fRoots

May 2005

 Like an over-friendly Scottish drunk who collars you at the bar, this album will grip your jacket lapel and roar at you with maniac energy and then slump on your shoulder to whisper mournful whiskey-sodden tales in your ear. Howlin' Heavin' Shanties is the first album from Junkman's Choir, although the band members are veterans of the Scottish alternative folk scene. Here they have created a whirling dervish of an album: accordeon-driven tunes with an oriental feel bump alongside Scottish reggae dub and American cowboy-polka. Yet the band manages to turn these disparate influences to create their own style. This is massively helped by Stevie Wiseman's drums which have a busy clatter and drive. They sound like so-many beaten bodhrans on the instrumental Minor Strike, and then are pared back to punctuate the slower, Scottish-flavoured reggae-dub track Open Road.

 The Wiseman brothers - Davie Wiseman here on vocals, guitar and distinctive rumbling bass - have long service behind them in Scottish folk and punk band Nyah Fearties (which split up in 1995). The band had early success supporting the Pogues on tour, played a slot on The Tube in 1986 and their best-known song Red Kola had airplay on Radio Scotland. While Davie formed the two-album Scottish and reggae hybrid band Dub Skelper, Stevie moved to Germany. Reformed as Junkman's Choir at the end of last year, with accordeonist and trumpeter Johnny Gator, and Pama Dice on vocals and guitar, the band has a tremendous energy when playing live.  

This is fine, fiercely independent folk.

Alex Mayhew-Smith

fRoots

Howlin', Heavin' Shanties

Is This Music?

Issue 13

Rallying-cries to drink, dance and gie it laldy!

Scottish stompabilly will not replace the 'London DIY scene as the New Cool thing. However, if this Ayrshire based four-piece start 'Guerrilla gigging'' (busking?) or play somewhere nearby, there may well be a good night of merriment and jigging to be had.

The accordion-driven sound and rockabilly rhythms create a feel of traditional Scottish music, while the songs celebrate Scotland of olden days. Although the band recall a time that's unfamiliar to many, it's described vividly and with passion. Opener 'Blood Special' is exactly what it says on the tin: a shouty sea-shanty. 'Ragman's Wagon' and 'Black Mill' are dark dreich tales, the latter delivered in Burns dialect, while 'Open Road' and 'Wild Rose' are rallying cries to drink, dance and gie it laldy! 'Whisky on the Wind', an ode to Scotland's finest export, captures the spirit of Junkman's Choir: proud of their heritage, fond of a laugh and a drappy forbye.

is this music?