Staring the talents of Andy Cutting on melodeon, Sam Sweeney on fiddle and Rob Harbron on concertina, Leveret have for the last few years steadily made their name as one of the finest live acts playing within the English tradition.
The band’s latest release, Variations: Live (reviewed here), marks a new development. Limited to only 1000 copies, it is the trio’s first live recording, and an absolute cracker it is too.
Recorded in March 2020, just before lockdown, the album is a genuinely beautiful listen and well worth seeking out. If you like the sound of three musicians at the top of their game, playing an exciting blend of traditional and self-penned tunes, with the irresistible enjoyment of the collaboration on full show then you won’t go wrong here.
Folk Radio UK got a chance to have a chinwag with Rob Harbron about the new release and the trio’s plans for the future.
Hi Rob, thanks for taking time out for a chat, can you tell us a little about what prompted the recording of a live gig?
It’s something we’ve thought about for a while, because of the way we approach our music – we don’t have any fixed arrangements so the same piece can sound totally different from gig to gig. Capturing a performance in the studio doesn’t always feel as spontaneous even if it is done in one take so we really liked the idea of recording a few gigs and putting out a record that captured the essence of a live Leveret gig.
Variations: Live is a double album with a fine selection of 15 tracks, many are favourites from Leveret gigs, how did you all decide on which tracks to select?
We invariably play a different set list every night – Andy does them and he tries to include everything in our repertoire at least once in a tour! We’d recorded 5 gigs for the live record, three in arts centre venues with PA and monitors, and two acoustic gigs. When I listened back the acoustic gigs sounded very different (one was a village hall in Essex and one was a Wesleyan chapel in Bristol) so although there was some great music there, they didn’t really sit together with the other gigs as a record and there was quite a lot of audience noise on them too – coughing and foot rumble – so we prioritised the recordings we’d made of our gigs at Kings Place and Sage Gateshead, two of our favourite places to play.
Even from those gigs we had too much material for an album, especially as we wanted to include a 9-minute piece that we hadn’t recorded before. After a bit of discussion, we decided to make it a double album, and to round it off we included one tune, Snow on the Tracks, from the lockdown gig we filmed at St George’s in Bristol during the summer.
There are some beautiful tracks on the album, any special ones that stand out for you?
I really like ‘The Wounded Huzzar’ – it’s such a beautiful tune and because it’s slow and spacious, and we haven’t really played it all that many times, it really does feel like a voyage of discovery every time we play it and I think that comes across on the album. I also really like the version we played of my tune ‘Dundas’ – in a different key to the original recording of it and with more of a schottische feel.
You recorded most of the album early in 2020, with hindsight, it was probably one of the last few recorded gigs anywhere just before the full impact of Covid-19 really emerged, how has Covid-19 been for the band?
Yes, it was a very lucky decision to record those gigs. The final gig of that tour was at the start of March at Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and that’s still the last full-length gig I’ve done for a live audience. I remember travelling home the next day with talk of lockdown swirling around and wondering how long it would be before we got to play for an audience again. As a band we’ve been really lucky this year though – we had this album to release to generate some income and we’re really grateful to all the people who ordered it. We were very fortunate to get the opportunity to film the St George’s gig in the summer and again we were overwhelmed by the level of support and the amazing comments we got from it. We’re also really grateful to venues like Kings Place and Halsway Manor who took the plunge and tried to put on Covid-secure gigs and workshops, only for them to end up being cancelled too.
It’s been such a challenging year, and hopefully, things will improve in 2021 what’s Leveret’s plans for next year and beyond?
The big hope for us is the same as every other musician I know – we’re just really hoping we can get back on the road and play for some live audiences soon. We’ve got some gigs booked in for March, venues that are able to make a reduced capacity audience work and some that are offering live streaming alongside a small audience, so we really hope they will be able to happen and that we’ll see something of a return to normality during the year. Looking ahead we’re planning a tour in October, but I see next year as a rebuilding year really – helping venues stay afloat and keeping the music alive are the big hopes for now and we can think about bigger plans down the line!
Thanks to Rob for taking time to have a chat.
Variations Live is exclusively for sale via Leveret’s website: www.leveretband.com
But if you’d prefer a digital copy then visit Leveret’s Bandcamp page at www.leveretband.bandcamp.com/album/variations-live