This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen Magazine #99 (April / May 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Recording Reviews

BeauSoleil
The Best of the Crawfish Years: 1985-1991
Rounder 11661-6099-2 (2001)

Best of the Crawfish Years joins four other CDs in the "Best of BeauSoleil" sweepstakes (Déjà Vu [Swallow (1991)], Bayou Deluxe [Rhino (1993)], Best of BeauSoleil [Arhoolie (1997)], and Looking Back Tomorrow [Rhino (2001)]), and you can't go wrong with any of them. This one focuses on BeauSoleil's years at Rounder, when the band rose to world prominence as the premier Cajun group. Anchored by the fiddle and guitar tandem of brothers Michael and David Doucet, respectively, and featuring either Errol Verret or Jimmy Breaux on accordion, BeauSoleil digs into its rich bag of music filled with the vitality and cultural significance of Louisiana's Cajun folk. Then the group adds a contemporary twist to it all, thus inviting more and more people to be captivated by the spirit and joy of Cajun music. "Maman Rosin Boudreaux," a traditional tune with lyrics by Michael Doucet, presents zydeco, Cajun, and New Orleans second-line all rolled up in a folk-rock framework. A couple of recorded-live romps, the traditional "Cajun Groove (Scott Playboy Special)" and Nathan Abshire's "Pine Grove Blues," are just some of the truly exuberant numbers on this compilation. The Cajun genre is a versatile one, too, with no more evidence needed than its lively application to "Woman or a Man," from the pen of British guitarist Richard Thompson (who guests on this cut), and "Hey Baby, Quoi Ça Dit?" written by Texas Tornado Augie Meyers and given a decidedly Caj-Mex treatment. "Chez Seychelles"sounds like a Renaissance courtly dance meets fiddle, bottleneck guitar, and fiddle, via the bayou. A solid set and a fun listen, highly recommended, especially if you don't have the original Rounder albums from which the selections are taken. - Al Riess (Buffalo, NY)

Bill Jones
Panchpuran
Compass 7 4318 2 (2001)

Don't be confused by the name. Bill is a she, Bill being short for Belinda. Although she won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for "Best New Artist," she came to traditional music very late, having started her musical career as a concert pianist. But when she tours, she plays mostly accordion and whistle rather than piano. Jones has become known for her fresh and original approach to some well-known and frequently covered folk songs. Jones readily admits that she had never heard some of the better-known versions of the songs. A good example is her combination of "The Hexham Lad" (changed from "Lass") and "Blackleg Miner," complete with a brass-band arrangement that owes nothing to the better-known Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span versions of the songs.

Jones and producer Karen Tweed tend toward simple arrangements, with Jones' accordion, piano, and whistle being backed by one or two other instruments, like fiddle, cello, guitar, or percussion. This suits her versions of songs like "Loving Hannah" and Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Goin' Back," which don't seem out of place with the traditional material. On "The Tale of Tam Lin" she uses a string quartet, and on "Willie Taylor" she makes good use of the backing vocals of Coope, Boyes & Simpson. Jones also contributes a couple of original songs, the best being the moving title track, written about her mother and sung unaccompanied.

Comparisons are being made to Kate Rusby, which isn't fair to either singer. Jones is charting her own individual musical vision, one that combines her love of the tradition with her own unique experiences. - Jim Lee (Simi Valley, CA)

Dick Gaughan
Outlaws & Dreamers
Appleseed APR CD 1058 (2001)

For well over 30 years now, Dick Gaughan has been singing all over the world, and his latest recording, Outlaws & Dreamers, is as good a musical statement of who he is and what he does and why as ever could be. The title track is a sort of musical autobiography and manifesto. As the song says, "They said I would change/As I aged and grew old/That the memory would fade/Of the things that I had lived through/That the flash fire of youth/Would slowly turn cold." Happily, they were wrong because Gaughan keeps singing, keeps "Laughing at tyrants/And spitting at despots." He is one of the strong who has faith that singing good songs does change the world. That is why he chooses classics like Phil Ochs' "When I'm Gone," Woody Guthrie's "Tom Joad," and Si Kahn's "What You Do With What You've Got." They are songs that help people accomplish good things in the world, songs that are never afraid of power and never tired of truth. Many singers sing good songs, of course, but few can sing them as well as Gaughan. His absolute technical mastery of the use of the human voice (and God had the good sense to save one of the best voices ever created for this singer to use) comes through most strongly on the a cappella "Dowie Dens o' Yarrow." The simple — yet not simplistic — melody, the spare poetry of the great ballad, and the slight strangeness of the Scots language leave Gaughan's voice standing stark in the air. Every slight rise and fall of voice, tilt of a word, and turn of a note give another wrinkle of meaning to the old song. It is, as he notes, one of the first of the great Scots ballads that he ever learned, and coming back to it for the first time in 30 years, he has finally recorded it. Related to this ballad are a trio of songs that come out of a wonderful partnership with Brian McNeill. On both "The Yew Tree" and "Strong Women Rule Us All" Gaughan gives fine interpretations of McNeill's history-steeped songs, and "John Harrison's Hands," co-written by McNeill and Gaughan, tells the story of the perseverance and dignity of a common man who dared compete against his betters.

The entire recording is aimed at a "live" feel, with just voice and guitar and nothing fancy on most tracks, except for a couple where McNeill adds a bit on fiddle or concertina. A guitar instrumental and the especially lovely guitar work on "Strong Women Rule Us All" add to the fine singing. I will have to concede that Gaughan's rendition of "Tom Joad" struck me as a bit too full of energy the first time through, but it is sounding better with each listen. - Bruce E. Baker (Chapel Hill, NC)