After Conflict Tourism I began to feel that Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts were moving rather too far toward the mainstream; no blame attached but with A Problem Of Our Kind they have hit their mark precisely. These are original songs written with an underlying knowledge of traditional music.
Inspiration is drawn from history, contemporary events and personal experience. The opener, ‘Gauntlet’, tells the fascinating true story of Ashford vs Thornton, the last time trial by battle was claimed under English law.…
Music can move you in different ways. It can physically move you – make you want to jump out of your chair, or clench your fists, or curl up against the world. It can move you emotionally, as anyone who has ever cried cathartically at their favourite song can tell you. And it can take you on a less tangible journey too, a journey of, for want of a better phrase, intellectual discovery. We come out at the end of certain songs – and folk songs are particularly good for this – changed by a new knowledge, driven to act by a newfound sense of justice, surprised into a new wisdom by a previously unknown historical detail.…
‘We’re very excited’, said Katriona Gilmore when I saw Gilmore and Roberts perform recently at The Riverhouse Barn in Walton-on-Thames, ‘Our new album is due to be released in less than a month. However’, (sotto voce), ‘we do have some black market copies with us. Obviously you don’t say anything to anyone…’. Which leaves me with a bit of a dichotomy.
I’ve never reviewed an album when the artist has strictly forbidden any mention of it before!
Fortunately, I’ve seen Gilmore and Roberts several times before and am well aware that Katriona has a wonderful, dry wit, and that her plea for silence was merely humour.…
Released to celebrate their tenth anniversary as a duo since meeting while studying at Leeds College of Music in 2006, In Our History – Live is the first live album from Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts – a joyful ramble through the pair’s back catalogue. With multiple BBC Folk Award nominations and four excellent studio albums to their name, Gilmore and Roberts have well and truly established themselves as pioneers of the contemporary folk circuit.
Opening with two lively tracks from their 2012 release The Innocent Left, Katriona’s Doctor James and Jamie’s Scarecrow set the scene, both demonstrating how well their narrative-heavy song-writing has developed over the decade.…
Ten years in the making from their earliest open mic slots and debut EP release, contemporary folk acoustic duo, Katrina Gilmore and Jamie Roberts have produced a live album that exudes magic.
Phenomenal as a partnership they have earned three BBC Folk Award nominations (the last one for Best Duo this year) and with four albums behind them the pair have recorded what to me is the best live cd of the year.
Stripped back arrangements, the rich resonance of Roberts’ percussive guitar, the wonderful feelings that Gilmore’s fiddle evokes and the crystal clear vocals from the pair transport you, the listener, to their gig.…
Not prepared to miss acclaimed three time BBC folk award nominees Gilmore & Roberts, I headed to see them in action at Komedia in Brighton on Thursday 13th October. This date was the 9th their 21 gig tour, celebrating their first decade of performing together.
Music aside, what’s great about this duo is their relaxed, banter-laden stage presence – watching them perform is a bit like spending time with a good old friend. However, the real joy of this gig was that it gave the audience a chance to truly revel in the fantastic songs, old and new, of Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts over the last ten years.…
Songlines review – Conflict Tourism.
The British duo’s fourth album has a strong thread of stories, settings and characters. It’s a folk-pop concept album with some really catchy choruses that address conflicts personal, political, territorial, universal. The distinctive fiddle and guitar of Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts have been joined by a cracking rhythm section of double bassist Matt Downer and percussionist Mark Tucker, who also programmed some effective drum patterns. That mix of accomplished acoustic musicianship and subtle electronics works well on the likes of Jack O Lantern, Roberts’ take on the origin of the Halloween tradition.…
fRoots review – Conflict Tourism
Multiple-award-nominees and a perennially stylish ‘hot property’ act, Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts have latterly spent a whole year touring while at the same time writing a new batch of songs, which, it soon became apparent, tackle head-on the common theme of conflict (notably our personal dramas and internal struggles and tensions) to which they prove expert guides for the musical tourist.
The universality of the album theme is brought home strongly through its fresh and punchy contemporary sound, which is, I suspect, largely down to the involvement of Mark Tucker.…
“They can go home and tell their friends, ‘I was on the border and I saw a battle.’”
Marom, retired Colonel, Israel Defence Forces (now working in tourism). The Atlantic: July 2014
The above quote relates to those who stand on the Israeli Syrian border watching the consequences of the civil war in a new rise of ‘Dark Tourism’. With conflict of every kind much to the fore in people’s minds, the timing and naming of Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts new album is apt.
‘Conflict Tourism’, the fourth album from Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts is due for release on 18 September 2015 and it’s something so powerful that to miss it would be verging on criminal.From the outset, Gilmore & Roberts created a sound that became and remains unquestionably their own. Folk in its many guises has many exponents that blaze unique paths through the genre, folk in this case has a duo that writes songs with a distinctive edge, the combination of instruments and voices making each song make a hard-hitting statement.…