An album with a bunch of highlights and no failures
"Big on quality and entertainment levels, five-piece band The Jigantics run music’s Americana gamut. Their focus is pretty simple; to either write material of quality or go find it, whether by established artists or those of a lesser know origin. On having this mindset and not focus solely on self-penned material it encourages both a wider range of material and stronger one is accessed.
Comprising of Rick Edwards, Mark Cole, Marion Fleetwood, Lyndon Webb and Martin Fitzgibbon (between them they play a wealth of instruments; slide, acoustic, electric guitar, banjo, harmonica, accordion, mandola, drums, percussion) the band drink in country, folk, Cajun and blues flavours on this their debut album. Cole handles the majority of lead vocals; Fleetwood may only have sole lead role on three cuts. The Valley (written by Canadian singer-songwriter Jane Siberry is a stunning piece, so beautifully sung I dare anyone to try and match her stellar performance. Once she got going I began comparing her favourably to Co Clare, now Nashville resident songbird Maura O’Connell. She also supplies the string arrangement on the track. As is the case on another remarkable performance; this time is in way of “Black Mountain Valley”. Taken from a true and tragic story of how a half-ton boulder crashed through the wall of the trailer where three year-old Jeremy Davidson slept in his Appalachia bed. While with a foot-tapping rhythm Fleetwood also leads the boys (who play some beautiful stuff) through a cajun dashed country take of Hayes Carll’s “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart”; on slowing it some before the song flows like a southern seas sailing boat. As for Cole he nails Tom Waits’ “Hold On” perfectly.
It doesn’t stop there either when it comes to outstanding songs. For there is a folksy version of traditional ballad “Lakes Of Ponchartrain”, a couple of songs from Buddy Miller, which include a fine version of Miller’s co-write with Jim Lauderdale (“Hole In My Head”). A wonderful, punchy number it rates as one of the best he’s done. Fitzgibbon’s “George Foreman Grill” with its swampy blues intro likewise wins credit, as does a beautiful version of Loudon Wainwright 111’s “Swimming Song”. It’s happy, sing-a-long chorus aided by ace accordion, percussion and vocals start off an album with a bunch of highlights and no failures."
Flyingshoes Review 10 February 2014
This is a very, very fine debut. Highly recommended!
"The Jigantics are the combination of Marion Fleetwood and Martin Fitzgibbon from Colvin Quarmby and Rick Edwards, Mark Cole and Lynton Webb from the Sons of The Delta; together they create a warm and very inviting atmosphere, blending the natural elements of Blues, Folk, Roots and Hill Country music. Between them they produce stunningly evocative and emotive music that melds with rapturously captivating and stirring harmonies from a plethora of instruments such as; slide, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin mandola, banjo, harmonica, violin, viola, fiddle, cello, drums and percussion. The eleven numbers found here on this debut album are a mixture of covers and originals, starting with the sweetly stirring Cajun influenced Loudon Wainwright III’s Swimming, a gentle accordion swings in a duet with violins and banjo underneath joyous urging vocals. The stark, bare and almost plaintive soaring cello and acoustic guitar backed vocals of Marion on Jane Siberry’s The Valley, is eloquently arresting, emotionally gripping and most definitely captivating. Tom Waits blue collar coffee shop working mans’ love story Hold On, is wonderfully bleak but yet, inspiring; the sorrowful slide and sensitively compelling percussion underpins an ever hopeful vocal that pleads for a love to be saved. Buddy Miller’s ‘Hole In My Head’, lightens the mood with a splendid swinging violin that leads rocking guitar and pounding drums interspersed with a toe-tappin’ harmonica break. The album finishes with Caroline Herring’s Black Mountain Lullaby, a sombre and haunting tale relating to a mother and child tragedy that took place outside Appalachia, Virginia; Marion’s vocals richly emote the inner sadness, melancholy and despair of such a loss; the sensitive and fragile phrasing is met with equal tenderness form the acoustic guitar and deeply moving violin and cello. This is a very, very fine debut. Highly recommended!"
Blues Matters! magazine April 2014
A rare talent
"With Daisy Roots they have succeeded with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. The five members of the band have not only recorded something very special but they have done it with style and grace as well, a rare talent. Tracks such as The Valley, the traditional Lakes of Pontchartrain, the fantastic Bad Liver And A Broken Heart, Hold On and the magnificent composition by Martin Fitzgibbon, the quirky but immensely enjoyable George Foreman Grill make Daisy Roots an album to get lost in, to while away the hours without even realising it"
Liverpool Sound and Vision