‘The One Thing That I Know' EP by The Magpies
Review
This is the first review in the magazine of The Magpies and I'm sorry about that: I am not entirely sure why that's the case but it's probably down to the fact that I'm still yet to see them live and because they represent precisely what I've always hoped for in the career of member Ellie Gowers: a context for her musicianship beyond our local area.
In this case we are not just talking a national but an international profile as the band describe themselves as "transatlantic folk".
It's not of course just Ellie in the band: she works with Bella Gaffney (guitarist and banjoist) and Holly Brandon (fiddle) and in reviewing her great EP ‘You, The Passenger', I rather skated over the fact that the songs on that release inspired & written in Canada were in fact done so on tour with The Magpies.
Consequently, while delighted how Ellie is getting the wider recognition I predicted over numerous years, The Magpies as a trio do not have her personal connection to Coventry nor Warwickshire and so do not play round here: upcoming shows are in York, Birmingham & London.
Nevertheless, it was remiss of me to fail to tell you of albums including their debut ‘Tidings' and its follow up ‘Undertow' given the presence in their ranks of one of our most acclaimed & beloved musicians so here I am jumping aboard the wagon on the release of their ‘The One Thing That I Know' EP.
Obviously the project is one of those fortunate supergroups where their personal & musical chemistry transcends the sum of the considerable parts and all three bring different styles & interests to the communal pot: which range from more European/Celtic/British ones to American ones like bluegrass and Appalachian folk.
Factor in three top notch writers, three top notch singers and instrumentalists of a similar standard & clearly you have a recipe for much success, but the key (and hardly surprising if you know Ellie) is that it is not about just the beauty of the sound they combine to make but what they choose to focus their talents upon: they have a mission to "champion gender equality in the music industry, with a fervent thread of feminism running through their music" which gives the records more value and greater impact than just musicality.
(As an aside which isn't really as profound as the preceding paragraph admittedly, I'm hardly surprised to find Ellie in a band named after one of our feathered friends given so many of her previous solo live & recorded songs.. although she probably would have also been happy if they'd named themselves after a breed of horse: one of which, perhaps not uncoincidentally, appears on the EP artwork).
So what of ‘The One Thing That I Know'? Well it has a quartet of tracks: "Painted Pony", "Ebb and Flow", "Marigold's" (sic) and "All Night". They were augmented by Kate Griffin (vocals, dobro), Fred Claridge (drums, percussion) and Jim Moray (bass, organ, percussion and mandola) with Jim producing & mixing them all (Dan Webster recorded "All Night", Jim the other three).
Well from that start I expected tasteful and compelling playing: I can tick that off as I can exquisite harmonies. You can listen to this & simply enjoy the sound. But that's wasting opportunities to dig deeper and it's also not terribly respectful of the writing.
What they nail down most potently is their catalysing of generally traditional musical forms with contemporary lyrics: this is fresh and urgent with plenty of wit and acerbic humour to delight in: I must say I took it to my heart instantly. Cue a bout of regret at entering The Magpies world so late. If that's what you are doing too, fortunately their canon is easily available on Bandcamp for exploration: including a startling version of Eurhythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)". Startling more in the sense of not being what I'd expected: the interpretation is frankly superb. I do hope the original artists have heard it.
Returning to the EP, like all folk & roots artists, the band like stories and telling them in ways which engage and I suppose the whole collection ("Marigold's" is an instrumental so says what they want to say in a non verbal manner) is an articulation of life lessons to date learned. Some of these may be familiar from Ellie's work but clearly getting together with Bella & Holly was predicated upon sharing values so it's not surprising to find digs at creeping urbanisation, societal disfunction, loss of communal connection, personal vanities etc plus a sea related song.
It's all terribly beautiful but all the more so because of the sentiments being expressed: you get plenty of humanity and empathy amidst the more critical perspectives.
I'm hooked & although the chances of seeing them live seem a bit remote, at least I can hear them on record and be pleased at how well they are being received by other writers and by the prestige of the places in which they are being asked to play.
I'll go a bit more parochial to finish with (this is a local music magazine after all) and remind you that you can see Ellie play live locally at Kenilworth United Reformed Church on December 5th at the conclusion of her UK tour (tickets at https://www.bandsintown.com/a/12260707-ellie-gowers though last I heard was that there were only eight left so you'd best hurry).
