Jane Germain & Ian Simpson – Home on the Hill

Review by Ian Dearden

If too much banjo is not nearly enough for you, then today’s “Commute to Work” album is for you. Actually, I have to confess – this album has been my commute to and from work soundtrack on a number of occasions now, and it continues to delight every time I listen to it.

“Home on the Hill” by Jane Germain and Ian Simpson proudly features them both slinging banjos on the front cover, and on the inside sleeve, as well as a pair of banjos nestling together down at the woodshed on the back cover, neatly framing the track listing!!

However, if banjo is not quite your thing, don’t be alarmed. There’s much more than just banjos on offer in this gorgeous album from two icons of Australian folk, country and bluegrass music. Not only is Ian Simpson an award-winning and superb banjo picker (folks may remember him as “Kid” Simpson, the banjo-wielding, bluegrass lynchpin of latter iterations of the legendary Sensitive New Age Cowpersons) – but he’s also a superb flatpicking and slide guitarist and plays a mean double bass and stomp box. And by the way, he sings great backup harmonies – a perfect foil for Jane’s sweet and high country/bluegrass lead vocals. Jane, like Ian, hails from Fremantle, WA (although originally from Sydney) but these days, having dealt with a serious health challenge, now lives in Bicheno, a charming coastal town in eastern Tasmania. Jane has released a number of acclaimed solo albums as well as two previous duo albums with Ian.

Recorded in just two days at Revolver Studios, Perth (with one track recorded at The Green Room, Hobart), Jane and Ian followed a (modified) Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings recording template, in that all the basic tracks were recorded in one day, face to face, then the overdubs were completed on the second day. You gotta love an efficient use of (expensive) studio time!! Jane provides lead and harmony vocals, as well as acoustic guitar and clawhammer banjo, Ian provides great harmony vocals, as well as banjo, dobro, double bass and stomp box. There are some evocative and tasty harmonica contributions from Norm Leslie, and on ‘Little Red Bird’, the only track recorded in Hobart, Jane is joined by Pete Cornelius on slide guitar and stompbox, and Simon Holmes on double bass.

And so to the songs – there’s a mix of country, bluegrass, country blues, string band and gospel genres, anchored by Jane’s gorgeous vocals and Ian’s deft instrumental contributions on banjo, slide guitar and double bass. The move to Tasmania has brought an outpouring of original material from Jane, including some co-writes with Ian. I was particularly taken by Jane’s paean to love (and lust), ‘Too Much Is Not Enough’, the backwoods ghost tale in ‘The Girl From Daisy Dell’ and the title track, ‘Home on the Hill’, which draws so clearly on Jane’s new experiences of life in picturesque coastal Tasmania. Jane and Ian cover some terrific traditional banjo-based songs, including ‘Big-Eyed Rabbit’, ‘Cluck Old Hen’, Sleepy-Eyed John/Cripple Creek’ and ‘Lulu Girl’. Their reading of the Delmore Brothers gospel song, ‘The Wrath of God’ is a tuneful and harmony-rich warning to all you wayward sinners out there.

I particularly fell in love, I have to confess, with the only instrumental track on the album – featuring Ian’s virtuoso banjo picking on his original bluegrass tune, ‘All Aboard the Maglev’, inspired by the duo’s trip on a Chinese magnetic levitation train. Clear proof, if needed, that too much banjo is really not even close to enough, for sure!!

This is a superb album, melding terrific songwriting, with great covers of traditional and ‘in the tradition’ material, underpinned by gorgeous vocals and superb musicianship, and presented in an impressive package, with exquisite artwork, as well as song lyrics and credits that an obsessive, like me, gets great joy from, in poring through the minute details of the CD booklet. Congratulations, Jane and Ian, you done good!!

You can buy the album via Jane’s website at www.janegermain.com, and it is also distributed through MGM Distribution