They may be a young group, but they’re coming of the back of nominations for both a BBC Folk Award and a Scots Trad Music Award, and a quickly growing reputation for great live shows, the stars all seem to be aligned for this new album to create a real impact for 6 piece, all girl, folk group The Shee.
Comparisons with the Poozies are hard to avoid as the Shee occupy similar ground of traditional song and tunes, with fantastic musicianship and great vocals, but closer listening shows that the Shee have a greater range of musical influences as the album takes its cues from a huge range of styles including Scots, Gaelic, English, American and more. The results are a powerful mix of influences and styles that sound fresh and contemporary, but still with their roots in the tradition.
The opening track ‘Troubles’ showcases the band perfectly – it opens with unaccompanied vocals, before adding various instrumental layers and driving rhythms until it turns into something that’s evocative of Crooked Still in both Laura-Beth Salter’s vocal delivery and overall style.
Across all 11 tracks the band alternate between songs and tunes – three of the band share vocal duties across the disc, taking the lead on 2 songs each; and the tunes are played by the whole band who demonstrate their instrumental skills across the whole album with a unique blend of fiddle, viola, mandolin, accordion, electroharp and flute. The instrumental mix works superbly well on both driving, rhythmic pieces and on the quieter more laid-back arrangements; add to that a balanced mix of songs and tunes, plus a good mixture of trad and new material, and you have a thoroughly modern folk album that will appeal to many.
‘Decadence’ is an excellent album in every respect, from the striking packaging onwards this is an album that deserves to be a real success.
Track listing
1 Troubles
2 Shotgun
3 Vandy Vandy
4 Hand Ba' Breakdown
5 Eppie Morrie
6 Pipers and Polys
7 Morning Star
8 Puirt
9 Meltdown
10 Room to Breathe
11 Sugar and Pie
