Get yourself down to your local WH Smith's and grab a copy of the latest Rock & Reel magazine where the new Rattlebag CD "Shifting Shapes" has been given a very favorable review. Or, if you'd rather save your money and not risk being informed that the shop "isn't a library", you could always read it here. This is an accurate transcript. All odd bits of prose and scandalous charges of being "middle aged" are theirs:"Displaying eclecticism and unpredictability equally, this is the second collection by a formidable a capella quintet formed by middle-aged denizens of a Hastings pub and its folk club. They trade mostly in overhauls and, in some cases, virtual rewrites of traditional songs, but have the unmitigated audacity to throw in arrangements of, say, Cerys Matthew's 'Chardonnay' - on their 2008 maiden 'Girls Who are Drinkers - and 'The Scarlet Tide' from Elvis Costello's Delivery Man.
While the latter is sandwiched between the late Peter Bellamy's 'I Once Lived in Service' and 'The Tyburn Sisters' - Rattlebag lyrics to a Swedish melody - the run-on effect is seamless. It's the same when gospel ditty 'I'll Fly Away' follows the late mediaeval 'Auchindoun', owing to the ensemble impregnating any given musical genre with an ingrained originality.
Paradoxically the only issue I have is with the programming. Though led by Lynne Heffernan's assured soprano, downbeat 'Bright Morning Star' (from the Oysterband portfolio) might not have been the soundest choice of opening salvo, other than its evocation of the pageant of sunrise. Yet this is a minor criticism of an offering that can only enhance growing regional and, potentially, national renown."
So there you go.
Fancy a copy of "Shifting Shapes"? Getting one has just become a bit easier. More on this later!
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