This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 4/04
I’d been told about this CD by a couple of friends. Somehow I had not got around to hearing it until this review copy
belatedly found its way into my
hands. And am I glad it did.
Every so often an album hits you right between the eyes with a
startling intensity. This emphatically is one such. I
am enthusing about it to all and sundry.
Let’s begin at the beginning, for all you non-Brits reading
this. My hunch is that unless you are a real aficionado of
English Traditional Music, these names may be new to
you. Indeed, they are not exactly household
names in their own land.
But James Patterson and Ralph Jordan have made their mark on the
British scene, first as the little-known duo Silas and later, as part
of the better-known Crows. Plus, they have made other
ventures: for instance, the only time I ever spoke to Ralph, he was
part of the Fraser Sisters stage act. But, fiddler
John Dipper is a new name to me, and I guess, to most of the regulars
in Britain’s folk clubs.
And these three have formed the most glorious trio, where their multi
instrumentalism and Patterson’s solid vocal delivery (indicative of a
wysiwyg persona if ever there was one!) address a selection of some of
the strongest songs this side of Paradise.
You know, whenever I review an album, I always look for the
positive. But here, so much WAS positive, that I looked
very hard for a negative: just to give my review some necessary
verisimilitude. And I am clutching at
straws a bit, but I think I have found ONE track not to my
satisfaction.
Not that they delivered it badly they did a solid job on it
but I figure there really MUST be a moratorium on recording “William
Taylor”! If I hear it again before I depart this
Vale, then I swear it will be too soon. It has been flogged to death.
But the REST! What
gems! There were
about five I would particularly go to the barricades for: John Tams’s
wonderful re-working of Jimmy Miller’s “The Manchester Rambler”, Pete
Morton’s best song “Maybe Nothing Spoken”, Bill Caddick’s “Flat
Earth”…and then two sensational cuts.
First that great nostalgic hankering for a pre-Dr. Beeching Britain of
rural railway stations: “Slow Train”. Donald Swann’s
dreamy tune fits the words like a glove: and Patterson’s vocals are of
Michael Flanders’ standard.
Hearing this made me realise how Flanders & Swann are neglected in
the folk clubs: and that is a crying shame. Some of
their songs are first rate.
But the real masterpiece is Mike Waterson’s magnificent song “Working
Chap (What A Crime)”. I recall when I first heard
Mike sing this song: it was at a National Folk Festival a decade or so
back. The force of the song virtually knocked
me over. I couldn’t get it out of my head for
weeks. Indeed, even now, I get frissons just thinking of Mike’s delivery that day.
And how well Patterson Jordan Dipper present it. They prove the song as relevant today as when first I heard it.
A quite outstanding album. My only regret
is that I did not review it when it came out: had I done so, there is
every possibility it would have made my Top Five albums for that
year. Buy it in Europe from
www.musikfolk.com or in North America from
www.elderly.com and, for other points of the compass,
get details from Doug Bailey at WildGoose (e-mail:
doug.bailey@wildgoose.co.uk website:www.wildgoose.co.uk)
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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