Grad Gori!

For some years singer Brina Vogelnik has headed one of Slovenia's most popular neo-folk bands, Brina, mixing folklore with a distinctly pop sensibility. Her new band, whose name means ‘Castle on Fire’ and features a trio of voice, violin and accordion (plus guest percussionist Blaž Celarec), retains that fondness for combining disparate styles. The music draws from a lucky dip of material but the main points of reference are Scandinavia (with wonderfully idiomatic fiddling by Barja Drnovšek) as in the opening ‘Lars’; the Slovenian oral tradition (in the ballad ‘Lepa Jana’, with its gorgeous interplay between violin and accordion), and American folk song. Laments about the harsh life of an immigrant (‘the trains in New York whistled, and took me to Johnstone Town – nothing but factories in Johnstone Town’) rub shoulders with tales of lake monsters and maidens. Perhaps the most complex history lies behind ‘Johnny’, originally the comic Victorian music-hall song written by Joseph Geoghegan, ‘Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye’, which once transposed to the US became an anti-war anthem, made famous by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and here makes a bitter commentary on today's neo-imperial wars.

The quality of Brina Vogelnik's sometimes boisterous, sometimes confiding voice is well served by the sensitive performances by Drnovšek and Matija Solce on accordion, ably aided by Celarec.