Tag: Ninebarrow

Bringing a spin to the familiar best of album, Dorset close harmony duo Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere, British folk’s answer to Simon & Garfunkel, have revisited and reworked thirteen songs from their previous albums in the company of the combined forty plus voices of acclaimed choral groups Hart Voices and The Chantry Singers under the directorship of Roy Rashbrook, a member of the St Paul’s Cathedral choir, alongside ubiquitous double bass player John Parker and percussionist Evan Carson.

Produced by Mark Tucker, who shares percussion duties, the result is exultingly triumphant in its coming together of self-penned songs, traditional and covers, setting the mood and benchmark with the opening ‘Names In The Sky’, their signature harmonies gradually joined by the swelling and soaring ensemble voices, which, originally on The Colour Of Night, is a celebration of South Wales children’s hospice Ty Hafan that tells how sound artist Justin Wiggin created a sonic garden to commemorate the children who had passed on, fusing local birdsong with a Morse code algorithm to ‘sing’ the names of the children.

Jon on piano, a salute to the changing seasons, ‘Come January’, from their fourth album, A Pocket Full of Acorns, paints a melancholic portrait of a Dorset winter as the choir affords a subdued, calm background, the same album also mined for the similarly themed pastoral waltz ‘Nestledown’, with Jay on his best Garfunkel form, inspired by the non-migratory Dartford Warbler that weathers the winter on the heathlands until spring returns. Other acorns from the same pocket are to be found in succession with the combined voices accompanied by only muted drone and marching drum beat for the traditional ‘Hey, John Barleycorn’, followed in contrasting mood with the sparse and brooding ‘Under The Fence’, taking its inspiration from ‘Cold, Haily, Windy Night’ and addressing the plight of refugees in camps across Europe as, opening with a single naked vocal, reed organ and strident piano set the eerie tone echoed by the choir as their voices build from a hush to a storm while, providing the bulk of the choices, the fifth selection is Jon’s quietly sung piano accompanied arrangement of Patrick Wolf’s song about spiritual healing through nature, ‘Teignmouth’.

The album takes its title from a song on The Waters And The Wild, a pizzicato plucked number that also speaks to the changing seasons, the voices dutifully swelling before it quietly ebbs to a close. Their 2014 debut, While The Blackthorn Burns, is revisited for three numbers, the first a churchy reed organ underpinned near six-minute ‘Summer Fires’ inspired by the European tradition of jumping through fires on Midsummer Day to bring good luck, their scintillating harmonies gradually joined by the choir’s vocal flames.

That’s followed by the jaunty galumphing sway of ‘The Weeds’, which, with what sounds like a euphonium but isn’t listed among the credits, uses a neglected house overrun by brambles as a metaphor for a failed relationship and a woman cast aside, though the rousing shanty-ish rendition is in direct contrast to the lyrics. And, thirdly, the circling notes of ‘The Sea’, a lament written and told from the perspective of a Roman soldier stationed at Hark Knott Fort in the Lake District, one of the Empire’s farthest outposts, the choral backing emphasising his yearning for home. This wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

There’s only one song from 2016’s Releasing The Leaves, but, written by Jon’s folk singer father Bob Whitley, ‘Coming Home’ is a fine choice, part of a song cycle about Magellan’s 16th century expedition to find the strait connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and told through the eyes of his wife waiting at home, a palpable emotional ache as they sing the title line.

It comes to a close with the final two acorns, the sublime apposite pairing of the voices and piano arrangement of Ewen Carruthers’ ‘Sailors All’ and, finally, Jon on lead and the choir providing aching backing, it signs off in keeping with their live shows with the sixth, their naked a cappella valedictory rendition of ‘Farewell Shanty’. There’s always been a spiritual quality to Ninebarrow’s music. The addition of the choirs makes it holy too.

Mike Davies

Artists’ website: www.ninebarrow.co.uk

‘The Hour Of The Blackbird’ – official video: