Feast of Fiddles, Still Live (self-released, 2007)
Phil Beer (violin)... Joe Broughton (violin)... Hugh Crabtree (melodeon and vocals)... Ian Cutler (bridge aquila and 8ve violins)... Dave Harding (electric bass)... Peter Knight (violin and bridge 8ve)... Tom Leary (violin)... Chris Leslie (violin)... Dave Mattacks (drums)... Brian McNeill (violin, bridge 8ve and bouzouki)... John Underwood (electric guitar)... Martin Vincent (electric guitar)...
Oh, my! Yes, that's who's in the Feast of Fiddles for the current tour. If you're not awed by that roll call, you're definitely not someone who should bother reading further in this review -- you'll find it to be very irritating, because this is not your sort of music at all. Still here? Good. You are in for a treat when you get to hear the entire recording, which is on my list of best recordings of 2007. As the founder of the band, Englishman Hugh Crabtree, says on their Web site, the band 'consists of seven of the best fiddle players in the country playing with a rock based backing band.' Unlike the entirely drumless American band Crooked Still's Shaken by a Low Sound recording which I just finished writing up the review of, Still Live is definitely FHL (faster harder louder), as the drums here are very much present.
Stephen Hunt in reviewing their Live '01 recording said 'Feast of Fiddles began life as an idea for a one-off show, cooked up between melodeon player Hugh Crabtree and folk club impresario Mike Sanderson in 1993. The idea was simply to invite some of the UK's best known fiddle players to perform with Hugh's electric barn dance band, Whittaker's Patent Remedy, and see what transpired. Having duly assembled for the 'one-off' show in 1994, the musicians decided to make it an annual event, and are set to embark on a six-date tour in March 2003.' So now they have tours fairly often and release CDs which are sold only at the performances. No, we didn't attend one of the performances to get a copy -- Hugh kindly sent us one to review. Thanks Hugh!
You prolly know that I love mass fiddle orchestras, with my gold standard for them being Portland Megaband's Live recording. As Tim Hoke noted in reviewing them, they are 'infectiously merry'. (Though still out for review as I write this up, the live recording by Blazin' Fiddles is also damn fine. So fine that I snapped up the second copy which was sent!) Feast of Fiddles I think suffers just a bit from the Steeleye Span style drumming -- I like my mass fiddle orchestra sans drumming -- but it works well enough that I like it quite a bit.
Everything's really good here but I'd single out 'Trumpet Hornpipe/Keel Row/In Paddy McGinty's Navy/Greensleeves' set, because it has a silly riff taken from The Village Peoples' 'In The Navy' in it! Really. Truly. Likewise the set of 'Farewell To Tarwathie/Bill Malley's Schottische/Kitchen Gir' is very pleasing, as is 'Sharpe Goes Walkabout'. Lars Nilsson in reviewing Peter Knight's Too Late For Shadows says of that piece that it 'must be a tribute to Cecil Sharp, one of the big collectors of traditional song and music. It starts with a basic drone groove on bass and percussion with some rhythmic fiddle sounds added. It is an overlong intro, stretching out over two minutes. When you are just giving up hope of a tune appearing it arrives. It is a simple tune, more like an exercise on scales than a proper tune. The rest of the eight minutes shows a pattern of the tune being mixed with non melodic interludes of varying length.'
Hugh Crabtree plus an acoustic band finishes off the recording with the wonderful tradition song 'We May or Might Never All Meet Here Again'. Of the three Feast of Fiddles recordings, I can't say I have one I like more than the other two -- all three are wonderful!
