Like many artists in the folk world Anna and Rowan Rheingans divide their time across several projects which goes some way to explaining why Start Close In is their first duo album in four years. This hasn’t been made any easier by Anna spending a good deal of time in southern France studying Occitan music but that experience has brought so much to the sisters’ music and this record in particular. It is, I will say now, a quite extraordinary piece of work.
They open with ‘Devils’, a new version of ‘The Devil And The Farmer’s Wife’ inspired by Frankie Armstrong’s feminist take on the song. Rowan is responsible for the lyrics, polishing the wife’s character but leaving the farmer untouched which completely changes the emphasis: “The women they are much better than men/Can go to Hell and come back again”. It begins with some devilish sounds reminiscent of a derailing locomotive or a bull being strangled, all done with violins, of course, and the arrangement continues in much the same vein until two minutes or so when they unleash the big guns with electric guitar and percussion.
If you’ve got over that, there is a short tune called ‘Brädmarsch’ by Olaf Misgold which appears to be based on a wedding march – a nice touch given the preceding song. ‘Un Voltigeur’ is a traditional French song adapted by Anna in which an unfortunate lover is betrayed by a lark singing at midnight instead of dawn. The decoration by Daniel Thorne’s saxophone is particularly nice although there is a lot going on in this arrangement. It has to be said that there is a lot of unhappy or unsuccessful love in this set but if you’re looking for happy endings it’s the women who come out on top.
‘Livet Behöver Inga Droger’, an instrumental by Anna, is another complex arrangement and you might reach the conclusion that we’re moving away from folk music into something that doesn’t actually have a name yet. But… next up is the traditional ‘The Great Devil’ paired with Steve Turner’s ‘Mr. Turner’s Hornpipe’ although neither of these is completely straightforward. Rowan’s ‘Drink Up’ takes us into 21st century singer/songwriter territory. There are some waspish lines in superb song that has something of an end-of-the-world feel as Rowan contradicts herself, often in successive lines. It will be part of the standard repertoire in ten years’ time – if the world doesn’t end before then.
The sisters share the writing credits on ‘Shade Chaser’, which begins with some field recording including their instruments being tuned. Despite that, it’s fairly conventional. ‘Si Sabiatz Drolletas’ is a traditional Occitan song brought to the party by Anna, warning women against marriage and ‘Marche À La Cabrette’ is presumably her responsibility, too, as is the delightful ‘Old Neptune’. Rowan’s ‘Over & Over Again’ is an instrumental/song in which the title forms the only lyric – repeated over and over again. Is it OK to say that it’s a bit weird? Finally we have ‘Purcell’s’ based on a tune in Thomas Bray’s collection – very enjoyable but I’d venture that it has moved a fair way from what Purcell wrote.
As I’ve already said, Start Close In is an extraordinary record which I’ve very much enjoyed – although I can’t say exactly what it is because it encompasses so many facets of what we call folk music.. I hope that we don’t have to wait another four years to find out where Anna and Rowan go from here.
Dai Jeffries
Artists’ website: www.therheinganssisters.co.uk
‘Drink Up’ – official video:
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