RadZ 2024
Greetings From Grolloo
Insolent sentries of Albion tradition send their tunes up to descend on Dutch countryside with a lot of style.
It must have been a daunting perspective for this ensemble to embark on the Grolloo Festival stage in March 2003 and perform following up a couple of sets from esteemed Fairporters – but then, given the English collective had graced the boards of Cropredy back in 2000 when they were only starting and recorded their first album up there, it could also feel like a family affair. And thus, three years further on down the road and with two studio opuses in the can, the five Brits demonstrated even less reservations – or reserve, for that matter – bringing their faux folk to any audience, and here’s a brilliant document of the band’s abilities to entertain the crowd almost without rock sediments in the songs on offer.
Yes, an occasional electric riff, courtesy of PJ Wright, may make its way into a piece, most notably to spice up the arrangements of “Räbjerg Mile” where the group get heavy and “Le Boeuf Anglais” where the slider’s involved as well, and to enhance “I Was A Young Man” with a few popular quotes. Only cuts like opener “The Way Things Ought To Be” succeed in rising communal spirits strictly on acoustic terms, as Guy Fletcher’s fiddle and Gareth Turner’s melodeon work towards inducing desire to dance with rare elegance, abetted by Mat Davies’ bass and Edd Frost’s drums. This is why the punters don’t have to fully understand social details of such reels as “Chasing The Jack” or “40 Years On” to be moved, and instrumental swirl of “Jake’s Jig” intensifies the knees-up, while the pop slant of “The Witherstone” crosses all the culture-related frontiers anyway. And if the players’ hilarious between-numbers banter wasn’t enough to endear them to the spectator’s heart, the flow of a tune and the blend of Fletcher and Wright’s voices render the balladry of “Widdecombe Fair” and “The Moon At My Window” almost sublime,
Never losing their focus in “Whisper Of The Moon” and the medley “Maybe/Joust/Rocky Road” – the two mini-epics appearing at the concert’s close – the quintet tighten their grip on the listeners and turn it into a warm hug. No mean feat, this, and having it preserved is a souvenir to cherish for a long time.
*****
