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Written in fRoots issue 275, 2006
 

PLOCEK & ŠURANSKÁ
Písňobraní
Indies MAM 264-2 (2005)

Jiří Plocek and Jitka Šuranská were members of Teagrass, a band that surprisingly effectively blended Moravian folk music with bluegrass instrumentation and feel. (For Finland’s Värttinä, too, some of the approaches of bluegrass were a step along the way to working out ways to accompany folk music; European music emigrating to North America and later returning to assist back home).
      This album is a step forward in reconnection of present-day musicians to village traditions. It unveils Moravian folk songs, performed simple and direct, and more in touch with the old modalities than the foursquare approach of most Moravian cimbalom/fiddle-centred bands. Back to basics indeed but it isn’t a purist exercise; these are musicians of today, with their personal traditions and awareness, treating their traditional music with confidence and understanding.
      Most tracks feature just the two of them. Šuranská has a clear, unaffected voice, and also plays fiddle, with Plocek (who’s also boss of the Gnosis Brno folk music label) on mandolin, traditional wooden whistles, fiddle, guitar and a soft-toned unkeyed folk clarinet. For a handful of songs they’re joined by a couple of Teagrass colleagues on double bass and tin whistle, and there are two characterfully hoarse vocals from Roman Dostál and 83-year-old Jaromír Nečas, a major mover in Moravian traditional music as ethnomusicologist and radio producer.
      The result is a refreshing and, it may turn out, influential trip through the melodic strength, beauty and variety of Moravian folk music.
      www.indiesrec.cz


© 2006 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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