Mediocre talent-mediocre recordings

Page 14

Review

Billy Taylor

Home Town Fiddler

Sunshine Records

While this 12-song cassette has its moments, Home Town Fiddler sounds pretty much like a night of friends jamming on tunes. The best song on the tape is the raucous St. Anne's Reel. It and Big John McNeel showcase an ability to handle the two-stomp.

There are hints of oddball bluegrass on Snowflake Breakdown and splashes of Celtic and country throughout the recording. The old Bob Wills chestnut Faded Love gets an adequate though uninspired, work over as well.

There is also some flat-out weird production work to be heard. An acoustic guitar shouldn't sound like a kazoo, but it certainly does on a couple of tracks. It makes one wonder how and why that was managed.

However, for all the diversity, boredom set in by the fourth song. Taylor's fiddle work is all right, but not much more. It's Taylor's album and the focus should be on him, but no one else is really given room to rise above their backup status. The end result is a 30-minute album from this St. Teresa Pt., Man. resident which pretty much stays in its home town.

Arlene Harper

Celebrate That God Has Given

Cherish Records

This is the kind of tape you find at the side of the road while you've stopped to change a tire. Celebrate That God Has Given is a labored country-gospel effort from Harper, who hails from Red Sucker, Man.

Obviously Amazing Grace and The Lord's Prayer are covers, but the inference is that the rest are originals. The only definite writing credit is her title track, which she is "very proud to have written." Why that is the case is unclear. It's not a very good song and it's not performed well either.

But why should one song be technically any different from the others? For example, the producer should have insisted on a click track to keep everyone playing the same time. Too many of the 10 songs are ridiculously loose. Mind you, maybe the producer did insist and the players just couldn't follow one-two-three-four. The only sort of bright spot was that a couple of the lead guitar parts showed some imagination.

Ideally, a gospel album has soul and emotional power. To merely have faith is not enough. Harper's vocals are weak, strained and entirely unconvincing. The album drags and isn't likely to cause any conversions to Christianity or to her music.

End notes by Norm Quinney

Little Spirit Singers is an all-woman drum and powwow band from Winnipeg, Man. Their new release, from Sunshine Records, is an amateurish effort. Their drumming is not together and it's clear that the group needs much more experience.

Hanisha Traditional Singers takes its name from a traditional Ojibway legend. The group originates from Naotkamegwanning First Nation (Whitefish Bay) and holds strong beliefs and practises of the Anishinabe. Their offering from Sunshine Records shows a group with experience and a strong idea of their own style when it comes to performing traditional songs.

Northern Wind Volume 8 is a superior recording compared to that of others reviewed for this issue. The singing is strong and the group can be proud of this effort. Still, there is a long way to go before the group can claim to be in the same company as the likes of Whitefish Jrs., Red Bull or Stoney Park.

Chi-Geezia, Songs of the Ojibway/Odawa is a passable endeavor from the group from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. More timing is needed though as one of the drummers tends to lag behind the rest.