This week, we return to our Lost in Transmission series for our 79th LIT show, which kicks off with Adam Ross of Randolph’s Leap. Cairngorms is taken from Adam’s solo debut album ‘Staring at Mountains’, due for release on Olive Grove Records in January 2022 – Pre-order it here.
Bassist, composer and arranger, Devin Hoff has been studying the music of Anne Briggs for over a decade, transcribing, practising, arranging and performing songs from her recorded output. This comes to fruition on Voices From the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs), released on 12th November via Kill Rock Stars featuring various guests, including Sharon Van Etten and Emmett Kelly, who feature in the show.
Devin Hoff says, “Voices From the Empty Moor reflects my continued engagement with the musical world opened up to me by the early recordings of Anne Briggs. It is not a folk music record, and makes no claims to any historical or cultural traditions other than those brought by the individual musicians involved. And it is not a tribute to a persona as much as an appreciation of music through music.
The process of making this record was about striving to maintain a sense of self and connection amidst loss and tragedy, such as I and too many others have experienced recently. Elegies performed on the double bass bookend seven necessarily remote collaborations with musicians that I admire and count as friends. Roughly half of the songs are sung by singers, the others are ‘sung’ on the double bass, oud, saxophone, and drum set.”
From albums we have recently reviewed, we have Josienne Clarke and Mr Alec Bowman_Clarke.
This will stand the test of time because it is an album that the artist had to make. These songs are so direct, showing an immediacy born of frustration and inspiration. Unshackled creative freedom screams out of every song, which just so happens to be ripe with raw artistic expression combined with music of surefire melodic and dramatic purpose. Where she goes from here should be fascinating. Danny Neill on Josienne Clarke’s ‘A Small Unknowable Thing’
Finding ways to record feelings many would have rather keep hidden during a time when the stress of the mundane has had us grasping for straws to keep us sane, Bowman_Clarke exposes the inner voices, thoughts and terrors of his own human frailty. Bob Fish on Mr Alec Bowman_Clarke’s ‘A Place Like Home’.
Bird Queen Of Garbage Island is the new single from Canada’s garage-folk oddballs, The Burning Hell. They are on tour in the UK now (read more).
Jamie Doe, aka The Magic Lantern, has just released his new album, A Reckoning Bell, from which we take Bound for Glory.
It is, at its heart, one of the most human and humane albums recorded, and Doe recounts some of the most heartbreaking and inspiring moments of life as he watches his father going through the steady decline of Alzheimer’s Disease. Bob Fish on A Reckoning Bell.
Freedom To Roam are this month’s Artist of the Month, the brainchild of Eliza Marshall, which we recently reviewed here.
The Rhythms of Migration is an outstanding album. If academics, or others, wished to exemplify the power and ability of music to touch and affect the range of human emotions, then they need look no further than this release.
A drink from this global watering hole will leave you enriched, enlightened and, hopefully, a more altruistic, compassionate being. David Pratt.
From Jon Boden‘s latest album, Last Mile Home (reviewed here), is the beautiful Old Straight Track. Be sure to check out the Hudson Records Club, where you can watch Jon performing the album live at The Factory with the Remnant Strings – https://hudsonrecords.co.uk/club/about-hudson-club. The Hudson Records Club is home to a growing library of new and exclusive music, articles, podcasts, conversation and much more from your favourite Hudson artists.
Travelling for a Living is taken from Henry Parker‘s Lammas Fair, an album full of old wisdom and new beginnings, deeply rooted in the wild landscape of northern England but ultimately outward-looking and welcoming. Read our review here.
White Heron is from North Carolina-based folk trio Mountain Man, featuring Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Amelia Randall Meath, and Molly Erin Sarlé, it’s taken from their 2010 Made the Harbor, which is getting a deluxe reissue.
From Jacken Elswyth‘s new album ‘Banjo With The Sound Of Its Own Making’, we have Cumberland Gap. You can order that on Bandcamp here – “This tape is the result of an on-off project of the last year and a half, begun as I started to build my first mountain banjo at the end of 2019 and continued through lockdowns in 2020 / early 2021.”
Those of you that recall our 24-hour radio stream may recall the weekly show: Simple Folk Radio. From that show, we’ve included a special session that James Yorkston recorded for the show in 2012. James has a run of shows coming up:
Thurs 18th November – Stockholm, Pygméteatern Tickets
Mon 6th Dec – Glasgow, Òran Mór – Tickets
Tues 7th Dec – Edinburgh, Summerhall – Tickets
Fri 10th Dec – Newcastle, Gosforth Civic Theatre – Tickets
Sat 11th Dec – Winchester, Railway Inn – Tickets
Sun 12th Dec – London, Moth Club – Tickets
Mon 13th Dec – Manchester, Gullivers – Tickets
Tues 14th Dec – Birmingham, Kitchen Garden Café – Tickets
Wed 15th Dec – Hull, Wrecking Ball Arts Centre – Tickets
We end on a track from an album of extreme fiddle experiments titled unrecalled by Eoghan Neff – a dialogue about our relationship with memory and features guest performances by a selection of fellow radical sonic experimenters from Iceland, Spain and Ireland. Available on Bandcamp here.
Music Played
Adam Ross – Cairngorms
Devin Hoff Featuring Sharon Van Etten – Go Your Way
Pentangle – Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat
Josienne Clarke – Super Recogniser
The Burning Hell – Bird Queen Of Garbage Island
The Magic Lantern – Bound for Glory
Mr Alec Bowman_Clarke – Deleted Scene
Tunng – Woodcat
Devin Hoff featuring Emmett Kelly – Black Waterside
Freedom To Roam – Leaving My Homeland
Jon Boden – Old Straight Track
Henry Parker – Travelling for a Living
Mountain Man – White Heron
Jacken Elswyth – Cumberland Gap
James Yorkston – Simple Folk Radio Session (2012)
Eoghan Neff – arú
Photo Credit: Nathan Anderson