this from the good people at the dyverse music blog...
Kirsty McGee: No.5 (Hobopop Recordings)
The case for Kirsty McGee as the best artist to come out of Manchester's neo-folk scene is strengthened by this live album, which manages the leap from orthodox acoustica to garage orchestra, with twisted electric guitar, malformed banjo, junkyard percussion and plangent reeds. Some of the songs are familiar from her other records, but the assured delivery shows how she now wears them like a second skin. McGee has a genius for removing the soft centre out of love songs and replacing with the hard nut of real feeling - Bliss and Dust Devils are skewed yet achingly vulnerable songs. Yet shape-shifting is no problem: she writes credibly as a scared soldier in Last Orders or as an unashamed Social Darwinist in Bonecrusher (bonus song, with cartoon animation). Her voice, with its crystalline diction and adventurous phrasing, is closer to jazz than folk.
we're having a lot of fun on tour right now... we're playing in durham next, on thursday. we heard a great singer at the open mic that opened our penrith show, and asked him to open up for us at the next show. we're delighted that he agreed - so watch out for a set from the astonishing rob heron at gala theatre on thursday.
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