CD Bellow van Boden & Spiers:
Juichende Britse kritieken
Het duo John Spiers & Jon Boden was voor ons twee maanden geleden een van de toppers van het festival Trad.It! in de Groningen. Nu is er de cd Bellow van deze twee jeugdige Engelsen (Fellside FECD175). De Engelse pers toont zich laaiend enthousiast. Wij waren van de live-prestatie ook al onder de indruk. We schreven in april ondermeer:
…Spiers (26) is een begenadigd accordeonist zich in dienst stelt van violist/zanger/voetstamper Jon Boden (24). (...) Hij heeft een krachtige zangstem. Hij gaat met zowel gevoel als drive te werk. Het duo brengt werk van folkies van de eerste generatie zoals Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick en Peter Bellamy, of put uit de bibliotheek. Zo horen we nummers uit het 17de eeuwse boek The Englisch Dancing Master, maar ook countrydancetunes en morrisdansjes die ze in hun eigen geboorteplaats Oxford hebben opgepikt.
Boden zingt traditionele ballades als The Rambling Saylor of het fraai gearrangeerde The Banks of Green Willow. We zullen nog veel van hun horen….
En zo is dat. De eminence grise van de Engelse folkpers, Colin Irwin: …Like Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby and the other young guns, they are simply giving folk song the essential ingredient it has lacked for so long - the vitality of youth and originality of thought. They are but the latest in a long and noble tradition and their material is scarcely radical or trailblazing... not with The Outlandish Knight, Copshawholme Fair, Courting Too Slow, Prickle Eye Bush and a couple of famous Cotswold morris tunes on board. But while there is no shortage of youthful brilliance around, others often go short on the ideas, while S&B score and score and score again with force of personality and arrangements that frequently pin you against the wall. The rampaging Spiers melodeon in particular is a brilliant foil to Boden's unorthodox vocals and vigorous fiddle playing...
…They are uncompromisingly committed to an English traditional style with all the usual reference points. Yet their music is also firmly of today and I'd happily play this to people who would normally pull out their own toenails rather than listen to folk song... and I'd lay money that they'll like it. The best duo since the Dransfields? Very possibly. And certainly the tallest….
En uit een een interview door Ian Anderson in fRoots: …The thing that really separates Spiers and Boden from many other recent young folk players to emerge is that they definitely aren't shoe-gazers. It's all very in-your-face. As Martin Carthy pointed out when presenting the duo with their Horizon Award, they have that element of danger which is so often missing these days. "I'm a big believer in the dramatic value of missing notes," says Boden, deflating the compliment. "You know, pitching everything a bit too high just so the audience are always like - and I'm always like - 'am I going to get this note,' and fairly often I don't, but it's a form of entertainment in a twisted sort of way."…