The InCider Sessions

Whatever fiddler Adam Summerhayes is on, I want some. He’s known for his formidable talent in classtcal and tolk traditions, but his sheer output is that of a man on acid. Last issue, I reviewed The Haar, his latest project with percussionist Cormac Byrne. This time, he’s teamed up with accordionist Murray Grainger for the duo’s second album together.

Grainger is – like Byrne – a member of Dodo Street Band, yet another outfit the irrepressible Summerhayes has recently conjured. So much for lack of musician’s block – what’s his latest outing like? Well, the album could be called The Lockdown Sessions, since it was created by the pair playing live together via the power of a phone line – one in his house in Derbyshire, the other in Lincolnshire. The result was one of the many lockdown social media music sessions, and this is a sampler of it. Given the context, there is a perhaps unsurprisingly pensive atmosphere. The fiddle and accordion draw the dirges out between them with a languid sense of melancholy on a mix of traditional and original tunes, the pick of which is ‘Neil Gow’s Lament’. But there’s time for lighter frivolity too, such as on the upbeat ‘The Highwayman’s Rat’. The InCider Sessions is an album of atmospheric and timeless stuff.