Reviews
Artist:Alison de Groot and Tatiana Hragreaves Album: Hurricane Clarice
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 9
Website: https://allisonandtatiana.bandcamp.com/
In this record, Alison de Groot (banjo) and Tatiana Hargreaves (fiddle) seek to discover new meaning in a world order of hurricanes and heatwaves by seeking meaning from the past in the music of their own maternal grandmothers in an album of largely instrumental music.
Both musicians have the highest possible pedigree and have won awards such as' best bluegrass album' form the independent music awards and have performed at high profile festivals in both the USA and Europe.
The project involved both musicians delving into archives of field recordings made by both of their grandmother's and fragments of their wisdom are used as introductory fragments. The performances are live and the fiddle playing and banjo playing are of the very highest technical order. You can sense that the producer Phil Cook has managed to get the very best performances from both musicians over four days of intense recording where they played through the whole set each day. To add to the authenticity, sound engineer Adam McDaniel is from Sun Studios and he clearly knows how to record the acoustic performances with high clarity and precision. Furthermore the understanding between the two musicians is almost telepathic and is authentic bluegrass music of the very highest order.
The songs have very eccentric titles such as 'Dead and Gone (Hen Cackle) and the musicians conjure up the textures of the old-time, Appalachian approaches expertly. Though, I think that neither Alsion or Tatiana would class themselves as vocalists their attempts 'On The Banks of the Miriamichi' and 'Hen Cackle' are very entertaining. On 'Ostrichs with Pearls', a story is recanted about how one of their fathers fashioned a house into a huge bird cage and the eccentric playing does magic up the images of a caged-ostrich! I was transported to a front porch in the mountains on the last track 'road that's walked with fools' as they both sing very sweetly about whiskey and lost highways.
The challenge with music of this nature is to record it live and capture the raw energy of a live performance whilst ensuring that the technical qualities of the musicians are recorded accurately and cleanly, I would recommend this album to anyone interested in this genre of music. It is evident that the creative process has enabled both musicians to record a high-octane performance that captures the rare lightning of the duo's live performances.
Mike Davies
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Fatea Showcase Sessions
The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
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