Roots Roundup – Lucy Zirins vs. JJ Grey & Mofro vs. Lucy Ward
LUCY ZIRINS
Chasing Clocks
Gingersnap
Ms Zirins has been getting bigged up by the British blues community, and has certainly done her profile some good at blues festivals up and down the country but, like the not dissimilar Jo Harman, she’s not a blues singer.
She’s got an awful lot more in common with the confessional singer / songwriters of the early seventies, who populated the Laurel Canyon scene, and this record would have sat happily alongside them. Because she’s very good.
Her debut album, “Chasing Clocks”, sees Ms Zirins presenting 12 self penned songs, superbly produced by slide guitar legend, Michael Messer, that show her laid back songs at their best. Don’t come here if you’re looking to put your dancing shows on, but with a lovely voice and songs to match, it’s a cracking wee album. The best of the bunch are ‘Separate Ways’, ‘Tearing Me Down’ and ‘Hours to Waste’, and if Radio 2 get a whiff of this, then the sky is the limit.
JJ GREY & MOFRO
The River
Alligator
JJ Grey doesn’t make rubbish albums. For sure, there are some lesser moments in his back catalogue, but a by the numbers Mofro track is still better than most others. And this isn’t an album chock full of lesser moments. No, this is a goody.
Granted, there is nothing in amongst the funky, southern blues and rock style grooves that you won’t have heard on any other Mofro record, but my goodness, it’s a righteous noise. If you want to shake your booty, then you can’t go wrong with songs like ‘Your Lady, She’s Shady’, ‘Somebody Else’ and ’99 Shades of Crazy’.
Granted, when the tempo drops, then so does your interest, but even a song like ‘Write A Letter’ is from the top drawer of Mofro music.
LUCY WARD
Single Flame
Navigator
“Adelphi Has To Fly” was one of my surprise treats of 2011, coming from nowhere, and ending up as one of my favourite folk albums of the year. This is the follow up, and I have to admit, I’m disappointed.
Whereas “Adelphi” tinkered at the edges of folk, this new one seems to be more a headlong rush into the world of indie, which is not a place I care to spend much time. Even the richness of her voice seems to have vanished. In fact, if I’d read the press release properly, phrases “finds Lucy organically broadening her musical palette” and “balancing the contemporary and the traditional is never an easy act to achieve” would have sent some major alarm bells ringing.
However, she’s in the first flush of youth, and if she wants to do something different with her music, then it’s her call. There are still some great lyrics around on songs like ‘Rites Of Man’ and ‘Lord I Don’t Want To Die In The Storm’, but I hunted gamely for a tune I’d want to listen to twice. Fair play to Ms Ward for chasing her muse, but I’ll have a cuppa and listen to “Adelphi” instead.
Lucy Ward singing
The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
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