Steve & Marjorie Gadd – Storybook Tunes

CD Review by Chris Spencer

Here we have 23 “tunes” composed mostly by Steve Gadd, featuring only two instruments – Steve’s banjo and Marjorie Gadd’s fiddle.
The title of the album and cover art suggests an album aimed at children.
As an adult, I can appreciate the intricacies of their music, but I doubt if it would hold the attention of children for very long.
There is no singing, but the tempo of the songs varies from slow to upbeat; the songs cover the gamut of genres from jigs to lullabies, from waltzes to traditional folk songs.
The traditional songs featured in this collection, Tasmanian dance tunes, include “The Kettle Boiled Over”. “Gordon Powell’s Waltz” and “Tom Don’t Want Any Apples”, a problem for Tasmanian apple orchardists I could imagine.
To their credit, the Gadd’s are generous in suggesting to listeners that they can obtain the musical tabs for all the songs included on request via email.
I presume that they want other musicians to learn these tunes in an effort to make them more widely known.
The liner notes implicate Steve is an active collector of Tasmanian folk songs.
I initially thought that with so many tunes on the album, that they would all be short.
However, several come in over four minutes and one of the 6 medleys is over 5 minutes.
One, “Old and Scratchy” lasts barely 40 seconds!
Still the whole album provides good value with an hour’s worth of music.
Some of the other titles that might catch your imagination include: “First Day of the Holidays”, “Back Step Proposal”, “A Rant for the Reverend”, “Britches in the Egg Pot” and “Mazurka Beneath the Tree Ferns”.
I suspect this collection would be of more interest to musicians rather than the general folk music fan, unless they have a keen interest in either banjo or fiddle music.