Lineup
Vocals, guitar, keyboards
Ben Murray
Vocals, accordian, keyboards, guitar, whistles
Ben & Rosie discography
Live review
03.03.06 Golden Lion, Cambridge Folk Club
Heritage is a big thing in folk music, perhaps THE big thing, but something new is happening; a raft of new acts who acknowledge their roots and background but are walking out into the world rooted in the present and with their eyes firmly set on the horizon.
Probably the best unsigned band doing just this is Ben Murray and Rosie Doonan, in a room above a pub in cambridge on a freezing cold night in march they transported the crowd into a warmer place entirely.
A
relaxed and assured pair of performers who engage warmly with the audience,
Ben managing to raise a laugh even when explaining the background to the
saddest songs of loss and sorrow. Rosie was donated
a pair of socks that would have fitted a bear to warm her feet up, which
she promptly put on over her shoes (see pic, right).
I wondered how they would carry some of the songs from their album Mill Lane off as a duo on stage, Need You Around has a languorous jazz percussion on CD, live with just keyboards and guitar their incredible vocals breathed a different mood into the piece. As a duo they seem organically linked in some way, working together to weave a magically charged ambience. Through the songs Gypsy Davey, Innishcarra, Holding On and Next Time the originality and innovation of their arrangements gave me that tingling sensation that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
From mythic Celtic tales of Selkie seal folk stealing the hearts of men, to reflections on how our hearts heal after love passes, Rosie and Ben have the maturity of their heritage and the passion for their material that will carry them through a long career. They concluded their set with Woodstock by Joni Mitchell, they made it their own, Rosie's vocal was frighteningly good
Rosie Doonan and Ben Murray
Sadly Rosie and Ben have split up, here is the info on their brief career!
Much is said of these guys pedigree, both being the offspring of revered musicians from the North-east, what makes them unique is the way they have taken that heritage, mixed it with their own influences and come up with a sound that is so special.
Their vocals are distinctive and complement each other perfectly, imagine
Peter Gabriel duetting with Sandy Denny and you are getting close. A sense
of worldly wisdom in their voices imbues their interpretations of trad material
with a life affirming tingle-up-the-spine quality. Their original material
deals head on with the human condition, I challenge anyone to listen to Need
You Around,
with it's late night jazz noir ambience and tell me you're not moved.
Ben and Rosie have grown up immersed in music, their families are musicians, and they have that sense of place that is an unspoken spiritual link in all good folk music. Ben is a talented pianist and accordian player. Rosie has a sublimely spare technique on the guitar, a single note emoting more than many can manage in a whole song. Mill Lane is key album in contemporary acoustic/roots music.
Nominated
for the Horizon award in the Radio 2 Folk awards 2006.
Oh yes, that musical heritage -
"Both Rosie's and Ben's dads were founder members of that legendary and
much missed folk/rock ensemble Hedgehog Pie, a band whose dynamic
approach to Irish and Northeastern folk song and dance music still
echoes down the years to the core inspirations behind Ben's previous
band, Tarras."