| Performance Notes | Formed by Belfast born five-string banjo player Pat McGarvey in 2006 and taking their name from the groundbreaking multi-racial union of sharecroppers and nonlandowning tenant farmers founded in Arkansas in the 1930s (the Southern Tenant Farmers Union), the Edinburgh-based Southern Tenant Folk Union are now the most highly rated folk and bluegrass outfit in the UK today.
Now with their fourth album they've continued to appropriate themes and ancient sounding chord progressions from traditional folk songs. Using these to document and reflect modern life they keep the essential simplicity and directness of style but often with a modern update to the underlying lyrical subject matter.
"A bold concept piece" Andy Gill, The Independent, 4 stars.
"Surging vocal harmonies riding a railroad of strings" Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman,4 stars |