Bateleurs
Album: A Travelling Band
Label: Homeground
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.bateleurs.co.uk/

Folk rock is naturally on the rise, with many folk artists choosing to merge their traditional styles into a more 'modern' style of musical playing. For Wiltshire based band, Bateleurs, this is done exactly how people want, giving a good combination of 'roots' and 'new' so not to alienate folkies but still accessible to new audiences.

This is the kind of music I would image works best live. The album itself is very good, but I think live would be even better, developing an atmosphere that would absorb everyone and keep everyone entertained.

The music combination is pretty straight forward: guitars, fiddle and percussion. This is by no means a bad thing, it keeps the general arrangement simpler and allows the Bateleurs to focus intently on the quality of their sound rather than trying merge lots of obscure instruments together.

Some of the tracks have a very American country sound to them, such as 'Morganstown', which kind of creeps in when you're not quite expecting it and adds to a nice variety into the mix of the album.

This is a very pleasant album, one that has clearly been work very hard for. Bateleurs should be proud of this release and know they have done themselves justice.

Paul Rawcliffe