 | | Reviews | | |  JOHN McCUSKER & BILLY CONNOLLY
Billy Connolly's Musical Tour Of New Zealand - Soundtrack
Pure Records PRCD016
The CD of the TV series in which our favourite Scottish comedian travels the length of NZ's fair isles, filmed during his 2004 Too Old To Die Young tour. Ever true to his roots, Connolly has previously called on folkies (Ralph McTell, Cara Dillon, Chris Parkinson and more) to provide music for his World Tour televisings, but this time the banjo-playing product of Sixties folk clubs enlists composer/producer John McCusker to score the whole series and plays a bit himself too.
Connolly's genuine interest in his surroundings makes him an engaging presenter and the programmes are hugely popular - and an excellent opportunity to get traditional-based music out to an extra few million listeners or so. The unmistakable McCusker sound, generated by the gang of pals that work so well together - Andy Cutting, Ian Carr, Michael McGoldrick, Phil Cunningham, Andy Seward, Ewen Vernal, Kris Drever, James Mackintosh et al - makes a perfect aural backdrop for the quirky cultural anecdotes, lush landscapes and naked bungee jumping screened in the series in sequences of frequently hilarious surreality.
If you watched the series, it's Billy's Fast Waltz that'll most evoke images of the leather-clad Connolly riding his cool three-wheeled chopper around the Kiwi countryside; just one of the nine McCusker compositions with titles like Billy's Reel, Billy's Jig, Billy's Strathspey and Billy's March, with the loping whistle, accordion and uilleann pipe-led Billy's Breton another standout. Connolly's banjo sneaks in with modestly short interludes of traditional tunes: 50 seconds of Shaeffer Jig here, a couple of minutes of The Rose Of Sharon and Carnival Of Venice there, and he sings/autoharps out proceedings with the snatch of the Maori love song Pokarekare ana which winds up each TV episode.
With a song from Kate Rusby (the gentle, self-penned Wandering Soul) and outstanding musicianship throughout, it's an album of mellow tastefulness and a comforting, "all's well with the world" feel. Buy, listen, relax.
Mel McClellan - February 2005
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 A pleasant enough album with some superb playing, but for a world tour of New Zeakland, there is very little Maori music creeping in there, I have several albums of Maori recordings and they are beautiful, I can't helping that this soundtrack is a bit of a cop out, and that instead of the they could have tried something a bit more daring, used a lot more Maori material as a basis for the soundtrack, and could have ended up with something far more fulfilling than this easy listening folk-lite soundtrack.
James Turner, Sheffield
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Folk & Acoustic
