Be Good Tanyas: Chinatown

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

The Be Good Tanyas - a Canadian all-women singing trio who play mandolin, fiddle, banjo and guitars - who come from a similar sense of place as Gillian Welch, but where the sun sometimes shines brightly.

Their Chinatown (Nettwerk) has a cult following in rock audiences overseas, perhaps because of their exceptional covers of Townes Van Zandt's Waiting Around to Die, House of the Rising Sun and Blind Willie Johnson's In My Time of Dying which Dylan covered and Led Zeppelin claimed. Or maybe it's Olu Dara's mournful cornet colourings, their fragile voices and harmonies, and the juxtaposition of originals with contemporary themes (The Junkie Song) alongside traditional material and originals which sound drawn from a book of old American ballads (Dogsong 2, Lonesome Blues).

Whatever the reason, this is distinctive and singular - and doesn't fall into a mannered style that can be easily parodied.