Through the Seasons: A Year in Morris and Folk Dance

Will Pound's incendiary harmonica playing has overshadowed his mastery of the melodeon – an injustice Through the Seasons puts to rights. Pound has, since childhood, been a dancer too – with Chinewrde and Earlsdon Morris sides – so he has an informed appreciation of the tunes that accompany the dancing. This album celebrates these, featuring versions of tunes such as ‘Trunkles’ and ‘The Quaker’, beloved by Cotswold tradition dancers, getting to the heart of the melodies and rhythms. For instance, Pound honours the ‘slows’ – the moments in a tune when the tempo dramatically decelerates to allow or impel some fancy footwork.

Britain has several dance traditions; Will Pound has been involved with most and explores these temporally and geographically. In ‘Fanny Frail’ Benji Kirkpatrick's percussive banjo captures the particular rhythmic feel of Border Morris; ‘Salmon Tails’ has the progress-and-pause movement of north-west processional dancing; ‘Blackthorn Stick’ bowls along with the velocity of rapper dancing from the north-east.

Throughout Through the Seasons, Pound draws on musicians steeped in the different traditions; Border dancer and squeezebox supremo John Kirkpatrick plays concertina and Eliza Carthy sings ‘The Nutting Girl’. There are some recordings made at the events where the dances are performed. This is, however, not an anthropological exercise: after all, rapper sides don’t tour the pubs of Newcastle with a grand piano, but Suzanne Fivey plays one on ‘Blackthorn Stick’ because it serves the tune. The music is what matters, and Pound's tour through it is a delight.