Tom Paleys Old-Time Moonshine Revue
Album: Roll On, Roll On
Label: Hornbeam
Tracks: 18
Website: http://www.hornbeamrecordings.com

Anyone who remembers the music of the pioneering New Lost City Ramblers will forever have a place in their affections for Tom Paley, old-timey icon par-excellence, whose prowess on guitar, fiddle and banjo is legendary (and his singing's pretty darned fine too!). Now approaching his mid-80s and still going strong (as he proved effortlessly on his recent rather small UK tour!), Tom's just released this new studio outing after an exceptionally long gap, and its quality couldn't augur better for the brand-new Hornbeam label. Tom's stated intention is typically modest and unpretentious, clear and no-nonsense in approach: "we just wanted to record stuff that sounded good, and I didn't want to do many songs I had recorded before".

It's a vibrant, life-affirming and entirely feelgood almost-hour's-worth of everything Tom's always done best - in other words, authentic old-timey music in all its various guises - delivered with all the consummate ease of a veteran performer who lives and breathes the music. Tom's voice may have weathered over the years, but it has retained all its warmth and conviction, and his aptitude for storytelling in song still can't be bettered on the old-timey circuit. He relishes every moment, and while he's comfortable with the entire gamut of traditional old-time he's also not averse to penning the occasional fun ditty of his own in the classic style (Beelzebubbles).

Tom's equally at home with time-honoured ballads of lost love and truckin' blues, unexplainable nonsense songs like A Horse Named Bill and staples like Leadbelly's Midnight Special, and he even gets to add autoharp to his instrumental armoury in accompanying a fetching account of Green Grow The Lilacs. Other highlights for me include Devilish Mary (with its fulsome bowed bass), some fabulous guitar work on Clarence Greene's Johnson City Blues, and fine interpretations of the cheerful ballad The Morning Of 1845 and the Uncle Dave Macon number Mourning Blues. For there's still a real sparkle in his singing and playing, a gleeful twinkle in his eyes, an unparalleled sense of sheer enjoyment in every note and nuance (however many times he'll have played these tunes before).

And the way Tom trades off his collaborators (the Revue players) is absolute magic. Each and every track's a total delight; I especially love those cuts which showcase the twin fiddles (Tom and son Ben), but there's an abundance of riches throughout, not least in the overall ambience, where there's plenty of bloom and yet every last detail of the instrumentation is faithfully caught by the excellent terraced-house-backroom recording. I must single out the extraordinary presence of Jonny Bridgewood's upright bass, but the various contributions of Jason Steel (guitar), Robin Gillan (harmonica) and Dave Morgan (percussion) are also well captured in the mix. All this immensely satisfying and entertaining record lacks is a couple more purely instrumental cuts (the one medley we do get is a lively foot-tapper's heaven!).

And by the way, the whole package's presentation is exemplary; Tom's own personal anecdotal liner notes are both chummy and genuinely informative, while Robin Denselow's accompanying essay concludes "this album shows why Tom Paley is still so special"; exactly!…

David Kidman