Review: The Bad Shepherds - By Hook or By Crook

Second time around, Ade Edmondson and his fellow herdsmen are just as sure and fleet of foot as before, exuding a quiet confidence and sophistication as they reconstruct another set of punk and new wave classics interwoven with traditional tunes. As has been noted, the presence of Troy Donockley and Andy Dinan is pivotal and demands the band serious attention - but Edmondson is no mere flashy figurehead, adding able mandolin as well as measured vocals. The Bad Shepherds are not interested in parody, nor an aging actor's vanity project - he again delivers a thought-provoking, not provocative, performance throughout.

By Hook or By Crook starts in much the same vane as Yan, Tyan, Tethera Methera! with a lone, low, buzzing note heralding an oblique approach to choice slices of rock rebellion and social commentary. Among the finest moments from the first album were those that brought out aching, heart-melting pathos - like a harrowing Down in the Tube Station at Midnight or the quiet nostalgia of Squeeze's Up the Junction - but they were complemented by the apocalyptic London Calling, sardonically rebellious God Save the Queen and joyous escapades like Teenage Kicks morphing into Whiskey in the Jar. Here, the Sound of the Suburbs is pared back to its central parochial poignancy, with lovely vulnerable fades; Anarchy in the UK is melancholy, a post-traumatic pipe mewling desolately over building urgency and all the more threatening for Edmondson's portrayal of mellow, checked psychosis. Others, however, just sound emasculated, like a tenderly plodding cover of Ever Fallen in Love. A similar impression is attained with Motorhead's Ace of Spades, which, shorn of a brash, bragging attitude, exposes the hollowness of swagger. It isn't fatalistic or urgent enough though, so the lyrics become rambling; their wistful take on Buzzcocks' best known hit loses the raw passive-aggression, impulsiveness and epiphany. Then again, whether teenage edge would seem convincing from a fifty-something ex-Young One is debatable, so perhaps the wisest course was chosen.

The splendid stand-out is White Riot, displaying zeal, flair and delicious instrumentation that really lifts the tempo. Our familiarity with the much covered track listing adds to the anticipation and indeed delight but is impressively little encumbrance, particularly skillful where other reinterpretations vie to be most inventive. In particular, several of the Bad Shepherds' selections have been previously restyled (and splendidly so) by Nouvelle Vague - but these incarnations are sufficiently dissimilar to avoid distraction or detraction. Resisting a hell-for-leather approach ensures Edmondson, Donockley and Dinan cannot be pigeonholed as a frivolous novelty folk trio (succeeding in showing sophistication beyond, for example, the Hayseed Dixie approach) and if, settled in style, they fall into their own novel niche, it matters not. The album is a great listen and improving with every airing.

Review: 3 Daft Monkeys - The Antiquated & The Arcane

Proudly independent, sporting a mean fiddler and exuding world influences inflected with glee, 3 Daft Monkeys are an attractive proposition. Likewise, new album The Antiquated & The Arcane, title inspired by a Cornish historical society, offers appetising fare, a medley of the raw and the ornate, the pacy and the idling, the obvious and the obscure.

Yet despite insistent, infectious vivacity from the title track that opens the album to the swelling closing chorus of platitudinous swan song Love Life, it is enjoyable without being instantly enchanting. Perhaps because of the showiness and self-referencing, their insistence sometimes seems insincere but this would be an unfair impression. Nevertheless, like a bumptious buffet host whose tries at conviviality become trying, 3DM offer a feast but fail to nourish. What's particularly peculiar about this is that they serve up proper nosh, not hauteur haute cuisine.

Under One Sun is a great folk-pop song, full of stabs and swells and la-las. Doors of Perception takes on a medieval minstrel mood between drowsy, lilting choruses and Love (sic) Fool is a fun percussive binge, replete with dub beat, a xylophone line and echoey, explosive bangs. What should sound messy produces a melting pot as endearing as it can be clamorous, divergence typified by the polished She Said that treads a tightrope between zeal and superficiality, too repetitive to build true atmospheric tension. It is the subtler touches, like the deadened, melancholy piano coda concluding Days of the Dance that provide the real depth.

The album is swept along by the trio's evident musicality, mastery of the catchy chorus and flaunting of joyous flourishes. Although 3 Daft Monkeys don't do the carnival underworld theatrics as well as Bellowhead, for example, their combination of mythologised autobiography, pervasively entertaining arrangements and gleeful playing pulls off songs like Civilised Debauchery and Perfect Stranger with dash and deftness. The Antiquated & The Arcane is delightfully played, well-produced and cleverly varnished but though buffed and boisterous, needs bolstering by something stouter. The inclusion of a couple of traditional folk tales would add another dimension to the thrust.

Gig Review: Show of Hands - Spires & Beams Tour, Oxford 12/11/2010

Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have amassed quite a catalogue of signature songs among their considerable canon after almost twenty years together as Show of Hands. Greeting the audience for the penultimate gig of their second 'Spires & Beams' tour around English churches and cathedrals, Knightley explained that lightweight numbers had been edited from the set list in favour of the more thoughtful. Ably assisted by Miranda Sykes, the duo duly delivered slower, contemplative pieces such as Sydney Carter song The Crow on the Cradle and the moving Santiago, interspersed with genial patter and the occasional singalong. In fact, there was some conservatism in the selections - ducking Evolution was understandable but a lost opportunity for a little harmless subversiveness. During the acerbic Arrogance Ignorance and Greed, Knightley altered a lyric: 'Dear God I hope you choke', presumably deemed an unbecoming wish in His house, became 'So friend...'. Atmospherically, however, the ecclesiastical setting seemed something of a red herring. St Aldates has a very modern feel (it was remodeled in the 1990s) and is not much bigger than your average school hall; the acoustics were excellent but not remarkable and it was quite possible to forget where you were.

One-time Wintersetter and now BBC Folk Award-winning solo artist Jackie Oates opened proceedings with an eclectic assortment of material including a tune composed at Wigan Parish Church a week before. Billed as a special guest, she seemed to enjoy the freedom to experiment afforded by a solo support slot, playing kantele and shruti and shunning some of the songs with which she is most associated. Oates plays and sings with a delicacy that offsets a fascination with blackness and bleakness exemplified by Past Caring, introduced as 'the most miserable song in the world', where the desolation was most human and raw. Mournfulness morphed to menace elsewhere and the set twisted to a sinister finish in the obsessional form of reworked nursery rhyme Lavenders Blue. It was a subtly clever but slightly underwhelming end to a splendid set that showcased Oates' obvious eminence on fiddle and vocals, most enjoyably on an accomplished rendition of Fourpence a Day.

After an interval Steve Knightley heralded the main event with The Preacher, performed from the floor and embellished by the distant echoing of a tolling bell, a masterful touch in an instantly captivating rendition. Phil Beer followed with the equally powerful and lonesome The Blind Fiddler, both adept adverts for respective solo tours scheduled for February. The duo have been accompanied by Sykes on bass and backing vocals since 2004 and the familiarity showed as they broke straight into the main set with accomplished ease and expertise.

Show of Hands are holistic showmen and made great use of the space in marrying grandness with intimacy. Simple lighting added to their stagecraft, with darkness drowning whispered outro to The Dive and the platform flushing red for the bass and bale of Innocents' Song. Beer's foreboding depiction of Herod 'walking out of the Christmas flame' followed a duet between Knightley and a returning Jackie Oates, on The Keys of Canterbury. Her vocals adorn the album version, sung as a straighter duet but here it was an ethereal call-and-response courtship, Knightley singing unaccompanied at the front with Oates, fiddle in hand, treading the aisle towards him, all silhouetted before a deep blue uplit arch. If this was the finest moment of the evening (and it certainly achieved the largest applause, save for a prolonged and slightly awkward semi-standing ovation before the encore) - it would be unfair on the faultless Beer and Sykes - but nothing else was quite as hypnotic.

Importantly, the evening was split between the spiritual and temporal, Knightley musing on the Chilean miners' rescue adding new poignancy to Santiago and The Dive and adding a line about the coming cuts and redundancies to AIG. Their unlikely cover of Don Henley's Boys of Summer, suiting an out-of-season autumnal malaise, was also special and highlighted their effortless musicianship. Given only two tracks were taken from the last album, it was a shame that staple favourites Roots and Country Life were both omitted (even from the encore) but that back catalogue offers such fine pickings it was terrific to hear something different.

Set Lists

Jackie Oates
Brigg Fair
Smugglers Bay
Goodbye To Beesands and To Magic / Wigan Parish Church / Tansys Golowan
Fourpence a Day
[Icelandic Sea Hymn]
Past Caring
Lavenders Blue

Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes
The Preacher [Steve Knightley]
The Blind Fiddler [Phil Beer]
The Train / Blackwaterside
The Crow on the Cradle
Cousin Jack
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed
The Dive
The Blue Cockade
Keys of Canterbury [Steve Knightley and Jackie Oates]
Innocents' Song [Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes]
Boys of Summer
Now You Know
Santiago
Encore: Pleasant and Delightful (The larks they sang melodious)