The Ciderhouse Rebellion
Genius Loci 2 :The Valley of Iron
(Under The Eaves)
★★★★

THIS absorbing vehicle for the talents of accordion ace Murray Grainger and fiddler Adam Summerhayes was recorded live amid the ruins of the ironstone industry in Rosedale at the heart of the North York Moors.

This harsh and windswept location inspired the duo to rare heights of creativity as they brought their improvisatory skills to bear on a series of stunningy evocative pieces which they captured for posterity at various locations in this now peaceful rural dale during the past year.

The finished product forms  part of the Arts Council-funded project, Ironstone Tales, a series of short films exploring the post-industrial landscape of the area and its potential to inspire art.

The Ciderhouse Rebellion are certainly one of British folk’s finest instrumental duos, blessed with a seemingly effortless ability to conjure magical melodies out of the ether at will.

John Denver
Live at Cedar Rapids 12/10/87
(Floating World)
★★★

DENVER’S innocuous and happy-go-lucky image masked an artist whose best work highlighted humanitarian and social concerns which would only grow in importance as the decades slipped by.

This impressive two-CD set delves deeply into Denver’s illustrious back catalogue to revive much loved oldies such as Annie’s Song, Rocky Mountain High and Take Me Home, Country Roads, alongside his affectionate covers of John Prine’s Blow Up Your TV and Lennon and McCartney’s Mother Nature’s Son.

The singer-songwriter’s years of tumultuous commercial success were little more than a distant memory by the time that Live at Cedar Rapids was captured for posterity in 1987, but Denver remained a consumate live performer nonetheless, and this easy-on-the-ear collection provides a welcome introduction to the creative legacy of a perceptive acoustic balladeer whose finest musical creations still resonate with audiences today.

Graham Nash
Live
(Proper Records)
★★★★

BLACKPOOL-born and Salford-raised Graham Nash has assembled a sizeable body of work since he began writing songs with his old school friend Allan Clarke in The Hollies almost six decades ago, and the octogenarian singer-songwriter is stil plying his trade with power and passion today.

This interesting live set focuses attention on Nash’s first two solo albums, Songs for Beginners and Wild Tales, originally released in the early ’70s and performed here in their entirety via recordings made at a variety of venues in the north-eastern US during 2019.

The subject matter of these typically wide-ranging Nash collections runs the gamut from the poignant romanticism of Simple Man to fervent pleas  for prison reform and classic anti-war anthems such as Chicago and Military Madness, the latter songs sadly still just as topical today as they were when first penned half a century ago.