Eleven months ago Frankie Archer opened the minds of a curious band of Birmingham gig goers. Plenty more had a brief exposure a few months later when this north-east based musician played a short opening set for Jim Moray, also at the Kitchen Garden. The style of blending trad folk with eclectic electro sounds was still exhibited, though in a slimmer content. The first turn of the annual cycle is almost complete and over the ensuing period Frankie Archer has grown an audience to just fall short of selling out the venue. Rough observation deduced a healthy mix of returnees, so there must also have been a contingent getting their first experience of something unique and intoxicating with respect to the staple folk circuit fare.
Where Frankie Archer's natural audience lies remains a conundrum. Twenty-minute opening sets for The Last Dinner Party offer one side, as opposed to frequenting venues healthily inhabited by folk stalwarts. Exquisite fiddle playing, sumptuous vocals and extensive trad songbook sourcing form one part of the equation: analogue synthesiser, sound tracking recordings, loops and innovative song building takes the listener and audience into an alternative stratosphere. Re-tune your mind, dust off preconceptions and therein lies a potential reach far and wide.
At the heart of Frankie Archer's cultural guidance is to re-imagine the role of women in traditional song. Challenging convention, pursuing a different approach to legions of archivists and revivalists reveals a headstrong artisan. You can deduce a lot about Frankie Archer - the person - by her stage presence, and where her musical path leads. Flexible mindsets will inevitably be coaxed to latch onto this innovative performer, yet the choice to retain a degree of convention may always choke off some curious observers.
The strength of her trajectory resides in a buzzing and connective live presence. The recorded content has recently been expanded to now two four-track EPs. Samplers when compared to the vast cannon of contemporary folk music, yet small seeds grow quickly in fertile soil. The eventual release of a debut Frankie Archer album will yield wider acclaim to capitalise on the existing media exposure secured from a limited base.
Everything else about the year discovering the music of this talented and perceptively evocative musician has been a treat. Electro-trad is a riveting concept and when presented so well is a compulsive listen. Frankie Archer remains one to watch. An engaging artist pressing new pulses to move boundaries and raise important issues of historical interpretation.
