Music Arcades: Sally Doherty and the Sumacs: On the Outside

I think I must have seen Sally Doherty play live, once or more times, but I can't remember where or when. Her main stage seemed to be the back room of the Lescar on Sharrowvale Road. There's a link to fellow Sheffielder Matt Howden as both he and Sally were in a band called Sol Invictus — but I haven't heard anything by them. Lescar-regular Simon Evans, who said he'd done some business support work with Sally, told me her mum was children's writer Berlie Doherty, and also explained the origin of "Sumacs".

I'm kind of surprised to find that, eight years after I got this CD, she's still ploughing the same furrow, having neither widened it nor thrown in the towel. Perhaps, as with Pulp, everything will drop into place after 15 years or so. Meanwhile I guess she hasn't given up the day job either.

The music is the kind of gentle and tasteful cultural mix that you might expect to have become a staple on Radio 3's Late Junction — but it hasn't. (Having said that her guest vocals on Donald Grant's recent album were broadcast on World on 3 just last Friday.)

I wanted to like this album; I just wish it were more memorable.