Various Artists: The Rough Guide to TexMex (World Music Network)
Another one in this revealing series turns the spotlight on the music that hails from either side of the Border between Mexico and Texas. Tex-Mex had all the cachet of a Big Tom ballad before Ry Cooder adopted it for his Chicken Skin Music album in the late 1970s. That album introduced to a wider audience the electric sound of accordionist Flaco Jimenez, who embellishes the polkas and sentimental ballads of the genre with colourful flourishes. He is not alone. The 19 tracks on this collection feature a broad range of talent, but unfortunately much of it is quite average; a series of listless polkas and uninspired ballads. The exceptions are a couple of tunes by Jimenez and a few other notables.
Joe Breen
Hank Williams: Live at the Grand Ole Opry (Mercury)
If ever there was a collector's item then this is it. Williams didn't have a long career at the Opry but, courtesy of the US army, which recorded the shows for the troops, most of his performances survive. And what they reveal is a man who lived the darkest nightmare of his audience, yet turned it into a series of rough-hewn gems .
As Rick Bragg says in the sleeve notes, for the poor white customers "he was us". These raw, edgy country tunes and blues, played to a whooping party-time audience and between vaudeville patter (a separate bonus CD features some dodgy entertainment), are light-years distant from modern-day Nashville. They are of their time, imperfections and all. A fascinating addition to the Williams catalogue.
Joe Breen
James Keane: Sweeter As The Years Roll By (Shanachie)
Thirty years in America now, and this great button-box-player can still lift the kilt on you straight away with his great humour and rapid, long-fingered flitters; the driving up-tempo underlying the swooning phrases; or the way he can shake up a well-worn jig. Apart from Garry O Briain's careful accompaniment and the fiddler-brother Sean (of the Chieftains) for company, Keane hosts some gifted babes-in-puberty: Michael Rooney's Clayderfingered harp, and fluter Ronan Ryan and his compatriots in Turas. But with that squeeze-box, Keane on his own can produce a rugged, impeccable session; a mature old pro who paints a fat grin on your face every time. Hup, ye boy, ye.
Mic Moroney
Various Artists: Maestros Solistas Europeos de Gaita (Beltaine Records)
Pipes shock the modern ear, and even pan-European maestros can momentarily swivel your neck into a rictus. First out is Breton, Patrick Molard, an exemplar of the huge Scottish and Irish influence on continental traditions. Xesus Vaamonde collides baroque and Galician styles, scaling high arpeggios with twitching ornament. Bulgarian Petko Stephanov, bagpipe slung over his shoulder like a hospital drip, deliriously switches Balkan time signatures. Mick O'Brien has a nice groove and Ennis-y regulators. Asturian Jose Manuel Fdez is a harsh triumph of ornament over melody, while Rory Campbell marches home well for the Hebrides. If you can't track down this hardcore import, torment Na Piobaire Uileann to release a few copies.
Mic Moroney
