A Review of the Dave Sealey CD
"With A Little Bit O' Luck"
"With A Little Bit O' Luck"
by Dave Sealey
ADA Recordings AD110CD
www.adarecordings.org.uk
This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 8/07
<>When Al Sealey died far-too-young in 1999, we lost one
half of the remarkable folk duo Cosmotheka. It is fair to say that
there is currently no act on the UK folk scene that has remotely filled
the vacuum.
But praise be that brother Dave is still going strong. And here he
comes up with a quality album of a full twenty tracks: a much-overdue
tribute to the work of the great Stanley Holloway.
All the familiar monologues are there, and some unfamiliar ones too.
But best of all, we have a chance to listen to Dave’s really
mellifluous voice singing Holloway’s most famous songs. And the first
thing that Dave’s singing makes me think is this: I have really
missed you, son. You really are a talent: you can belt them out with
the best, and yet you can do “sensitive” and – yet another string to
your bow – you can deliver intricate “patter” songs as well as anyone
in the D’Oyly Carte!
We have a stellar producer in John Tams, and some fine piano
accompaniment from Bob Willis and Barry Hipkiss. Even a guest
appearance on one track from Messrs Coope & Simpson!
So all is hunky dory with this CD? Surely not? No albums are PERFECT, are they?
Well, I have to say that this album is pretty well faultless. But PUSH
me to find some caveat, and I would say that I would have liked Dave to
have spoken some of the monologues in his own accent, instead of using
stage Northern, or stage Irish, etc. But then what the heck: he is only
following the path that Holloway himself trod, since I recall that
Stanley was a Londoner who adopted “north of England” vowel sounds for
many of his monologues, especially the Marriott Edgar ones!
And the highlight? Definitely, “Albert Down Under”. I mentioned that
some unfamiliar monologues are here: well, this is the rarest of the
lot, by far. Dave himself says (in his excellent liner notes) that he
is not even sure that Stan ever recorded it.
I tell you this: if Holloway ever had, he’d not have done a better job than this. And there is no higher praise.
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England
daigress@hotmail.com
Copyright © 1998-2008 Kevin & Maxine’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews. All rights reserved.
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