Sileas "Beating Harps" (Green Linnet, 1987)

Sileas "Play On Light" (Green Linnet, 1999)
The Scottish duo of Mary MacMaster and Patsy Seddon, who have also played in the Poozies and Clan Alba. I must confess, I'm not overly fond of the Celtic harp... it's one of those instruments, like the soprano sax, that lends itself to just one kind of musical experience, and is very difficult to place inside a new context, so that you can hear something new in the instrument itself. To their credit, while Sileas are drenched in the sugary confines of the harp, their vocal work -- two female voices singing harmony in Celtic -- do help in this regard. This is still too goopy for me, but there is a depth and a pleasant feel to this music that certainly makes this disc worth checking out.

Silly Sisters "Silly Sisters" (Shanachie, 1976)
What a wonderful record. One of the greatest '70s trad albums... Maddy Prior and June Tabor's voices and musical sensibilities are a perfect match, and the material they chose is also a delight. The elusive English traditionalist Nic Jones plays fiddle or guitar on most of these tracks. (Followed up by the 1988 album, No More To The Dance... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Silly Sisters "No More To The Dance" (Shanachie, 1988)
A nice follow-up to their first legendary pairing, although this time around the music is a bit glossier and less strictly trad. A couple of songs go over the line for my personal sensibilities (into "new age-y" territory) but these tunes are definitely the exception. On the whole, a lovely album. Includes a fine version of Colm Sands' delightful cautionary tale, "Almost Every Circumstance"... Worth checking out.

Silly Wizard "Caledonia's Hardy Sons" (Shanachie, 1978)

Silly Wizard "So Many Partings" (Shanachie, 1980)

Silly Wizard "Wild And Beautiful" (Shanachie, 1981)

Silly Wizard "Kiss The Tears Away" (Highway/Shanachie, 1983)
A later album by this Scottish quartet... Both lead singer Andy M. Stewart and instrumental whiz Phil Cunningham have a tendency towards the sugary and florid, which is quite pronounced on this disc. It's not a bad record, by any means -- the instrumentation is mostly all acoustic, and their performance is low-key and effective. But as with many Silly Wizard albums, the folk-scene mellowness and understated tone make it seem a bit too reserved and mannered. It's okay, but it didn't really wow me. Plenty of other folks really dig this album, though, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Silly Wizard "A Glint Of Silver" (Green Linnet, 1986)

Silly Wizard "Live Wizardry" (Green Linnet, 1988)

Silly Wizard "The Best Of Silly Wizard" (Shanachie, 1985)

Martin Simpson "A Closer Walk With Thee" (Gourd, 1994)
A contemplative set of instrumental, acoustic reinterpetations of classic American gospel themes such as "I'll Fly Away," "Palms Of Victory," "Wayfaring Stranger," "What A Friend We Have In Jesus," and many other, much more obscure tunes. Some of these tracks are gorgeous, some are a bit goopy, and some go way out in left field... in a very nice way. Simpson really makes this material his own, and slows the pace way down, with the express purpose of getting us out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life. This didn't really move me as much as I thought it might, but it's still quite nice.

Martin Simpson "Prodigal Son" (Compass/Topic, 2007)
(Produced by Martin Simpson)
A majestic album from British trad-folk singer-songwriter Martin Simpson, a veteran performer who also, by the way, picks one helluva fine acoustic guitar. This album is something of a summary of all that is best about his career, the elegant bridging between traditional and contemporary folk, with equal shares of Celtic, English and American influences. Alongside cover tunes such as Randy Newman's "Louisiana, 1927" (an astonishingly prescient song about corruption and natural disasters, widely resurrected in the wake of Hurricane Katrina) are ancient ballads such as the grim, seductive "Little Musgrave" and the yearning "Andrew Lammie." Simpson also includes two of his finest and most personal original compositions, "She Slips Away," written after his mother died, and "Never Any Good," a song that both catalogs and celebrates the apparent shortcomings of his father. And, throughout, there is achingly beautiful guitar work, reminding us yet again why Simpson has long been considered one of the best players in the modern English folk scene. Certainly one of the finest trad-folk albums of the last few years.

Sin'e "Deep Water Dropoff" (BMG-Wicklow, 1999)
Yikes. Pretty tacky, jazz-tinged, world-beat-y crossover material, with undulating, amorphous soundbeds, ostentatious use of congas (and what sound like tablas) and many an irritating key change and production touch. Plus, the bovine, Gothish vocals of singer Taz Alexander give me a sweet pain: she has a terrible voice. Besides all the horrid aesthetic choices, this band also seems to have little natural flow, their performances sound rigid and unrelaxed... That may be because so much of it is a studio creation: the meter is kept all-too perfect, and the fiddling, etc. is just one more tightly contained element in a stiffly constructed, high-tech musical morass. Trust me: this is a horrible, horrible album, one that you are well-advised to stay away from. I feel like I need to flush my ears out now. Yuck.

Sin'e "It's About Time" (Rhian, 1999)

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