A new review of Blude Divide from David Kidman: William Pint & Felicia Dale - Blue Divide (Waterbug) Pint and Dale continue their voyage around the world of nautical-themed music with another enterprising selection of traditional and non-traditional shanties and songs of the sea. This time round, the big difference is that they’ve brought on board Patrick Strole as producer, who’s helped bring to reality the "big sound" the duo often hear in their heads when playing their songs. This has entailed adding extra musicians to the already piquant and ably textured trademark Pint & Dale mix of guitar, octave mandolin, whistle, fiddle and hurdy gurdy, in the form of a rock rhythm section (Dan Mohler on bass, T. J. Morris on drums) with Patrick playing some tasteful electric guitar and Jay Kenny on keyboards (and guest appearances from Tania Opland on fiddle and Sue Tinney on vocal harmonies). The effect is now of a sturdy, forthright, vigorous, full-on reinvention of the music and myth of the seven seas. Rocked-up shanties are nothing new of course; Chris Ricketts is the most recent convert to that cause, and by now we’re all used to partying the night away with Bellowhead, but Pint & Dale also give us maritime music with attitude, for their vision of maritime music is tremendously exciting and superbly energetic, and every bit as satisfying and stimulating. And with that extra dimension of brilliant musicianship, the couple are onto a real winner here. The disc sets out with a quintessential shanty (Whiskey Is The Life Of Man, which also crops up in the Bellowhead repertoire), and along the way makes a strong fist of other shanties including Windy Weather and Lowlands (although the titles themselves are deceptive - the former being better known as Haul Away Boys, Haul Away, for instance); the latter even gets embroiled in a traditional fiddle reel for a lusty dance around the rigging! A brief faux-scratchy snatch of Rolling Down The Bay To Julianna seems mildly redundant, however, even in context. The remainder of the disc is devoted to imaginative treatments of non-shanty items: Brian Bedford’s panoramic High Ground tellingly evokes images of seaside communities devastated by the climate, while Janie Meneely’s ghost-ship scenario The Brigantine is memorably conveyed here by Pint & Dale and their doughty crew. Peter Bellamy’s Kipling setting The Anchor Song really rocks, with some stunning hurdy-gurdery by Felicia; that track has its scene set rather potently by William’s spoken rendition of John Masefield’s chilling poem Mother Carey (given a thoughtful and not overdone background of engineering effects by Jay). Elsewhere, the duo lead us on a lively jig-style romp through Cicely Fox Smith’s Shanghai Passage, which is all very well, and good fun to boot, but for me it rather sidesteps the savagery and power of the poem. Still, I wouldn’t consider it a blot on the seascape in any serious way, it just makes another invigorating port of call on the incident-packed voyage. Sign up now - don’t wait to be press-ganged! pintndale David Kidman August 2013
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 21:11:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015