Adrian Phillips reflects that some creative marriages are just meant to be; Galton & Simpson, Gilbert & Sullivan, Little & Large! OK maybe not the last one, but you get my drift...so what of Realworld's latest pairing...

Current darling of the Parisian music scene Daby Toure and African American blues guitarist Skip The Little Axe McDonald started their flirtatious relationship at a jam session one summer at the Real World studios and continued their liaisons at various festivals around the globe. The resulting love child is "Call My Name", a 6-track EP-esque release, which mixes both the protagonists styles and influences.

The outcome is not exactly a heavenly one with too many tracks having a ‘work in progress’ feel about them. The opener Past Time doesn’t showcase either Toure’s soaring vocals or McDonald's guitar work and Sinners bumbles along without ever really getting anywhere with some pretty naff lyrics to boot.

Things do pick up with the pleasing 'Lost Voices', which has some great call and response vocals from the pair as does 'Will You Call My Name'. McDonald comes to the fore with the blues infused 'Time Has Come' and the nuptials are rounded off with the rousing 'Riddem' which skips (no pun intended) along merrily and is the CDs most successful track.

So, not candidates for couple of the year, but I hope they give counselling a go and don’t head for the divorce courts just yet!

Buy or download a copy of Call My Name

Read Robin Bream's review of Daby Toure live at the York Centre for Early Music.