Brown Boots Boogie Band - Dancing Boots

Since 2017, Brown Boots, namely fiddler Martin Clarke and accordionist Will Allen, have enchanted their audiences with their original, free-flowing and energetic playing. Now, after numerous requests to perform at ceilidhs, they teamed up with pianist Will Chamberlain and drummer Paul Quarry to form the Brown Boots Boogie Band.

The first album of this new collective is titled Dancing Boots and combines the idiosyncratic style of Clarke and Allen with the adventurous touch provided by the two new members. The release is packed with foot-tapping reels, jigs, polkas, and hornpipes, as exemplified by the stunning opener Childgrove / Jer the Rigger and by J. B. Milne / Old Grey Cat, possibly the most remarkable track on the entire album.

The nine tracks transport the listener, whether they want to or not, on a dance floor into a joyful atmosphere; it does not sound like the standard studio album, but as a crossover between this latter and a Saturday night at a Georgian village hall. Many of the tunes are firm favourites and have been played for centuries. Others, like the closing La Sansonette and La Danse Chez Nous, come from outside the British Isles, but all of them are delivered with a passion that can only come from a true enjoyment of making music together.

These four artists do not polish pieces to make museum material out of them, they instead insist on their vitality and melodic qualities. This is why Dancing Boots is not a mere album, but an invitation to embrace the true soul of traditional tunes.