This year’s ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day’, on September 19th, was naturally a muted affair in the UK given that it clashed with a “certain” funeral. Rest assured, however, that normal service of this particular maritime nature has been resumed thanks to those buccaneering beauties Blackbeard’s Tea Party with their latest release, Kick The Curb, a welcome breath of fresh air for those who like their traditional songs and tunes given a bombastic, rocky edge.
Although we were treated to the splendid Leviathan EP in 2018, a 19th Century whaling-themed album which saw the introduction of a double drum set-up, their last full-length album, Reprobates, was released way back in 2016, and much water has flowed under the good ship BTP since then.
Unashamedly, in their own words, “making sea shanties cool since 2009”, with celebrated live performances at the likes of Cambridge Folk Festival, Cropredy, Glastonbury, Folk East and the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching at the wonderful Kampung Budaya Sarawak, in 2020, just as the coronavirus outbreak hit, original members Martin Coumbe and Tim Yates decided to move on to trawl new waters. Rather than remain in the doldrums, however, this proved to be a catalyst for the remaining members to regroup, “this perfect storm was a lightning-bolt of new energy, ideas and enthusiasm.”
Two new musicians came on board and, working in isolation over Zoom calls, the album was virtually written before face-to-face rehearsals and meetings could take place.
Featuring original compositions alongside their own, often frenetic, interpretations of traditional songs, tunes and shanties, a word of warning for those whose experience of shanties is restricted to the 2021 TikTok Wellerman phenomenon. Much like Gogol Bordello’s take on traditional Romani music, Blackbeard’s Tea Party deliver with a full-on, blistering anarchic power. The playlist put up by the group giving groups influencing this album includes Suzi Quatro, ZZ Top, David Bowie and Los Van Van, giving some indication of the music which informed the sound and energy of this new release.
Intentions are clear from the off with the opening track, Waves, an arrangement of a tune from Lau’s Aidan O’Rourke, which is given a high-octane, adrenaline-creating makeover which is likely to leave the listener breathless. There’s no letting up with Roll and Go, the group’s version of the traditional 18th-century sea-shanty Randy Dandy Oh, which enabled sailors to mock the naval officers without fear of punishment. A rollicking track, taken as a single from the album, the official video can be seen below.
The arrangement of Jim Jones, the traditional Australian folk ballad ‘Jim Jones at Botany Bay’, the transportation song in which a convict plots revenge against his captors, has proven to be a crowd favourite, and the wild energy of the live performance is well replicated in this recording.
The instrumental tracks offered, The Broken Fence, comprising two reels, The Broken Fence, written by group member Laura Barber, and the traditional tune Julia Delaney’s, together with The Third Wheel, a couple of stomping jigs and title track, the prog-like Kick the Curb, will all give an irresistible urge to move the body, whilst at the same time illustrate the high quality of musicianship existing in the band.
The high tempo is tempered with Huldra, a sympathetic, rather eerie reading of the Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman song about a seductive forest spirit from Norse mythology. This is a temporary respite, however. A second sea shanty, although possibly unlike any shanty you have heard of before (notwithstanding Roll and Go), John’s Gone to Hilo, originating from the sailors of the nitrate trade off the Pacific coast of South America in the 19th century, here is delivered more as a drinking song than a lament.
Drinking also features heavily both in The Old Dun Cow, a humorous classic music hall song given classic folk-rock treatment here, as the story of a pub catching fire, with pub regulars determined to stay on the premises to drink the pub dry rather than escape the flames, is told over fulgent riffs and guitar solo, and is also referenced in In the Bullingdon Club, a song written by Stuart Giddens about the party lifestyles of Prime Ministers in waiting.
Addiction of a different kind is featured in the group’s emotional interpretation of Deeper Well, a country song written by David Olney, which featured on Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball album, which here showcase Stuart’s vocals.
The album closes with another song of a social/political nature, Coats Off for Britain, a Leon Rosselson song from his 1975 That’s Not The Way It’s Got To Be release. A lampoon of government posturing, with the sloganising initiative of the song’s title, it seems as relevant today as it was then.
Few things in life are a given, but relying upon Blackbeard’s Tea Party to deliver raucous, dynamic, high-quality music that exudes fun is one of them.
Batten down the hatches, Kick The Curb is set to make waves.
Order Kick the Curb via Bandcamp: https://blackbeardsteaparty.bandcamp.com/album/kick-the-curb-2
Blackbeard’s Tea Part are on tour this month. Details here: https://www.blackbeardsteaparty.com/gigs/