I've had a bit of a problem with the folk revival - until now. Anyone who knows me knows what a folkie I am, but I've limited myself to pre-1975 folk of Fairport, the Thompsons, Steeleye Span, the Woods Band, Nick Drake, etc. I did dip my toe in the waters of Eliza Carthy's Anglicana, and aside from the track Worcester City, I wasn't that enamoured, preferred her parents, and retreated back to the Sixties and Seventies.
Then I gave it another go recently and I realised I really like her voice. Then I downloaded a Seth Lakeman track, Lady of the Sea, from one of those free CDs that come with The Word or MOJO and really, really liked it. Then I saw Seth on BBC Breakfast and not only did he come across really well, but he also played a track or two and they were great. So off I went and bought Kitty Jay and Freedom Fields and - without sounding like a pretentious twat - the musicianship is fanstastic and he's got a really interesting voice. These two albums are top notch and I thoroughly recommend them both. So new folk is not all that bad after all.
Time to give that Espers album another spin and cross fingers.
1 comment:
He's the sort of person who you hear a lot of on Radio 2 and think to yourself 'hmmm, I must get some of his stuff' and then never get round to it. The title track from Kitty Jay is a corker, just one man and a violin. Class. And I've heard his song Soloman Brown a lot over the past few weeks too.
Was it him on Folk Britannia who said; "You can do what you like in British folk, as long as Martin Carthy says 'it's okay'"? Which I thought was rather amusing.
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