I came across Stuart Estell a couple of years back when he was offering a bunch of mp3s of amusing cover versions done on a concertina (I’ll Be Your Mirror, Love Will Tear Us Apart, that sort of thing) so when I saw his name on MySpace a big bell went ting. He’s not been standing still in those two years and recently released an album, Mother’s Thinking Bath, an instrumental collection featuring “11 original tunes rooted firmly in the English and Appalachian folk traditions, and a wide range of instruments, including concertinas, appalachian mountain dulcimers, piano, harmonium, shruti box, and guitars”
Listen to samples and order it from here.
Stuart’s notable for his ability to take traditional songs any apply them to modern concerns (and vice versa) and it’s a no-brainer that I should feature his I Can’t Find Brummagem which takes a 100 year old song and tweaks it in line with the current changes in the city. And uses some guitar phrases from The Jesus And Mary Chain. More background here and here’s the mp3.
[audio:estell_brummagem.mp3]His website is built around a blog (meaning you can subscribe to it) and features new songs and general musings.
No forthcoming gigs that I can see but certainly someone to keep tabs on.
Stuart Estell - traditional songs, concertina, autoharp, dulcimer, guitar and more » Blog Archive » “I Can’t Find Brummagem” featured on Created In Birmingham blog/album update
[…] thanks to Pete Ashton of the Created In Birmingham blog for running an article about my version of I Can’t Find Brummagem and also for giving the album a plug – cheers […]