Moore Moss Rutter
RootBeat records: RBRCD10 From their traditional opening tune The Drummer/Mount Hills Tom Moore, fiddle, Archie Churchill-Moss, melodeon and Jack Rutter guitar, play with a maturity and skill that makes it hard to appreciate they are all under twenty. Winners of BBC folk awards 2011, their style of English music comes over as sophisticated and inventive with original offerings written by them and showcasing their individual talents, nestling comfortably beside imaginative arrangements of traditional tunes. Of their own compositions Tom's six-part tune The Scorpion and Jack's sensitive Lapwings At Night, highlight the trio’s musical empathy and maturity. Though their music often appears gentle and laid back, when they pull out the stops, as on the disc's finale William Taylor’s Tabletop Hornpipe/Savage Hornpipe, a rollicking set of hornpipes, they prove themselves more than capable of making the cinders fly. Of the ten tracks two are vocals each performed by Jack Rutter. Both The Galway Shawl and The Dalesman’s Litany seem reminiscent in style to that championed by the Unthanks but lacking their confidence and commitment. Though there is nothing wrong with either track and the inclusion of Tom’s energetic tune A Trip To Priddy does much to lift Dalesman’s, the addition of vocals in the musical mix needs a little more work to match the musical quality of the instrumentals. The three were well received at many of the major festivals last year. I suspect this CD has earned them return visits – if they haven’t been booked already.
Brian Cope Review from Folk London - February 2012
