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A DAVID KIDMAN REVIEW FOR ACOUSTIC ROTHERHAM

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jiva

BEST FRIENDS

jiva – BEST FRIENDS (Own Label JCD. 0904)

jiva is short for Jimmy and Val (get it?) Monteith-Towler; the aforementioned inseparably happy couple have been performing together as a duo since 2003, since which time they’ve been readily accepted into the acoustic music scene and are regular and well-loved guests at Middlesbrough’s annual Nature’s World folk fest.

They’re devoted to their art (they even got married in the Taylor Guitars factory!), which they pursue with affection and enthusiasm – and they have a deliberately well-defined personal-cum-corporate identity (and I don’t just mean their purple attire!)… The jiva sound is immediately recognisable: uniformly pleasant, even-toned and even-textured, with gentle and mellifluous twin-guitar accompaniment (instruments chiming in contented counterpoint) underscoring a soothing vocal line supported by equally gentle harmonies as required.

Classic tried-and-tested acoustic-troubadour styling, in other words. jiva’s repertoire consists of roughly half-and-half own-compositions and covers that are sensibly-chosen to suit the duo’s performing style to a T. Their defining musical style is easygoing and relaxed, inhabiting an accessible contemporary-songwriter-folk-with-a-dash-of-country territory that’s roughly bounded by a triangle of which the three cornerstones are Nanci Griffith, Allan Taylor and Anthony John Clarke – all of whom, coincidentally, have a song covered by jiva on this, their debut CD. (The remaining covers, Paul Siebel’s Louise and C.J. Simpson’s Two Old Friends, I find less distinguished.) jiva’s own songs are eminently companionable creations that derive direct inspiration from those aforementioned songwriting cornerstones (with a dash of Tom Paxton thrown into the mix perhaps), replete with pleasing choruses and writing that espouses both wistful reminiscence and sensible, positive life-philosophy.

Best of these are probably Some Way Home and the closer One More Song, while the disc’s title track (and natural centrepiece) is perhaps its jewel – although I do feel that, in common with one or two other songs, it would benefit from being taken a shade faster. And although Jimmy and Val both sing with clear diction, their delivery can sometimes seem a touch flat or wooden, especially in terms of phrasing, where the preservation of a smooth legato respecting the bar-lines is achieved at the cost of expressive nuance (even though their voices, while not “conventionally” forceful, are nonetheless temperamentally suited to this type of material).

jiva’s admirable consistency of presentation and execution enables one to settle down into the equable mood they create with no fear of being disturbed or jolted. Almost too comfortably however, you might say: for jiva take no risks (and OK, they don’t feel the need to). And yet it’s also a safe bet that some listeners will become tired after half an hour of songs that share an almost identical mood and the same kind of easy, effortless medium-to-slightly-brisker-tempo, and demand more in the way of contrast.

I’d stress that this observation is made more in the cold light of home listening than in live performance, where their music can certainly cast a special kind of spell.

Having said that, engineer Ron Angus has unerringly succeeded in faithfully capturing jiva’s musical personality for posterity, so if you’ve enjoyed jiva in concert, you need not hesitate in buying this disc (and it comes with an attractive booklet that contains the lyrics to their own songs).

www.jiva.co.uk

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