fRoots magazine May 07
Review by Brian Peters


"Beggar Boy of the North"
Greg Stephens and Crookfinger Jack

Here's a welcome reissue for a near 30 - year old recording of
North-Western English dance music that proved a seminal influence on
the (admittedly few) people that heard it first time around. Led by
twin fiddles and rejecting the late 70's fashion for melodeons,
Crookfinger Jack included both cello and double bass, producing a
village band sound that sacrificed sophistication in favour of
wildness, drive and bollocks by the bucketful.

To hear tunes like Cumberland Nelly and Northern Nanny propelled along
by a harrumphing cello is truly heartwarming, while The One-Horned
Sheep and Cantsfield Polka - complete with outrageous key changes -
are
bursting with life and fun. You also get some of the earliest and
best
attempts by contemporary musicians to tackle the now-fashionable 3:2
hornpipes, and a spectacularly beautiful slow air in The Northern
Lass.
The baroque-sounding arrangements of Chester Waits and Farewell
Manchester are less successful, but generally this stands up extremely
well in 2007.