.’
Gigspanner existed as a trio before becoming the Big Band; Flack and percussionist Sacha Trochet are members of both incarnations. It must be more of a technical challenge to play in a significantly larger group, I suggest.
‘Having a bigger line-up changes things quite a bit,’ says Flack. ‘It means that each person needs to make sure that they leave room for everyone else to be heard. This is from an arrangement point of view as well as mix wise. Fortunately, the Gigspanner Big Band is full of players that are sensitive to these potential issues.’
Trochet adds: ‘I wouldn’t say it’s technically more challenging than the trio thanks to the musicianship and generosity of those involved. There are no heroes, everyone is respectful of each other and the focus is the music, which is a lovely position to be in. I love the deep intimacy in the trio. It’s a three-way conversation, and the big band is just a roller coaster ride with an enormous energy and power.’
The ‘enormous energy’ he talks about is immediately evident in the music. It’s an uninhibited kind of energy, and it’s not really a surprise to learn that Trochet listens to a lot of Fela Kuti, a similarly energetic performer (Kuti ‘keeps me free, musically,’ he says). And as the other members name their current favourite acts – Knight is a fan of the Punch Brothers, Jarleth Henderson and contemporary violinist Hilary Hahn; Spiers is listening to a lot of Welsh group 9Bach and Belgian folk dance band Naragonia; Henry and Martin are enjoying the new Sam Sweeney album – it becomes clear just how diverse a group of musicians this is and what a unique combination of skills they possess. It’s no overstatement to say that there is no-one else quite like Gigspanner.
Watch their album launch video for Earl Brand
John Spiers: From the new album Natural Invention by the Gigspanner Big Band … all six of our members holed up in various bits of England and France have got together via the internet to perform an intimate version of the ballad Earl Brand for you in the safety of your own living rooms. If you want to hear it properly we suggest you plug in headphones or connect to decent speakers!
‘Natural Invention’ is out now and available from https://www.gigspanner.com/shop
The Gigspanner Big Band are Peter Knight – Fiddle, Vocals
Roger Flack – Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Phillip Henry – Dobro, Slide Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Hannah Martin – Fiddle, Banjo, Tenor Guitar, Vocals
John Spiers – Melodeon, Concertina, Vocals
Sacha Trochet – Bass, Percussion, Vocals
www.gigspanner.com
www.edgelarks.co.uk
www.johnspiers.co.uk
Photo Credit: Rob Bridge – Redwood Photography