A Breath Against the Calm

Root & Branch are a quintet playing music from the UK, Ireland and the Appalachians on mandolin, fiddles, bouzouki, banjo, guitar and concertina, with Jess Whelligan's cello adding an unusual depth. A Breath Against the Calm, their first full album, alternates sets of jigs and reels with ballads.

The material is mostly traditional, but high points come from recently composed work that should be finding its way into the tradition: Martyn Bennett's tune ‘Shputnik in Glenshiel’ (here as just ‘Shputnik’) and ‘The Road to Germany’. The latter has the feel of an old song – ‘High Germany’, for instance – but is absolutely of today, telling the story of a young Syrian refugee's journey to Europe.

The album was recorded over a week in south-west France, and a nearby Cathar castle gave the name to ‘Cathar Rag’, in which the cello comes to the fore, intriguingly wrong-footing the piece rhythmically, before slipping into the plaintive old-time American tune ‘Hunting the Buffalo’.

There are three classic songs. ‘Hares on the Mountain’ is an exploration of female desire. ‘The Dalesman's Litany’ is about a countryman who, having had to labour all his working life in grim factories, has retired, returning to rural life – and contentment. A long, textured account of the murder ballad ‘Young Hunting’, in which the lethal weapon is wielded by a woman, winds up this enjoyable album.