JOHN KIRKPATRICK BAND - Force Of Habit (Fledgling FLED 3007)
I was lucky enough to catch the John K Band at Towersey Festival last year and I am still recovering from the experience - they were quite simply awesome!
This live album was recorded on the same tour. Make no mistake, despite the tour blurb, this is not a passive Morris On revisited.
John Kirkpatrick is not content to be a passenger staring out of the window of the English Traditional Revival train - he and his band of desperados have hi-jacked it, switched the points and sent it screaming off in another direction altogether.
This is not for the faint hearted - a storming set yielding a bedlam of sound.
The Morris tunes here are high voltage cables broke loose from their pylons. 'George's Son' has never sounded better, while 'Blue Balloon' is pure grunge-folk.
And what a line-up - Paul Burgess on fiddle and keyboards, Graeme Taylor on guitar, mando and banjo, Dave Berry on bass and tuba and Michael Gregory on drums and percussion.
The Albion Band have deserted the cause in favour of lightweight contemporary ballads, the Oyster are evolving into a stadium rock band - it's all down to you now John.
(Andy Hemsley)