"the quickening" It’s taken four albums for Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan to do a reverse-Dylan from the charming fuzz-folk of Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy (2000), to this freshly minted acoustic set. In that time, the Welsh countryside has claimed the couple from their old life in London – a switch reflected in the lazy al fresco ambience of The Quickening. It’s a change that suites them well. The extra space allows Bartlett’s milky tones to flourish, and with such an improvement in their songwriting there isn’t quite the need for the adornment. Bravely there are even dalliances with Celtic fiddles and border pipes here. Of course this won’t be to everyone’s taste , but for anyone who stuck with The Waterboys during their Fishermen’s Blues years, tunes such as Swollen River and Testing Me will come as a quiet revalation – all the more so for the complicated emotions that appear to have spawned them. **** The Times The Quickening: New folk that lifts the heart and brightens the spirit. The Tom and Barbara Goode of the folk scene strike again, as Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan, hosts of the back-to-the-land Green Man Festival, edging ever closer to popular acclaim with their distinctive take on traditional music. Embracing a back-to-basics approach to recording, and life in general, Bartlett and Hagan decamped to the solitude of the Welsh hills after a brief entanglement with the main stream music industry, releasing albums at their own pace, and, with an admirable lack of pretension, adopted the nom de performance It’s Jo and Danny. On The Quickening, their fourth album proper, the duo have far surpassed their previous work with a collection of songs that lifts the heart and brightens the spirit in well fell swoop . Tight as a nut , not a note is wasted, a strum superfluous and uillean pies – deservedly absent from most people’s musical collections-make an unexpected return to popular music. Flying in the face of accepted folk music subject matter – not a single horse-theif is hanged, no lovelorn sailors are shipwrecked far from home – the duo have created a true modern classic. From the opening track and sing-along-single, God’s Closed His Eyes with it’s crowd friendly ‘na na na’ chorus to the bass-driven Spoken Word, where syncopated head nodding is legal requirement, this album is a guilt free joy from beginning to end. Word Magazine Jo Bartlett and Dany Hagan are the organisers of annual folk hootenanny, the Green Man Festival, and once helmed indie band Bluetrain, before striking out as an electronic tinged duo in 2000. Both indie trappings and electronics have been purged on The Quickening which plants one foot in the weird beard, neo folk camp and the other in souldful pop. Bartlett’s voice is closer to a yielding Linda Thompson trill than a Joanna Newsom cackle as she intones brisk opner God’s Closed his Eyes over Hagan’s summery strumming. She’s similarly keening amid the violins and penny whitles of Swollen River , it’s Aaron-knit authenticity coming courtesy of Scottish folk group Daimh. Testing Me provides a desolate counterpoint with Bartlett beratinga negligent God, while stark, Blood On The Tracks-style acoustics resound. Reflective, pastoral song-craft it is- perfect Green Man fare, naturally. Mojo Pure folk bliss from the Green Man organisers. Where do you go when you’ve come down from the come down? Having recorded three gorgeous albums of joyous acoustic reveries undercut with subtle electronic flourishes which were labelled neatly as ‘folk music for clubbers’, it’s jo and danny have clearly asked themselves the same question. The answer appears to have been a simple one. Shorn of beats, squiggles, moments of amplified experimentation and interjections by passing MCs, the duo now produce folk music full stop. Echoes of Fairport Convention and Nick Drake dominate the mood, with penny whistles and fiddles adding a distinctly Celtic undertone, and percussion rarely tries harder than a relaxed friend tapping absentmindedly along on a bongo. Hipsters may well flee back to their Beth Orton records, but the transition is convincing. Lyrically God’s Closed His Eyes and Swollen River take a more serious line, even touching on social commentary, and overall this feels exactly like an album written by the organisers of the Green Man festival should – intelligent, serious, civilized and quietly unique. **** Record Collector Close your eyes. Imagine you are sitting under a tree by a lazy river a million miles away from the crash and burn of modern society. You can hear gentle acoustic folk music. You can almost feel it wash over you. Your worries ebb away. You smile, This is the world of Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan, a London couple who decamped to a Welsh farmhouse for a new life. The Quickening weaves a rich tapestry of sound as Jo (vocals and guitar) and Danny (bass and vocals) employ the talents of Scottish folk ensemble Daimh and East End percussionist Des Morgan. They explore traditional themes with songs rooted in the rural earth. They also ponder wider issues on the opening God’s Closed His Eyes. An understated gem. The Sun You join me flat on my back legs akimbo, suitably mellow. For here we have another charming, balmy album from It’s Jo and Danny – the Green Man fest architects and conjugal duo who peddle pastoral folk from a cottage in rural Wales. From the cartwheeling lullabies, tumbling bongos and jangling, jubilant guitar of ‘Towards The Sun’ to the splashing gleaming ‘Swollen River’ – all glimmering strings and glistening whistles skitter and vibrate like pearls across water – The Quickening is a summer journey that echoes Kirsty MacColl, congo-pop, bucolic beats and Celtic folk (not least because of the devine intervention of ace Scottish combo Daimh). A welcome salve, a warm refuge, The Quickening is available from all good chemists to those suffering from despair or ennui. It soars like a rainbow. Glows like amber. Conjures sunrises. Eases hangovers. Plan B "but we have the music" "There were reasons why the punks railed against hippies in the Seventies. A decade when things began to come apart at the seams, the flower children's ennui and refusal to engage was maddening. As for their music, well, even in this time of manic reputation restoration, there are few people who can be found defending the likes of Gong or Hatfield and the North. These days, the grandchildren of the Sixties are likely to be found on the periphery of the dance scene focusing on the chill-out area, where flower power relics such as Steve Hillage still foray profitably. Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan , who are It's Jo and Danny, operate on these fringes and conform to every contemporary stereotype of hippiedom. They live in seclusion in Wales and rarely deign to involve themselves in the fripperies of mainstream society. Their website even features links to Friends of the Earth and Lentil Protection League (the last link may be fallacious). Against all the odds, though, their music is excellent. As with their previous two albums But We Have The Music is sprinkled with electronica and beats but is essentially a guitar based record. There are echoes of St. Etienne, early Everything But The Girl and even Travis, especially on one of the standouts, 'Let It Happen' which is not unlike the latter's 'Sing'. Everything But The Girl's influence can be heard on 'The Sooner' , a beautiful reflection on failing love: 'The sooner all of this is over, the sooner we can be just friends'. This is their best album yet and proof that a dead hippy is not the only good hippy." 4 stars The Times 'Play Magazine' Album of The Week "After a brief entaglement with the cruel world of the major labels, Jo and Danny retreated to their Welsh farmhouse and decided to do it themselves. Their third album, which takes it's title from a Leonard Cohen line, ('We are ugly but we have the music') proves the wisdom of their decision by sounding like 2003's equivalent of Fairport's 'What We Did On Our Summer Holidays' or The Waterboys' 'Fisherman's Blues'. Folk flavours, Celtic fringes, subtle touches of electronica, lovely vocals and wonderfully simple but beguiling tunes - you can almost hear them smiling. File under contemporary pastoral. 4 stars Uncut "'but we have the music' is a stealthy, low-key marvel." N.M.E. "Few things on the planet reach those kind of heights once, but J&D approach it time and again." Mojo "lank haired girl to bearded boy" We re released our debut album Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy in February 2005 adding the four tracks from the Playing For Kicks EP and re packaged in a lovely digipak cd. These reviews are of the re released version: There are two types of ‘nice’. There are plenty of nice young pop stars achieving success from inoffensive derivative music by putting all their efforts into looking pretty in tv shows and celebrity magazines. Then there are those whose entire raison d’etre is truly beautiful, unique music that touches the soul, regardless of trends and the whims of marketing men. Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan are firmly in the latter camp: not only do they make their own stunning, genre-defying music, but they run the Green Man festival showcasing brilliant nice artists of all generations in the idyll of the Brecon Beacons, where the couple now live with their two children. On this re-release of the duo’s five-year-old debut album, augmented with four tracks from an early EP, dreamy electronica and ‘found’ sounds swoop behind hypnotically strummed acoustic guitars, providing backing for luscious, dramatic Joni Mitchell-esque folk songs. The bubbling synths and clicking drum machines even sound as archaic and folksy as the guitars and violins. It’s deep and powerful yet hugely accessible, it sounds unlike anyone else, and it is very, very nice indeed. The Daily Telegraph ‘Utterly arresting, shot through with organic moments of loveliness.’ The Observer These reviews are from the album’s original release in February 2000 "So the bearded boy turns to the lank haired girl and says 'Woe is me, for I cannot seem to get laid with this dippy-acoustic complaint folk that I play'. And the lank haired girl says, 'Well, why not take some drugs, go clubbing and listen to a bit of Primal Scream?' And lo, his polite songs are transformed into raggedly hymnal psychedelic strums the likes of which Regular Fries can only dream of, and Beth Orton-shaped women throw themselves at his feet. In their own quietly subversive way, Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan have produced another defining record for a year in which messing around with the formula has been de rigeur. It doesn't herald itself with quite the explosive insolence of 'Guerrilla' or 'The Beta Band', but there's the same evident desire to refract a frazzled urban experience through waves of pastrol guitar 'n' whatever else is at hand. Their ambition is most obvious on 'Love Expression' which shifts from ululating trip - gospel groove into a warm mantra of horns and strings and bric-a-brac beats. Or there's 'Hippy Thinking' where dirty distorted guitar and indolent tamborine rhythms are laid as foundation for Jo's Dot Allison-esque tones. After 35 all-too short minutes, you pull yourself away from the speakers with a strange and glowing sense of wonder. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship." 8/10 NME "Jo Bartlett and Danny Hagan were formerly of Jump Rope, a non-jangly mid-90s indie guitar troupe whose endearing appeal never extended beyond Camden Town pub backrooms. As It's Jo and Danny though, they're far more compelling. Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy showcases a sprawling, sly and intelligent music which embraces winsome poetry, subversive harmonies and a ferocious joie de vivre. They hang out with The Beta Band and it show, notably on the gospel via early 4AD of Love Expression and the ramshackle Arkle, a bizarre celebration of the 1964 Gold Cup wining nag. Unexpected and exciting." 4 stars Q "The pace is largely gentle, the mood pensive and the songs spellbinding." The Times "..homemade lo-fi gem." The Face "File next to Primal Scream's 'Loaded', Beth Orton's 'Central Reservation' and Gomez's 'It's On', that section in your record collection where dancefloor appreciation is re-appropriated as floating folk to feed your soul." i.D. "Music doesn't get more wonderfully eclectic than this" The Express ".....assured excursions into the realms of Beth Orton - esque ambient folk on the excellent Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy album." The Guardian