Various Artists
Album: Good Humour For The Rest Of The Night
Label: Topic
Tracks: 60
Website: http://www.topicrecords.co.uk

This disc is subtitled "Traditional Dance Music of Northumberland and Cumberland", so it's no doubt intended as a fairly strict counterpart to volume 9 of the original, landmark batch of (20) releases in Topic's Voice Of The People series, Rig-a-jig-jig, which concentrated on dance music from the south of England, this volume brings us in 64 minutes a wealth of solo performances from the collection of field recordings made by Peter Kennedy in 1954. Often raw, always vital, and rarely anything other than great to listen to. Miniatures or fragments even they may be (no individual track lasts longer than 1:49, and many clock in at less than a minute), but the character and yes, musicianship of these sometimes legendary local musicians.

There's some extraordinary playing here by any standards - I especially enjoyed the fiddle playing of Ned Pearson (just one of the eight fiddlers recorded by Peter that year), Jimmy Hunter's virtuosity on the humble mouth-organ, and the canny "googar" (jew's harp) playing of Bob Clark (sadly only represented on two tracks, one being the disc's only duet, with melodeon player George Taylor). Perhaps 16 tracks of piccolo merchant Billy Ballantine prove a bit much, but at least they're spaced out across the disc in four separate groupings.

I often feel that an entire disc of purely instrumental pieces can be unrewarding, but - and in spite of the fragmentary nature of the selections - this one is carried over into the success bracket due to the musicians' personalities and the general feeling of (natural) abandon present in their performances. So put this disc in the player at the start of your evening and yes, you'll very likely be in "good humour for the rest of the night".

Series Editor Reg Hall has penned a typically informative booklet essay concerning the tunes themselves and notes relative to the repertory of the country regions where they were recorded, with associated biographies (where available) of the musicians involved, all to the usual high standard we've come to expect from the Topic imprint.

David Kidman