Northbound

There is a lot to like about this debut album from Newcastle-based four-piece Assembly Lane. Comprising mandolin player Tom Kimber, fiddler Niles Krieger, double bassist Bevan Morris and guitarist/singer Matthew Ord, they are a tight, expressive unit. The opening ‘The Hills of Mexico’, one of Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes favourites, gets treated to some thrilling mandolin-fiddle interplay, while the following ‘Ain’t No More Cane' mixes loose-limbed ensemble work with equally loose and ragged harmony vocals, around which Krieger's fiddle roams and wanders like a ripping yarn told over a jar of moonshine. These openers, and the ballad ‘1845’, are fine reclamations of old American tunes; they sit well beside ancient British ballads such as ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ and ‘The Fair Flower of Northumberland’. Then there's Tom Kimber's contemporary bluegrass tunes, the excellent ‘Mind the Gap’, ‘Northbound’ and ‘Fivefold’, which hold up well beside Bill Monroe's ‘Road to Columbus’. The group's tight interplay, improvisations and strong vocals are brought to the fore, while the variety of material is bound by a distinctive group identity. It all adds up to a strong new presence in contemporary folk.