Dana & Susan Robinson
Album: American Hornpipe
Label: Threshold
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.robinsongs.com

The timely release of this charismatic Asheville (North Carolina) -based duo's fourth CD together heralds a massive clutch of UK tour dates, and it's easy to see why the couple commands loyal audiences and manages to steadily increase its following on each successive visit to the UK (this year's, incredibly, is their eleventh!).

Dana and Susan's very special brand of music has been described as "new-time old-time", since it both references and draws on the various old-time traditions, fusing them with gentle world influences and making them relevant to today. This encourages a healthy stylistic versatility that you don't always get with contemporary exponents of old-time, naturally displaying several strands to their seemingly effortless musical expertise. Firstly, therefore, on their latest CD we're treated to freshly-minted takes on a handful of songs of traditional origin. The disc opens with chunky, funky mando joined by tasteful electric guitar on an unusually uptempo setting of Who Killed Cock Robin?, then later really delivers on a defiantly foot-tapping version of Raleigh And Spencer (Dana rightly credits Geoff Bartley's arrangement here, but the infectious groove of this track is just as much down to the playing of Dana and Susan's neat little rhythm section, River Guerguerigan and Eliot Wadopian, as to the fancy yet unassuming fretwork of Dana and Susan themselves). The couple also bring us a thoughtful and well-harmonised rendition of Pete Sutherland's unusual arrangement of Will The Circle Be Unbroken that takes the song into an entirely different dimension from the table-thumping session-staple we know and love; there's also an affecting performance of Lazy John, and Susan turns in an economical acappella Fair And Tender Ladies for good measure.

But many listeners will consider Dana's lovely original song The Invitation the highpoint of the disc; this reminiscence of three days spent in an old farmhouse to just "unplug and recharge" proves a wistful little masterpiece. Indeed, if I've any criticism of this fine record at all, it's that I'd have liked to've seen one or two more of Dana's own compositions on board! But there's still plenty of goodies to savour, not least (and quite literally, as it turns out!) on the delightful Farmers' Market A-Z, penned by Lui Collins, a culinary catalogue that suits Susan's charming singing voice down to the ground. Dana and Susan also make a very good fist of Fashioned Of The Clay, Chris Coe's canny (and memorably catchy) twist on The Grey Cock ballad.

Finally, the disc's five instrumental cuts provide a salutary reminder of Dana and Susan's quiet accomplishment as instrumentalists (between them playing an assortment of guitars and banjo, and Dana adding mandolins, fiddle and harmonica to his armoury as a sizeable bonus); the refreshing hallmarks of their playing are a supremely elegant control of nuance and dynamics and a characteristically unhurried gait that almost undersells (while not actually concealing) the duo's entirely winning, and perennially artful, virtuosity.

David Kidman