| CD REVIEW |
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| Despite this Canadian folk troupe's glowing press release from Borealis Records, I didn't hear a lot to get personally excited about, but that could just be a gender issue. At least half of the 14 songs are overly-long, verse-heavy, sometimes awkwardly phrased and centered around tales of disaster (life-sucking coal mines, sunken ships, landslides, boating accidents and droughts). To be fair, the lyrics, composed and vocalized variously by all members of the band, are imaginative, well-composed (and rhymed) but, in some cases, the musical scoring weighs them down rather than enhancing them..
I did like the humorous opening track ("Backyard Sailor"), the foot-stomping fiddle of "Feu Follet", a song inspired by an Acadian legend that tells of the souls of gold-greedy bodies transforming into balls of fire, and the title track, sung and composed by Alan Parrish as a posthumous tribute to Sir John A. MacDonald's second wife. It is quite lively and amusing. Another song which appealed to me was "Radioman". Even if it could be considered "corny" by some, the Canadian references to Don Messer and the Maple Leafs, coupled with the temporary "interference" by American culture on Tom's daughters, it's quite enjoyable and could compete well with Stompin' Tom's "Hockey Song" as a classic Canadian anthem. There's some beautiful instrumentation, especially Rob Ritchie's piano work on his own composition, "The Garden" and the ensuing track, "Crashin' Down", by Joe Grant and Elizabeth Szekeres. That's not to say the other players are any less talented. There's a particularly wonderful instrumental collaboration on the water-witch's tale, "Willow Dan", co-composed by Joe Grant and Terry Young. The strength of this line-up - original founder Joe Grant on fiddle and guitar, Al Parrish on Bartlett bass, Rob Ritchie on piano and accordion, Steve Ritchie (the co-producer, along with Paul Mills) on guitar, whistle, needles(?) and boots(!), and Terry Young on mandolin, guitar, banjos and harmonicas - lies in their lyrical poetry and dazzling harmonies, as witnessed in the a cappella incantation of "Summer Ghosts" - "Our heads were full of pirate stuff, But a sunken boat was treasure enough, To make our summer rich with the dreams, Fiendish plots and deadly schemes" � powerful words recalling many a young boy's fantasies, I'm sure! I did find a concert-goer's description of the band as "Stan Rogers meets Van Halen" to be a big stretch, though. |
| AGNES ON THE COWCATCHER - TANGLEFOOT |
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