Dan Walsh
Album: Incidents & Accidents
Label: Rooksmere
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.danwalshbanjo.co.uk

The title taken from a line in Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al, the Stafford-born clawhammer banjo maestro's third solo album is a more stripped back affair than The Same But Different, albeit still featuring contributions from Patsy Reid on fiddle, mandolinist Nic Zuppardi and, on Only Way To Go, the harmony vocals of Canadian country singer co-writer Meaghan Blanchard.

It's a heady brew of blues and bluegrass, the former getting the ball rolling with Time To Stay, a lively account of his mixed feelings about moving back home after six years in Newcastle Upon Tyne, even if he can't quite keep up the growled Mississippi mojo throughout. As you'd expect from someone hailed for his virtuoso playing, there's a fair few instrumentals, first up being the minor tuning mountain music of Lost Rambler, the others being the appropriately jerky Wobbly Trolley, the slap-percussion Whiplash Reel with its nods to Indian classical music and a six minute The Tune Set (A Tune For Sarah, Rambling in Barra, Food For Thought, Thanks to the Kiwis) which, inspired by his tours of the word, runs the gamut from slow air to a frantic reel.

The rest are all vocal numbers, ranging from the uptempo bluegrass urgency bounce of his take on Darrell Scott's With a Memory Like Mine and the choppy circling banjo riff of The Missing Light to the softer shadings of Hermit Of Gully Lake, which sets a folksy lilt to an arrangement of a traditional Finnish tune, while the lovely Dancing In The Light (an account of a moment during a family holiday in Ireland) and the fingerpicked guitar The Song Always Stays (a poignant song drawn inspired by rekindling a love of singing in Scottish folkie Glen Mason while playing in his Surrey care home) are both redolent of Ralph McTell and English village hall folk spots.

Although while it has an appealing catch, it's fair to say that he's not got the strongest voice among the world of contemporary young folkies; however, when those fingers touch the strings there are indeed angels in the architecture.

Mike Davies