A Review of the Mick Ryan & Pete Harris CD
"The Island of Apples"
"The Island of Apples"
by Mick Ryan and Pete Harris
WildGoose Studios WGS 339 CD
Copyright WildGoose Studios, 2006.
www.wildgoose.co.uk
This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 10/06
Mick and Pete have been performing together since 1993 and this is
their seventh album. That’s an average of a CD every 21 months or so.
Now, with many recording artistes, I’d be tempted to say “slow down
boys!” But not with this magnificent duo. One almost demands an ANNUAL
fix.
Note, I said “duo”. It is important to remember that Pete Harris is no
“fifth wheel on the wagon”. Yes, I know that everybody on the folk
circuit talks about “Mick Ryan” as shorthand for the duo, and it is not
meant as a mark of disrespect to Pete.
But, as I have said before when reviewing their work elsewhere, I
reckon that they should be billed alphabetically, since they both seem
to bring their brand of magic 50-50 to the table.
I write this review having just seen the latest BBC screening from the
Cambridge Folk Festival. How sad it is that instead of the usual
suspects, a great act like this one is not centre-stage there. Because,
rest assured, these guys are world class.
Maybe, instead of “duo”, I should talk in terms of a “trio”, since here
they are joined by the talented Paul Sartin, on oboe and fiddle. And
his presence is the musical icing on the cake here, as it is on so many
WildGoose CDs. He must love the legendary culinary welcome in Doug and
Sue Bailey’s kitchen down there in Hampshire!
Indeed, mentioning Paul makes me think that perhaps we should not stop
at “trio”. For there is a fourth presence here. And it is that of the
great Graham Moore, that Son of Dorset who – like Mick & Pete –
should have had at least three Main Stage Cambridge appearances under
his belt by now, if there were any justice in this world. Oh, AND a
WildGoose recording contract!
True, Graham does not perform on this CD, but his “A Tolpuddle Man” is
by some distance the standout track. And following it in my list of
favourites here, is “The Labourer’s Cause” (which Mick co-wrote with
him), and then Graham’s “Tom Paine’s Bones”. (We have just lost the
inspirational Kenneth Griffith, maker of those singular, mould-breaking
television documentaries: how he’d have loved to have had this last
song as the “closing credits” song methinks, for his Tom Paine
masterpiece.)
And mentioning these Tolpuddle songs, brings me to something of a
thread running through the CD: several of the tracks are from the five
stage musicals that Mick has penned. And as someone who saw the live
production of “Tanks For The Memory” a few years back, I have to say
that the inclusion here of a couple of songs from it, is dearly
appreciated.
What else to say? Well yes, there was a surprise track as there always
is with a Ryan/Harris album. In this case it was “The Boy Remembers His
Father”, a song quite new to me. I note that the fine words are by the
late Sigerson Clifford, and that is a name I have looked out for ever
since discovering that Mickey MacConnell based the lyrics of his
unforgettable “The Tinkerman’s Daughter” on Clifford’s “A Tinker’s
Tale”. As someone who lost his own dad at just ten years and three
months, I was truly moved by it.
As I was indeed by another new song to me: Mick’s recently penned
tribute to the great Cyril Tawney. It shows he has not lost one iota of
his skill in penning a song.
Recommended.
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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