No matter what your rootsy preference, Tentrees and Haldane seem to have things covered. Grit is a suite of songs which effortlessly combines the best aspects of acoustic, folk and country genres. The playing is a deft and intricate without seeming showy or unnecessarily bandwagony, concise picking and lovely riffing provides a structure which is both hypnotic yet wonderfully restrained. Lyrically, again, all necessary boxes are ticked from the blue collar anthem of 29 Loads of Freight to the witty social observations of Craft Beards and Man Buns to the howling blues of I Don’t Have A Gun.
Even more surprising is that this is a live album, such is the unadorned quality and sure-footedness of the delivery by these two brilliant multi-instrumentalists that you would have it down as a studio production but for the polite audience responses between songs. So if you need a slice of roots music that acts as the perfect conduit between past traditions and a bright future for the genre then you will find them slogging around the UK throughout February. If this album is any sort of calling card for a live show that will satisfy you that roots music is in the safest of hands then you need to stop reading this right now and hunt down some tickets. Now!
