Bellowhead the multi-talented,multi-instrument playing, multi-award winning, multi-membered folk band are calling it a day after 11 years. Jon Boden lead singer and fiddle player has moved on to new pastures and the remaining members have decided they didn't wish to continue without him.
This compilation of tracks from their five studio albums has been selected by the band, and as is often the case with 'Best Ofs', we can all cry “why, oh why” about the inclusion or omission of various individual favourites. However these 13 tracks epitomise the spread of their recording career and will make a great set list for the upcoming tour which covers the whole of the UK later this year and early 2016 (Leicester for me, and you really should be trying to get tickets for a show).
The big arrangements and sing along choruses benefits most from the live interpretation of their music and shows Bellowhead at their best (witness the number of live awards they've won). The John Leckie produced Hedonism and Broadside albums captured the full live band sound better than the first two albums did. If you compare the huge brassy-string songs such as 'Roll The Woodpile Down' or 'New York Girls' from those two albums, to a track from Matachin their second album 'Whiskey Is The Life Of Man' which feels a little thin you'll see what I mean . However the live version of this track celebrating alcohol is often a highlight of their shows, even though narrator describes the effect it's had exterminating various members of his family.
Bellowhead's songs are mainly their arrangements of traditional songs, which often split into one of three categories concerning either drinking, ship related or sea-faring or describing ladies with a variety of interpretations of morals such those in the aforementioned 'New York Girls'. 'Yarmouth Town' covers all three in one track with the brass section doing their best New Orleans style jazz on the instrumental break. The string section isn't forgotten and has their day on the emotive 'Cold Blows The Wind' which is written for the loss of a dead love.
So farewell to all those who crewed the good ship Bellowhead as you sail onto your various solo, duo, other band projects. Thanks for the great live shows, the album title branded real ale and thanks for tolerating me and others in a drunk (us not them) after show conversation in a pub in Chesterfield (I can confirm they are thoroughly nice people as well).
This compilation is a great starter for those unfamiliar (shame on you) with Bellowhead's music and should lead you to check out the five albums from which these tracks have been selected.
Alisdair Whyte
11( one point for each band member)/11
