Album Review: No Crows, Escape

This is No Crows’ sixth album, recorded a few months back at two concerts in Leitrim. When an LP is as finely recorded as this, with such sparkling musicianship, there’s nothing much to do but luxuriate in it. Escape showcases a band on a roll, delivering an eclectic mix of Irish trad, classical, jazz and world music.

Those flavours are present from the off in fiddler Steve Wickham’s eastern European-isms on his own ‘Dancing In The Kitchen’, as he tows the band along at a fine pace. Ray Coen and Felipe Carbonell’s thoughtful guitar-playing do a similar job on the former’s composition in memory of the late drummer Jimmy Mackey. Bassist Eddie Lee’s ‘Waltz for Carole’ has a sombre mood, reinforced by Oleg Ponomerov’s fiddle. The latter also delivers a jolly Swedish polka called, er, ‘Swedish Polka’, and there’s an irresistible poignancy to their martial take on the Scottish folk song ‘Will Ye Go To Flanders?’

There’s space for guests too, with singer Lisa Lambe and accordionist Martin Tourish chipping in on ‘One Train Away’. There’s a subtle country feel to this Drazen Derek-Tourish original, with Lambe’s assured vocal bringing Alison Krauss to mind. Elsewhere, Tourish sprinkles his magic over several tracks, including his own ‘Midnight In Siena’; Wickham brings gruff Waitsian vocals to his own ‘Pascal’; and they really turn it up for Ponomerov’s Balkan-infused ‘Crows Hora’.

And so it goes, almost a full hour of classy music that takes you here, there and everywhere, evoking a full bag of emotions along the way.

8/10

out now · JACKIE HAYDEN