Here's a dark, sophisticated take on traditional folk, all the way from California. The Crooked Jades are an extremely talented five piece fronted by Jeff Kazor and Jennie Benford. The instrumentation is recognisably traditional - guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin with Megan Adie's bass adding beef so that the sound of the full band is pretty huge.
The arrangements, however, tend toward the dark and twisted: we don't get comfortable listening here, but rather get plugged into the intense pain and confusion that life can sometimes bring. And then, just to show they're not only about the darker side of life, they'll hoedown with the best of them and give us a raucous upbeat tune swuch as "Old Cow Died" and "Indian War Whoop". Here the playing is so intense and energetic, you can understand why The Crooked Jades have a reputation for getting their audiences up and dancing. Elsewhere, there are moments of intense beauty, particularly from Jennie Benford's singing or Adam Tanner's top-notch fiddle playing.
In fact, probably the highlight of the album for me is a Jennie Benford composition, "Girl on a Turnpike Road", where her sweet, clear voice offsets the hint of menace in the arrangement, the whole thing sounding intensely English. Close behind, though, would be the traditional tune "Shallow Brown", taken slowly and meditatively, and sung with intense feeling and beauty by Jeff Kazor.
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The characteristic tone of the album, though, is a kind of dark intensity that is compelling but not always easy to listen to. Jeff Kazor's vocals are frequently cracked, for example, and the arrangements are such that a traditional tune like "Blackberry Blossom" comes out rather more intense and introverted than normal, and I only wish I had the technical knowledge to understand how this effect is achieved. What is clear is that only a band with complete mastery of their material would be able to rework it so confidently and effectively or, for that matter, contribute new songs that sound as if they belong in the tradition.
I guess I have a worry that treating the old songs in the way the Jades do re-inforces a "Deliverance" style view of hillbilly life, but it could easily be that I'm not appreciating their "authenticity". They are certainly a counterbalance to the various sentimental takes on the tradition that are out there, and for that we can be grateful.
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