John Spiers and Jon Boden’s return from a seven-year lay-off coincides with the release of a new album last year, Fallow Ground, which featured prominently on their Howard Assembly Room sets. The title, incidentally, refers not only to their temporary disappearance as a duo, but to the “fallow ground” we all experienced during the pandemic.
The musical mix again links together Morris tunes, antiquities dug up from old manuscripts and a fair few originals – plus their first venture into Australiana – Bluey Brink which finished the first half in rousing style. As for the originals, Spiers explains that he writes about nothing in particular and sets a title on what’s around him at the time. Hence The Fog, a meditative piece well suited to the title, and the lively Ironing Board Hornpipe, the second half of a medley with Giant’s Waltz, the giant in question being he of the Causeway where they were heading at the time. On the more traditional front a Morris medley begins with old favourite, The Cuckoo’s Nest, delivered with zestful attack, before moving on to the more soulful Saltash.
John Spiers, alternating between concertina and melodeon, brings a virtuosity, an infectious rhythmic sense, to everything he does and combines perfectly with Jon Boden’s powerful vocals, fiddle and stomp board. The impression of informality doesn’t stop smart arrangements building irresistibly to climaxes and juxtaposing contrasted melodies and moods.
The same air of informality pervades the introductions, often amusingly rambling affairs that explore the origins of the songs and relate to the audience which was clearly delighted to have Spiers and Boden back in circulation.
Reviewed on 3rd June 2022. Touring nationwide.
