Reviews
Artist:Peter Knight's Gigspanner Album: From Poets To Wives
Label: Talking Elephant
Tracks: 9
Website: https://www.gigspanner.com/
No matter what manifestation Peter Knight's Gigspanner takes, you can always be sure of a quality listen. Knight himself has been something of a folk music fulcrum over the decades, but don't for one minute think that confines his musical direction. Knight is equally at home on the jazz circuit, playing classical or baroque, or being "happy in a band playing the London Irish circuit." In the eight years since he left Steeleye Span, Gigspanner has been Knight's focus, a project that is as flexible as it is democratic but which always delivers the goods.
"From Poets To Wives" is the band's latest output, here comprising a trio with Knight joined by Roger Flack on guitar and Sacha Trochet on drums. The album mixes traditional songs with original material from previous albums in a carefully selected blend that, well…just works!
"She Moved Through the Fair" is the first of the traditional songs, superbly introduced by some virtuoso fiddle playing. It's the story of a woman who leaves her fiancé even though she promised him that "It will not be long, love, till our wedding day." She leaves him during the second verse and never returns" This is one of my personal favourite folk songs of all time, and Gigspanner's version flows beautifully between the song melody and original instrumentation that perfectly captures the mood of the story. I'm not always free with superlatives but this is actually amazing.
The origin of "Bold Riley" is not certain, but the consensus appears to be that the song, often played as a sea shanty, originated in the West Indies. This version remains true to the spirit of the shanty while at the same time introducing a Moorish atmosphere to the instrumentation. That word 'flow' again springs to mind, because the songs swings between a homage to the original and originality.
"The Blackbird", performed live, is underpinned by subtle percussion that seems to drive along Knight's fiddle playing, in a song structure that at times has hints of early Steeleye. None of these songs is s short listen, with most exceeding five minutes but none can be skipped. Here there is a terrific call and response between fiddle and guitar that you would miss if you only listened to the first four minutes. Music like this is meant to be cherished and absorbed.
Flack introduces a second live performance "The Butterfly" with some beautiful, light-touch guitar for Knight's fiddle to then overlay. It's simply a beautiful piece of music, fluttering and settling in equal measure. "Bows of London", AKA "The Twa Sisters" or "The Two Sisters" follows, relating of a rivalry between two sisters that culminates in one pushing the other into a river, there to drown. When the sister's bones are found they are crafted into a fiddle. Gigspanner bring a cinematic quality to the song, which for me initially evoked Thomas Hardy imagery. The treatment of this song is musically mesmerising, never slipping into predictability in a folk song that is well known to many.
Probably dating back to the late seventeenth century, and with mortality being a common theme in songs of the time, "Death and the Lady" tells of a wealthy maiden faced with her own mortality. This rendition is my pick of the tracks on "From Poets To Wives". It is essential listening to anyone whose life and experience of music has revolved around the progressive folk music scene. It matters not one jot that the song is 9 minutes long, it has everything.
"Urban's Reel" for me wraps up in a bow (sorry guys, terrible pun but couldn't resist!) the intuitive talents of these three fine musicians, superb from intro to outro in an exhibition of playing to which most of us can only ever aspire. "Sí Bhiag, Sí Mhór" (translates to big fairy, little fairy) was written for Celtic harp in the eighteenth century by Turlough O'Carolan, and is another tune that has been with me for a lifetime - one of those tunes that seems to embrace everything that is beautiful about Irish music, and here delivered with excellence and care.
Another eighteenth century song, a "Hard Times of Old England", brings to a close this wonderful album. The song will be familiar to Steeleye fans, although it has been around for very much longer than they have! Here it is given a more melancholy, reflective treatment, but please do relish the way in which this track builds. It feels appropriate to conclude this fine work with a song that reflects the current societal mess. Those of us of a certain age have of course been here before, but somehow it has never felt worse. Music carries you through the tough times that life has to throw at us, and reminds us that there will be better days.
"From Poets To Wives" is superb, and you should buy it.
John Reed
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