The Cash legend continues in Roseanne

Published on Monday 5 February 2007 00:06

ROSEANNE CASH ****

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL

WHEN at 18 your Daddy, one JR Cash, gives you a list of the 100 essential songs you need to learn to complete your education, then you know you've a rich, if tough, road ahead. When you can add in the 101st, then you're showing you've made it in fine style.

An impressive Roseanne Cash mixed some of that essential list with challenging songs from her just-released Black Cadillac album in which she confronts the grief of losing her father, mother and stepmother in a two-year period.

Relying less on sentiment and more on philosophical, if at times complex, emotion this is formidably convincing new material.

By starting the night with evocative black and white film of her walking the ocean beach where her ancestor William Cash arrived in 1653 having set sail in The Good Intent from the "Kingdom of Fife, Scotland", Cash infused the whole with a poetically deep and wonderfully questioning sense of the way her family slowly transformed themselves from mariners to farmers to musicians and of herself as the "America" they have become.

With vitality and verve aplenty, she and her brilliant band smoothly moved from Chris Isaak tinged-Americana to rocking full-blown country blues and gospel, finishing with an arresting version of the traditional Appalachian Going Down to Old Virginia.

With partner John Leventhal delivering riveting guitar solos at her side, she was, as a fan shouted out, "Fabulous"!

JAN FAIRLEY

JOHN McCUSKER: UNDER ONE SKY *****

OLD FRUITMARKET, GLASGOW

AN HOUR-long suite of new tunes and songs by the Scottish fiddler John McCusker, Under One Sky was co-commissioned by the PRS Foundation, Scottish Arts Council and the Esme Fairbairn Foundation, as a joint celebration of Celtic Connections and Cambridge Folk Festival. A standing ovation underlined just how triumphantly it fulfilled McCusker's own stated aim, of highlighting the vibrant diversity of styles currently at work within British folk music, and their increasingly fertile relationship with other genres, notably rock and pop.

Besides working with a mix of Scottish and English performers, McCusker's brief also stipulated that he feature both established and emerging artists, with the young Devon singer and accordionist Jim Causley and Anglo-Swedish fiddler Emma Reid representing the latter category.

The rest of the line-up comprised singers Julie Fowlis, John Tams and Roddy Woomble, Iain MacDonald on bagpipes and flute, guitarist Ian Carr, accordionist Andy Cutting, bassist Ewen Vernal, percussionist James Mackintosh, and an extra touch of pop-world glitter in the shape of ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon.

Rather than it being a single, unified creation, McCusker was keen to emphasise the show's collaborative aspects, be it in playing to his ensemble's abundant individual strengths in the instrumental arrangements, or having the singers provide lyrics for his tunes, as with a lovely new Gaelic lament from Fowlis, and a stirring brace of folk-rock ballads from Woomble.

Full of colour and contrast, adroitly balancing mighty full-band numbers with quieter interludes, the music overall was unmistakably McCusker's, in both its melodic opulence and its seamless integration of disparate elements.

SUE WILSON

JERRY DOUGLAS BAND/ THE KLEZMATICS *****

ABC, GLASGOW

RENOWNED for his work on the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and as a linchpin of Alison Krauss's band Union Station, 12-time Grammy-winner Jerry Douglas is the world's undisputed champion of the dobro, the metal-fronted resonator guitar invented by the Dopyera brothers in the 1920s.

Appearing here with his superb young backing line-up of fiddler Luke Bulla, guitarist Guthrie Trapp, bassist Todd Parks and drummer Doug Belote, Douglas performed as usual with his instrument held horizontally against his midriff, calling to mind both visually and aurally a virtuoso at the grand piano.

Although much of his material retains its roots in bluegrass, he forayed into moodier, bluesier territory with the majestic, melancholic Futureman, and towards jazz in the demonically fast improvisations of Cavebop.

The range and depth of Douglas's technique was nothing short of awesome, from the intricacy of his ornamentation to the freedom with which he roamed across genres, and yet there was never any whiff of flashiness or complexity for its own sake: all that dazzling prowess was harnessed firmly in service of the music, centred in turn on a wealth of gorgeous tunes.

As an extra treat, the show opened with a surprise appearance by the Klezmatics, warming up for their own headline gig the next night.

The nine-strong New York troupe have long transcended the boundaries of traditional klezmer, as underlined by a sparkling set drawn largely from their current album of Woody Guthrie songs, Wonder Wheel, including a wonderfully sunny version of Mermaid Avenue, merging reggae grooves with big-band swing.

SUE WILSON