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Now based in Bristol, the title of the folk instrumental duo Thorpe & Morrison’s third album, Grass & Granite, is a reference to fiddle player Sean (Morrison) and guitarist Harry’s (Thorpe) countryside upbringings in Ayrshire and Suffolk and their former adopted home in Birmingham (the cover also shows a house carved into the standing stones in the Outer Hebrides from whence Sean’s grandfather came) while reflecting the pastoral and industrial aspects of their sound.
Grass & Granite is a glowing testament to their musicianship and virtuosity. It includes traditional English, Scottish, and Irish tunes as well as self-penned material. The album draws on themes that explore longings for home and moving on to new experiences.
The lively opener, Big Skies & Water Meadows (which incorporates Damien O’Kane’s Castlerock Road), is an invocation of the landscape where Harry was raised in a cottage beside a water meadow. Original numbers also include his more ruminative fingerpicked Something New written for friends embarking on journeys into the unknown; the fiddle-led Coast To Coast is inspired by the journey of two friends across America, one proposing to the other on reaching their destination, while a jazzy pizzicato fingerpicked and dancing fiddle Merlin the Wolfhound relates to an overly amorous, Guinness-drinking Irish wolfhound and, continuing the playfulness, the rhythmically choppy Claudette’s Last Dance is a fond farewell to the duo’s faithful Peugeot.
On the Tradfolk front, there’s the self-descriptive Wedding Marches, a pairing of two Danish tunes, the fiddle pulsing Causeway Joy, inspired by the Outer Hebrides and combining The Oysters Wives Rant and Ales Engelska by Danish cittern player Ale Carr (Dreamer’s Circus), with Scottish slow air lament Put The Gown Upon The Bishop closing up shop.
There are three vocal tracks: two traditional, The Girl I Left Behind Me (incorporating two fiddle reels) and Sovay, sung by Michelle Holloway from Bonfire Radicals and rounded off with Sean’s Gizmo’s Tunes, and a slow waltzing cover of The Pogues’ Rainy Night In Soho with plucked and bowed fiddle.
Thorpe & Morrison have been gradually building a hefty reputation on the folk circuit over the past five years; Grass & Granite firmly cements them in the major leagues.
Grass & Granite (12th October 2024) Self Released
Order via Bandcamp: https://thorpeandmorrison.bandcamp.com/album/grass-granite
For upcoming live dates this month, visit: https://thorpeandmorrison.com/
