The Albion Dance Band
Album: I Got New Shoes Revisited
Label: Talking Elephant
Tracks: 13
Website: www.talkingelephant.co.uk

This album fits snugly within the sub-set of Ashley Hutchings-masterminded projects that pay due homage to dance music in various of its incarnations within folk and popular culture. From the good-natured, nostalgic feelgood rock'n'roll of the title composition through a number of energised, rocked-up electric band renditions of morris tunes, polkas, two-steps, great fun was inevitably had by all concerned, and this is a joyful disc that audibly celebrates the individual traditions.

Along the way, it includes several typically idiomatic compositions by band members. The Albion Dance Band unit of that time (1987/88) comprised the winning lineup of Hutchings himself with Phil Beer, Simon Care, John Shepherd and Trevor Foster, which was augmented by Pete Zorn on saxes, while guest Polly Bolton provided vocal interest on the winsome cha-cha-cha of I Only Wanna Dance With You, the rollicking terpsichore of Trip To Bath, and Young Love On The Dance Floor (which was lifted from the original album as a single). There are many masterstrokes of segue programming here, as well as some especially fine Hutchings originals like Dancing Till Monday Comes Around, while The Guv'nor's penchant for incorporation of spoken word surfaces momentarily but effectively in his typically lyrical observation Welsh Girls.

Thanks be to Talking Elephant for bringing this classic collection (originally released on the Making Waves label) back into circulation. Here (as highlighted by use of the key word Revisited in this reissue's title) things are enticingly boosted by the inclusion of a pair of bonus (live) tracks seemingly recorded at a ceilidh (Merry Sherwood Rangers, which leads brilliantly into Time To Ring Some Changes, and the square dance Tavern In The Town). Superb stuff - if you enjoy the Morris On discs, you'll love I Got New Shoes.

David Kidman