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"I was Farrah Fawcett
You were Steve McQueen
And we rode your silver Grifter half the way from Aberdeen"
So sings Karine Polwart at the beginning of her fifth studio album Traces. It’s an unlikely opening for a “protest” song about the evils of the Trump Corporation’s politically controversial executive golf development in rural North East Scotland. But then Polwart is a writer who’s long favoured a subtle knife. “Och, sometimes I wish I could be just a wee bit more Billy Bragg”, she laughs.
Written in response to Anthony Baxter’s multiple award-winning documentary film You’ve Been Trumped, and now incorporated into the feature film’s end credits, ‘Cover Your Eyes’ is, says Polwart, “essentially about what we value and what we don’t. With guys like Trump, it’s about power, money and spin bulldozing through generations of intimate connection to a place, collective memories. That stuff doesn’t count in the world of number crunching. But it’s ultimately all there is.”
With its spare use of atmospheric percussion and swelling vocals, it heralds a new cinematic sensibility both in Polwart’s writing and arranging and in the intricately layered production of Iain Cook (one half of Glasgow band The Unwinding Hours, and an experienced composer for television). Indeed it sets the tone for an album of songs united by a fascination with the intimate and fragile vestiges of people’s lives and stories.
Traces draws inspiration from the history and symbolism of St Paul’s Cathedral via The Occupy Movement (in the sweeping ‘King of Birds’), ponders the ways in which Charles Darwin’s family life might have impacted on him as a thinker (in the poignant ‘We’re All Leaving’) and recalls the childhood mystique of the BP petrochemical plant at Grangemouth on the River Forth (in the uplifting ‘Tinsel Show’).
A visceral connection to “the crimson towers of the city you were born in” underpins the hypnotic and percussive insistence of ‘Tears for Lots Wife’; whilst the elegiac harmonium and accordion duet of ‘Sticks N Stones’ conjures the leaving of a family home via “inch marks on door frames” and the imprint of “hopes in the plasterboard”.
Supported by her two regular touring collaborators, brother Steven Polwart (guitars & vocals) and Fair Islander Inge Thomson (accordion, percussion and vocals), Polwart’s own direct musical contribution to Traces has expanded beyond her usual acoustic guitars to include Indian harmonium, floor percussion, and even modest use of field recordings.
Throughout the album this core trio is sympathetically augmented by producer Cook on piano, keys and percussion, and by judicious use of guest musicians on tuned percussion (marimba, vibraphone), wind (including Admiral Fallow’s Sarah Hayes on flute) and horns.
These additional musical textures support songs such as ‘Salter’s Road’, a gentle eulogy for Polwart’s elderly neighbour, Molly Kristensen, and add drama and intensity to the unsettling ‘Strange News’, which captures the hour immediately after Polwart heard of the sudden death of her younger cousin, Ewan.
20th Jul 2012
VILLAGE PUMP FOLK FESTIVAL
WEB: http://www.villagepumpfolkfestival.co.uk
22nd Jul 2012
THE BIG TENT FESTIVAL
WEB: http://www.bigtentfestival.co.uk
28th Jul 2012
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL
WEB: http://www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk/tickets
29th Jul 2012
CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL
WEB: http://www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk/tickets
3rd Aug 2012
WICKHAM FESTIVAL
WEB: http://www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/
26th Aug 2012
SHREWSBURY FOLK FESTIVAL
PHONE: 0115 959 790
WEB: http://www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk
27th Aug 2012
GREENBELT FESTIVAL
PHONE: 020 7374 2760
WEB: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/contributors/karine-polwart/
19th Sep 2012
GLASGOW ORAN MOR
PHONE: 0141 357 6200
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36217a.html
3rd Oct 2012
STOCKTON-ON-TEES ARC
PHONE: 01642 525199
WEB: http://www.arconline.co.uk/detail.php?id=3004
4th Oct 2012
NORWICH ARTS CENTRE
PHONE: 01603 660 352
WEB: http://norwichartscentre.co.uk/karine-polwart
5th Oct 2012
SALISBURY ARTS CENTRE
PHONE: 01722 321 744
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36246a.html
6th Oct 2012
OXFORD OLD FIRE STATION
PHONE: 01865 263 980
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36222a.html
7th Oct 2012
STROUD SUBSCRIPTION ROOMS
PHONE: 01453 760 900
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36206a.html
10th Oct 2012
BROMSGROVE ARTRIX
PHONE: 01527 577 330
WEB: http://www.artrix.co.uk/Music/Karine-Polwart/1267
11th Oct 2012
BRIGHTON KOMEDIA
PHONE: 0845 293 8480
WEB: http://komediabrighton.ticketsolve.com/shows/873481985/events
12th Oct 2012
LONDON UNION CHAPEL
PHONE: 0844 771 000
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36142a.html
13th Oct 2012
BRISTOL COLSTON HALL
PHONE: 0117 922 3686
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36143a.html
14th Oct 2012
NEW BRIGHTON FLORAL PAVILION
PHONE: 0151 666 0000
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36229a.html
18th Oct 2012
MANCHESTER BAND ON THE WALL
PHONE: 0845 2500 500
WEB: http://bandonthewall.org/events/3619/
19th Oct 2012
PONTARDAWE ARTS CENTRE
PHONE: 01792 863 722
WEB: http://www.pontardaweartscentre.com/
20th Oct 2012
SHEFFIELD CATHEDRAL
PHONE: 0114 275 3434
WEB: http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/39686
21st Oct 2012
HITCHIN FOLK CLUB
PHONE: 01462 812 391
WEB: http://www.hitchinfolkclub.idnet.net/
22nd Oct 2012
COLCHESTER ARTS CENTRE
PHONE: 01206 500 900
WEB: http://www.colchesterartscentre.com/folk/karine-polwart
23rd Nov 2012
STIRLING TOLBOOTH
PHONE: 01786 274 000
WEB: http://tolbooth.stirling.gov.uk/tolbooth/whats-on-at-tolbooth-stirling/november2012/karine_polwart_nov_2012.htm
24th Nov 2012
ABERDEEN LEMON TREE
PHONE: 01224 337 688
WEB: http://www.gigantic.com/gigantic/event_gce_36214a.html
25th Nov 2012
INVERNESS EDEN COURT
PHONE: 01463 234 234
WEB: http://www.eden-court.co.uk/
29th Nov 2012
INNERLEITHEN MEMORIAL HALL
PHONE: 08448 440 444
WEB: http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/Karine-Polwart-tickets/artist/28820
30th Nov 2012
EDINBURGH QUEEN'S HALL
PHONE: 0131 668 2019
WEB: http://www.thequeenshall.net/whats-on/shows/karine-polwart-2012
- Genre
- Folk