Martin Carthy: Signs of Life (Topic Records)
Like his wife Norma Waterson on her recent album, this great arch-folkie of the English school covers some big songs here: making great open-heart work of New York Mine Disaster, 1941 (by the Bee Gees!) and a majestic Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Bob Dylan). However, Hoagy Carmichael's Hong Kong Blues cannot be Anglicised and Heartbreak Hotel is, frankly, a mistake. Elsewhere, Carthy is unquestionable: traditional material like the meandering minstrelsy of Georgie, or the cautionary rollick of Sir Patrick Spens, backed by his daughter Eliza's dark, drugged, dirge-y fiddle. And rather than any national anthem, I'll stand for James Flynn's John Parfit, about the poacher shot dead with impunity by the Duke of Norfolk's gamekeeper in 1978. It should be sung from every rooftop in Christendom.
By Mic Moroney
Cherish the Ladies: (BMG/RCA Victor)
These talented Stateside lassies certainly aren't letting the grass grow under their feet: Siobhan Egan's bright, heady fiddle, Joanie Madden's whistle/flutes, Mary Rafferty's accordion (making a nice job of Paddy O'Brien's Harvest Moon), Donna Long's nimble piano and Mary Coogan's melodic banjos and strings. The harmonies are keen over Aoife Clancy's love-laments, although the MOR approach (apart from a spirited Is Fada Liom Uaimi) to these, and Madden's James Galway-ish Waves of Kilkee, is unconvincing. Recorded here and in Connecticut, with input from former member Eileen Ivors, Liam Clancy and various fathers and uncles, there's powerful skite in the dance sets, and the diddle of Paddy Rafferty's gob-music will drag you out of your chair and into the ceilihouse madness.
By Mic Moroney
