The Woman and Her Words

Accordionist, singer and dancer Hannah James has been an adventurous and much-admired figure on the folk scene through her many explorations, whether as a champion clog dancer; a mainstay of Kerfuffle, Lady Maisery and the Demon Barber Roadshow; a duo performer with Sam Sweeney or Tuulikki Bartosik, or as a solo artist whose JigDoll show represents a triumphant blend of cutting-edge music technology with percussive dance.

From that has grown a pan-European project, the JigDoll Ensemble, whose members include Kate Young from Scotland on fiddle and vocals, Marti Tärn from Estonia on bass, András Des from Hungary on percussion and Toby Kuhn from France on cello. Further emphasising their internationalism, their album was recorded in Budapest. It's clearly a significant album for James, moving on, she feels, from ‘trying to embody and represent a tradition accurately’ towards something more personal and mature. Deeply felt songs such as the nearly ten-minute title-track, lamenting love and lives sacrificed to the world's demands, and the celebration in ‘Dayspring’ of new young activists demanding better environmental policies sits alongside the playful yet sophisticated rhythmic interplay of the ironically named ‘What the Hell Was That?’ and a joyfully irresistible full-band revisiting of ‘Tuulikki's Tune’.