27th July 2024
Since the release of their first album back in 2006, Gilmore & Roberts have not only displayed a propensity for delivering some of the most electrifying and engaging live performances on the folk, roots and acoustic circuit, but they have also been responsible for delivering many of the most articulate and well-written songs of the century so far. Documenting Snapshots is another magnificent album that furthers their reputation as one of the country’s finest acoustic roots duos.
Some five years have passed since the release of their previous album, A Problem Of Our Kind, a period that has witnessed immense changes and upheavals, both in a wider, global sense and also in terms of the duo’s own personal circumstances. Regarding the former, Katriona Gilmore observes, “So much has changed since our last album…It feels like a different landscape altogether”, and Jamie Roberts adds, “The music industry is still feeling the fallout of the pandemic.” Add the arrival of two small children, Rosalie and Casper, into their household, and a picture of the background to this latest album, their sixth, begins to be painted.
Produced, recorded and mixed at home over a one-year period by Jamie (with the exception of one track) and augmented by Basel-based Yorkshireman Tommy Fuller on double and electric bass, Katriona is credited with vocals fiddle, mandolin and viola, with Jamie contributing vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, banjo, mandola, percussion & programming, Documenting Snapshots contains ten original tracks written by either Katriona or Jamie, plus one sumptuous reinterpretation.
The album’s title is also apt, chronicling and capturing aspects of the duo’s lives, personal moments reflected in subjects such as parenthood, bereavement, loss and grief, family and heritage, and the exploration of historical tales and narratives.
Musically, the album demonstrates Katriona and Jamie’s consummate skill in offering a range of musical styles, genres and songs, simultaneously delivering their identifiable unique trademark sound while pushing barriers and boundaries towards new directions.
If evidence of the duo’s songwriting expertise were needed, you need look no further than the opening track, Jamie’s I, Burnum, Burnum. As previously mentioned, one of the hallmarks of Gilmore and Roberts is their propensity to unearth fascinating historical characters or events, which then form the basis of a song; this is the first of such on this release. Taken from his parents at barely three months old and given the name Harry Penrith, the sportsman, activist and author who was to change his name to Burnham Burnham (“Great Warrior”) in honour of his great great grandfather in 1976 was one of the Australian Aboriginals’ Stolen Generations. On Australian Bicentenary Day, 26th January 1988, he planted the Aboriginal Flag on the White Cliffs of Dover, near Folkestone Harbour, and issued the Burnham Burnham Declaration, claiming England on behalf of the Aboriginal people; the act lampooning the arrival of the English First Fleet in Australia in 1788. The somewhat ethereal, almost spooky opening conjures up an image of Uluru, an atmosphere further enhanced by the chanted vocalisations and electronic shimmerings. Repeated listening reveals layer upon layer of aural activity, with production levels of the highest interest and quality. As the song develops, particularly on the extended chorus before the final stanza, there is a definite and forceful rocky feel. As the song comes almost full circle and ends on a quieter, echoey fade, I’m mindful that my original listening notes state, “What a bloody powerful track this is.” I’ve not changed my mind after many listens.
Some readers might recall Things You Left Behind, a track from A Problem Of Our Kind, being both a Song Of The Day and getting a video premiere here on Folk Radio. On this release, Katriona presents an equally moving tribute to her late, much-missed Aunty Pauline with what can be viewed as a sequel, I’ll Take What I Can. Issued already as a single, the song features wonderful percussion, double, or multi-tracked vocals on the chorus with deep, sonorous strings and a captivating solo from the track’s composer, who writes that the song is “For anyone who takes comfort from the appearance of loved ones in dreams.”
For Blackwater Falls, Jamie again trawls the realms of the quaintly bizarre (The Stealing Arm anyone?) with a song based upon a story read in “The Darwin Awards”, the tongue-in-cheek honours which, as their website explains, “… honour those who tip chlorine into our gene pool, by accidentally removing their own DNA from it during the spectacular climax of a ‘great idea’ gone veddy, veddy wrong”. After a staccato opening, again with vari-tracked vocals, the song develops with an up-tempo rhythm and voices that blend in pure harmony as the salutary tale involving Dr. Bob, insomnia, chloroform and infidelity is told.
Back to Katriona for another more personal offering, Your Home. Written for their children, this is another touching song with which any parent can relate. Great guitar work from Jamie can be discerned in the background at times over the mandolin, with, once again, gorgeous vocal harmonies, as the comforting reassurance, which surely will be as applicable in their later lives as well as now in their childhood, is offered.
If you need a safe space to run to
Or a warm place to run to
If you need to see a kind face
Someone who loves you to hold you
I will always be your home
A return to a historical subject matter from Jamie with Workshop Of The World. In 1787, Manchester positioned itself as the city at the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement here in the UK. Many years later, during the American Civil War, Abe Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate states, and thus the export of cotton, dramatically impacted Manchester, the world’s largest cotton processor. 60% of its mills and those of the surrounding area fell idle. Despite the destitution, starvation and hardship that this caused, the workers refused to work with slave-picked cotton. In 1863, Lincoln wrote a letter of thanks to the cotton workers of northern England, expressing his gratitude for their solidarity. With a percussive beat emulating a spinning mule or equivalent loom/weaving machine, this is the perfect accompaniment to the banjo-led offering, which once again fairly rocks along to lyrics that reference and pay homage to the workers. Another cracking composition, and, notwithstanding its differing subject matter, should there ever be a sequel to The Gallows Pole TV series, a prime candidate for inclusion on the soundtrack.
Complacency in expecting the next track from Katriona is confounded as Jamie again takes the writing credit on a song entitled Sisterhood. This song was originally written for Good Blood, a dance theatre production created by lifelong family friends from Barnsley for whom Jamie wrote the accompanying music. The instrumental opening is truly atmospheric, with tempo changes creating an almost celestial feeling that culminates in an empyrean a cappella ending.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the good fortune to have seen some of the country’s finest violin/fiddle exponents, including Eliza Carthy, Sam Kelly, Peter Knight, Jackie Oates, Ric Sanders, Sam Sweeney and Adam Summerhayes. Katriona’s Harriet’s One, a delightful composition celebrating the first birthday of a little neighbour, more than holds its own with anything from these illustrious musicians. Could the title also be another example of the word-play so enjoyed by the duo, the apostrophe being able to be utilised in both its omission or possessive forms?
With A Man I’ve Never Known, it is Jamie’s turn to focus on the personal. This reflective song is inspired by a day at his in-laws’ house cataloguing the paintings of Katriona’s late professional artist grandfather, Jergen Sedgwick.
You can feel him there deep within the textures and the tones
As I’m looking through the eyes of a man I’ve never known
With its gentle, lilting melody, further sublime fiddle work from Katriona, and yet more delectable harmonies, the song is augmented by the use of artwork from Jergen’s Football At Dunwich on both the CD sleeve and within the accompanying notes.
Driven by some propulsive percussion, the chugging, country/bluegrass feel of Jamie’s energetic Change Your Tune, possibly owing a nod towards Nickel Creek, once again features a tremendous fiddle solo. Relating the story of Darryl Davies, a Black American blues musician and activist who has for three decades engaged with members of the Ku Klux Klan with a view to changing their views, the song has a chorus guaranteed to engender maximum audience participation.
The penultimate track, L’Inconnue De La Seine, written by Katriona, is another remarkable and fascinating narrative story. To avoid ‘spoilers’, it involves a young unidentified drowned woman, death masks, mid-20th century First Aid and a nodding reference to Michael Jackson. The gentle start to the song suits the subject matter well, but as the narrative develops, so does the tone and tempo of the music, culminating in a rousing, magisterial finale.
Would it be mischievous to suggest there might be some element of friendly sibling rivalry between this duo and Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman concerning the seeming proclivity of both to unearth tales of the weird and wonderful? As they sit around the table, does the conversation go along the lines of “I see your Bound To Stone, (Kathryn & Sean’s tale of Sara Winchester, wife of William, of Winchester repeating rifle fame) and I raise you Blackwater Falls and L’Inconnue De La Seine?”, I’d like to think so.
The final track is a magnificent interpretation of A Little Bit Of Everything, the highly lauded song from Dawes. Delivered unaccompanied, apart from a haunting drone note in the background, there is nowhere for Katriona and Jamie to hide. They nail it perfectly, and the emotion they wring from the lyrics is sublime. Having become mainstays of the folk, roots and acoustic scene, Documenting Snapshots is a magnificent, mercurial album that will cement and further enhance their reputation as purveyors of the finest-quality music.
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