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$13.99 CD
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ALASDAIR ROBERTS
Too Long in This Condition
(Drag City)
 "Young Emily"
"What Put the Blood on Your Right Shoulder, Son?"
For decades, singers who trafficked in traditional material were often students of that material, too. Their records were filled with citations of ballad texts (Child, Roud, Laws); they noted the archival accession numbers of the tape or disc from which their source was drawn; they listed related song variants that might interest similarly minded singer-scholars. This approach persists in the old-time and trad crowds, but it hasn't much crossed over into the world of indie folk, in which source material often goes uncited, and performances can be syntheses of a handful of disparate versions (not that there's anything particularly wrong with the latter, of course -- in fact some might argue it's the modern folk process). It's not so with Scotland's Alasdair Roberts, though. He's not only one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation, but an arranger of traditional material with uncommon intelligence, sensitivity, and grace.
On Too Long in This Condition, Roberts tackles ten ballads -- some familiar, some less so -- drawn primarily from Lowland Scots and Irish vernacular traditions, but also from Newfoundland and North Carolina. He names his sources, cites Child and Roud, lists variants stored in the School of Scottish Studies' sound archive; he even generously reveals his guitar tunings, some of which are real head-scratchers. The difference, however, between this record and those of so many of yesteryear's dedicated traditionalists is that Too Long in This Condition is immensely listenable, engaging, and exciting. Ballads that some (including this listener) might argue would be well-served by open-ended moratoria on further interpretation -- "Barbara Allen" and "The Daemon Lover" (a/k/a the "The House Carpenter") -- are performed with such creative affection that they seem, if not brand new, almost wholly reenergized.
Roberts' inhabits every verse he sings (and he's always singing), with that slightly unhinged keen of his -- never reciting, never reading. His take on "The Two Sisters," the hoary fratricide ballad of over 350 years vintage, is imbued with genuine suspense, assisted, surprisingly, by a sprightly major melody and an irresistible hook. The "Friends" to whom the record is half credited is a rag-tag bunch bearing Uillean pipes, concertina, and glockenspiel, as well as more, er, "traditional" folk-rock instruments, and despite their numbers they always help and never hinder Roberts as he sucks the marrow from these songs. Too Long in This Condition is a triumph, and comes most highly recommended to fans of trad-minded folk-rock, as well as to doubters who believe that such experimentations are a day late, a dollar short, and doomed to fail. [NS]
Order CD by Texting "omcdalasdairtoo" to 767825
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