Pangs [CD]

Since 2001, Alasdair Roberts has busily pursued the path of his ancestors, down the many and varied byways of Scottish traditional musicand of English and Irish traditional music as well, all of which have fed the American folk tradition from its earliest days. Over the past 15 years, Alasdair has released eight albums of self-written material and interpretations of traditional song alike, all played in a diversity of electric and acoustic arrangements, bringing a modern thrust to the music while honoring the many singers from whom this material was learned and adapted. Following the acoustic austerity of his self-titled 2015 release, Alasdairs applied himself to electric guitar and band once again for his ninth album, Pangs.  Alasdair Roberts and Friends were deep within the epic song approaches of the widely-acclaimed A Wonder Working Stone (2013) when last heard creating music of such scope. While similarly broad in range, Pangs brings different forms of song-craft and modes of collaboration again. Throughout his career, Alasdair has created an original and personal music from certain traditional song sources (always carefully annotated in the album notes for the listeners derivation). His additional contributions to music and lyric bring new meanings, passing the pieces ever forward, as they were passed to him. Anyone immersed in the old texts of Child ballads and the narrative and history that they embody might be expected to imbibe in other ancient and sacred materialsand indeed, on occasion, Alasdair has taken care to weave the disparate strands of his far-flung researches and musings into what we can only perceive as a new form of folk songSyncretic Ballads, for want of any other term. And so the Pangs songs variously touch on subjects as diverse as kenosis, couvade and Malthusianism.  Recorded in Ireland with Julie MacLarnon, Pangs finds Alasdair in a power trio beside his long-time musical partners Alex Neilson on drums and Stevie Jones on bass (and he turns his hand to piano and organ too). Along with guests Debbie Armour, Tom Crossley, Rafe Fitzpatrick and Jessica Kerr, they summon up a powerfuland powerfully gorgeous storm over ten new songs. With The Angry Laughing God and The Downward Road, Alasdair delivers two of his most driving piecesone might even call them rocking! Following that, he turns around and plays two of his most touching ballads (and our lads had a lot of them over the years!) in Wormwood and Gall and Scarce of Fishing. Additionally, the album is launched with the eponymous track Pangs in what we hear to be a remarkable evocation of the 60s and 70s folk-rockers of the British Islesthe electric warriors of Fairport Convention, the Battlefield Band, Planxty, Richard Thompson and so many significant others! Alasdairs roots run deep and his sound is conversant with

• Format Detail: CD
• Format: CD
• Genre: Rock