COMPOSERS: Dave Swarbrick
LABELS: Naxos World
WORKS: English Fiddler
PERFORMER: Dave Swarbrick (fiddle)
CATALOGUE NO: 76045-2
Naxos World turns next to a doyen of English folk music, DAVE SWARBRICK, sometime member of Fairport Convention, prolific composer and energetic fiddler.
‘My Heart’s in New South Wales’, says the first title, but Swarbrick’s musical instincts are back in the old country – the piece is a farewell to his years in Australia – with an eloquent demonstration of folk music continuing to evolve. One piece is an emulation of East European key changes, another borrows inflections from rock tunes, but the basis is solidly traditional.
The vitality is constant, and lightly accompanied by colleagues including the equally distinguished Martin Carthy, whose name, in an unlikely display of record-company reticence, is absent from the outside of the CD case.