Reelroad

Any good festival will have at least a few surprises, and this year's Globalquerque offered several. The seven-piece group, Reelroad, began during a little outbreak of Celtic music in 1990s St. Petersburg, Russia. Increasingly drawn to its own traditional music, the group these days sounds something like a Slavic Steeleye Span. With a host of instruments (bagpipes, whistles, Irish harp, violin, bass guitar, mandolin, drums, and more), exquisite vocals based on traditional Russian village singing, and witty introductions by founder Alexey Belkin, this seven-piece band was by far the best new discovery at the festival. - Dirty Linen (Mar/Apr 2009) - Chris Heim

Any good festival will have at least a few surprises, and this year's Globalquerque offered several. The seven-piece group, Reelroad, began during a little outbreak of Celtic music in 1990s St. Petersburg, Russia. Increasingly drawn to its own traditional music, the group these days sounds something like a Slavic Steeleye Span. With a host of instruments (bagpipes, whistles, Irish harp, violin, bass guitar, mandolin, drums, and more), exquisite vocals based on traditional Russian village singing, and witty introductions by founder Alexey Belkin, this seven-piece band was by far the best new discovery at the festival. - Dirty Linen (Mar/Apr 2009) - Chris Heim

I Get Around (2007)

There's nothing like a little light-hearted folk music to liven up the cold, dark days of winter, so why not take a listen to the Russian folk group Reelroad's I Get Around. Delightfully colored with Russian wing-shaped gusili, bagpipes, guitar, flute, Irish harp, banjo and Russian fifes, called zhaleikas, I Get Around travels down the Russian contemporary folk road with plenty of bright vocal harmonies and an easygoing sound that blazes new paths. Part of the post-folk performance movement in Russian folk, Reelroad has deep roots in Celtic music, but now has reached back into its own Russian folk traditions and propelled that traditional sound into the future with contemporary sensibilities.

Opening with the bright "In Our Little Garden," Reelroad launches headlong into a sparkling sound full of good-natured guitar and violin, adding joyful vocals that will have listeners trying to keep up. Finely harmonized vocals infuse such wonderfully rich tracks like "Bathhouse Is Steamy and Ready" and "You May Dawn," making the I Get Around sound uniquely tight and neat. The easy sway of "Peacock" and the raucous vocals of "Rains Pours Down" reveal a spunky side to Reelroad's sound. Tracks like the ebullient "Poppy on the Hill" and the sweet lullaby sound created on "I Will Saw My Sorrow" are real showcases for Reelroad's talent.

Fashioning Reelroad's sounds are Alexey Belkin on gusli, Galician bagpiipe, shuttle pipe, zheleika and vocals; Svetlana Kondesyuk on flute, zheleika and vocals; Natalie Visokikh on violin; Alexey Skosirev on bass guitar; Anastasia Karaseva on Irish harp, tin whistle, pandereta and vocals; Alexander Cap Dmitriev on acoustic guitar, banjo and vocals and Denis Nikoforov on drums.

I Get Around revels a whirlwind sound crafted out of Russian folk traditions and launches it into squarely into the future. Deftly spinning harmonies and marrying those to harps, whistle, guitar and revolving rhythms, Reelroad crafts a sound that is fresh and modern, catapulting Russian folk music on to center stage of the new folk sound. - World Music Central (Jan 2009) - TJ Nelson

I Get Around (2007)

There's nothing like a little light-hearted folk music to liven up the cold, dark days of winter, so why not take a listen to the Russian folk group Reelroad's I Get Around. Delightfully colored with Russian wing-shaped gusili, bagpipes, guitar, flute, Irish harp, banjo and Russian fifes, called zhaleikas, I Get Around travels down the Russian contemporary folk road with plenty of bright vocal harmonies and an easygoing sound that blazes new paths. Part of the post-folk performance movement in Russian folk, Reelroad has deep roots in Celtic music, but now has reached back into its own Russian folk traditions and propelled that traditional sound into the future with contemporary sensibilities.

Opening with the bright "In Our Little Garden," Reelroad launches headlong into a sparkling sound full of good-natured guitar and violin, adding joyful vocals that will have listeners trying to keep up. Finely harmonized vocals infuse such wonderfully rich tracks like "Bathhouse Is Steamy and Ready" and "You May Dawn," making the I Get Around sound uniquely tight and neat. The easy sway of "Peacock" and the raucous vocals of "Rains Pours Down" reveal a spunky side to Reelroad's sound. Tracks like the ebullient "Poppy on the Hill" and the sweet lullaby sound created on "I Will Saw My Sorrow" are real showcases for Reelroad's talent.

Fashioning Reelroad's sounds are Alexey Belkin on gusli, Galician bagpiipe, shuttle pipe, zheleika and vocals; Svetlana Kondesyuk on flute, zheleika and vocals; Natalie Visokikh on violin; Alexey Skosirev on bass guitar; Anastasia Karaseva on Irish harp, tin whistle, pandereta and vocals; Alexander Cap Dmitriev on acoustic guitar, banjo and vocals and Denis Nikoforov on drums.

I Get Around revels a whirlwind sound crafted out of Russian folk traditions and launches it into squarely into the future. Deftly spinning harmonies and marrying those to harps, whistle, guitar and revolving rhythms, Reelroad crafts a sound that is fresh and modern, catapulting Russian folk music on to center stage of the new folk sound. - World Music Central (Jan 2009) - TJ Nelson