GIGSPANNER BIG BAND – Turnstone (own label GSCD009)

TurnstoneI have to make a confession. When Peter Knight unveiled the Big Band I was somewhat less than whelmed. I was so in thrall to the original trio and the way they did things that this development seemed like an aberration. But with their third album, Turnstone, they have absolutely nailed it – no longer an assembly of musicians but a band. The three elements: Gigspanner, Edgelarks and John Spiers each have an equal and essential part to play and they each play it magnificently.

The material, which is mostly traditional, comes from the core of British folk music, deeply rooted and serious. There are some familiar crowd-pleasers; ‘Sovay’ and ‘Basket Of Eggs’ for example but the real meat lies elsewhere. The album opens with ‘The Suffolk Miracle’, a variant of the story of the young woman banished by her father for falling in love with the wrong sort plus a supernatural element thrown in. It starts with pizzicato fiddle and Hannah Martin’s gorgeous vocals before the band pitches in – chugging melodeon from John Spiers and driving percussion from Sacha Trochet.

I did not mean to belittle ‘Sovay’ and the band turn in a terrific performance. Peter and Hannah share the vocals and Roger Flack blasts a guitar solo at the end. Hannah is up front again for ‘Silver Dagger’ with Phillip Henry’s Dobro giving the song a suitable frontier feel. The pairing of ‘What Wondrous Love Is This’ and ‘Sweet Highland Mary’ give Peter his first lead vocal and by now I wanted to stop analysing and just listen to the record again. If you know anything about Gigspanner you’ll know that it is the interplay between the musicians that makes them special so can we take that as read? Turnstone is as good as I’ve ever heard them.

‘When Fortune Turns Her Wheel’ is the first of the big numbers and is essentially improvised with Hannah’s vocals going to places I didn’t realise she had in her and Peter’s fiddle leading the way. John Spiers takes lead vocal on ‘The Rolling Of The Stones’, a ballad of inadvertent murder, magic and a ghost but then ‘Basket Of Eggs’ brings a little light relief. Sacha gets a real go at ‘Betsy Williams’ before Peter nudges him aside. Phillip opens ‘Hind Horn’ on Dobro – this time it’s the servant who is banished and the girl who stays at home. An unbroken token is thrown in to the mix and the banished servant returns in disguise to disrupt a wedding – truly all human life is here!

The concluding two tracks are also epics. Peter sings a suitably mournful ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’ before launching into ‘Arthur Peter’s Reel’ and the final track is a live instrumental set –‘Northern Frisk/Red Haired Boy/Moth From Upstairs’ during which everyone gets to show off including Sacha who gets his own ‘Dharma For One’ moment.

I was going to make a feeble joke here about no turn being unstoned but I won’t bother. All I will say is this: if you hear a better album this year please tell me about it.

Dai Jeffries

Artists’ website: www.gigspanner.com

Gigspanner Big Band live:

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