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| Track list: 1. Awkward Annie 2. Bitter Boy 3. John Barbury 4. High on a Hill 5. Farewell 6. Planets 7. The Old Man 8. Andrew Lammie 9. Streams of Nancy 10. Daughter of Heaven 11. Blooming Heather 12. The Village Green Preservation Society Running time: 51 minutes Released: 2007 |
Ah Kate Rusby - a proper Northern folk-singing lass. I got into Rusby when Sleepless was Mercury-nodded and fell head over heels for her voice. I have a fair few of her discs but stopped buying more because they got a little too samey after a while. Rusby was was the subject of a TV documentary around the time this album was recorded, which I remember seeing at the time, and recently re-watched in segments on YouTube (part 1 here). Awkward Annie may also be my favourite of hers.
We open with the title track, a Rusby original and a disarmingly charming tune. The chorus in particular is a gem, a really nice roll to it and it suits her delivery perfectly - accent and all shine through. It is a song to make you smile, unless your heart is significantly stonier than mine. I do think Rusby is better at faster, merrier tunes like this. Her voice is lovely whatever she is singing, but her slower songs tend to similar arrangements that are far more forgettable than her singing deserves. I still happily listen to them, but with that pining for busier, bustling songs whilst I do. Bitter Boy is a good example. Pretty song, really nicely sung but the minimalist guitar really does not add much - it might be better a capella. To a point, anyway; I am sure that I would miss the backing were it not there but it does not support and uplift the voice the way it could.
I do not recognise John Barbury from the name, or from the tune that floats out of my speakers. I do like the airy piano melody though - even if it is extremely slow. This bucks the trend I mention above because it is predominantly keys not strings, I think - that old bias of mine again - though I have to say when the (non-guitar) strings join in the swell of the tune improves the track. A better arrangement this, that edge of melancholy giving me goosebumps as I take in Rusby's Yorkshire tones. When the strings fade, the tune they leave behind is nothing like as effective; when they return it lifts to excellence - a really fine track. The tone shifts significantly when it ends. Faster, rickety and a touch more upbeat, High on a Hill is a joy made of muted banjo strings and duetting.
I am pondering a return to work tomorrow following 4 days off for Christmas. The first two were family affairs, the last two a more lonesome low key affair. Today was supposed to have been full of boardgames but non-responses nixed that idea so instead I have frittered it away with a combination of dipping my toe into Steam sale-derived videogames and closing on the end of season 4 of Boardwalk Empire (if ever there is a show that wavers the line of my patience whilst just doing enough to keep me in...). This is the second listen of the day; Alt-J earlier was a torrid waste of time but it felt good to get through it. This one is a musical joy, but I am feeling obligated to write and it is killing the mood a little, making each track seem an age in length.
There are a number of Rusby's own songs here, and these tend to be the more interesting arrangements, making me wonder if reverence for the songs she sings holds back a bit of the creativity when tackling folk standards. If so, it is understandable - if you love the songs in the form they come to you, why change them? - but also why it is always nice to hear the tunes played by different artists with different takes. I am not savvy enough with track names to know where I have intersections of songs across the stable of folk artists in my library so I'll draw this sidetrack closed here, but it gives me something to think on for future perhaps. Meanwhile a couple more songs have floated by, one touched with maudlin airs, another much more bright. I have come to realise I love sad sounds - the particular melancholy that can be achieved by pairing a fiddle with other instruments is a favourite harmony of mine and one I find really lifts folk songs to the point of affecting me strongly. There is not too much of that here because fiddles feature less strongly in Rusby's arrangements than some other musicians' but still...
I am realising just how tired I am, glad to be returning to work tomorrow (to not beb sat here alone again) but also dreading getting up in the morning. The tiredness is part of what has me wishing for the end of this listen - the other factors being the encroachment of hunger into current feelings and more pertinently the excellent cover of The Village Green Preservation Society which closes the disc. This song, used as the title music for the unbearable (to me) BBC sitcom Jam & Jerusalem is a real gem. I am not familiar with the original recordings but Rusby's take is fun, light, delivered exquisitely and genuinely catchy. It is a strong end to the album which, to be honest, I think drifts a bit towards the end. The version of Blooming Heather is a bit warbly and slightly discordant, or maybe that is me projecting against the fact it is the one thing between me and stepping away from the keyboard for dinner.
There's the Village Green. I can close this album with the smile it mostly deserves now. Such a beautiful voice and a track arranged such that it lets it shine out across the moors. It is made of lovely. A fitting closer to anything, really. Now, to get me some tea...
We open with the title track, a Rusby original and a disarmingly charming tune. The chorus in particular is a gem, a really nice roll to it and it suits her delivery perfectly - accent and all shine through. It is a song to make you smile, unless your heart is significantly stonier than mine. I do think Rusby is better at faster, merrier tunes like this. Her voice is lovely whatever she is singing, but her slower songs tend to similar arrangements that are far more forgettable than her singing deserves. I still happily listen to them, but with that pining for busier, bustling songs whilst I do. Bitter Boy is a good example. Pretty song, really nicely sung but the minimalist guitar really does not add much - it might be better a capella. To a point, anyway; I am sure that I would miss the backing were it not there but it does not support and uplift the voice the way it could.
I do not recognise John Barbury from the name, or from the tune that floats out of my speakers. I do like the airy piano melody though - even if it is extremely slow. This bucks the trend I mention above because it is predominantly keys not strings, I think - that old bias of mine again - though I have to say when the (non-guitar) strings join in the swell of the tune improves the track. A better arrangement this, that edge of melancholy giving me goosebumps as I take in Rusby's Yorkshire tones. When the strings fade, the tune they leave behind is nothing like as effective; when they return it lifts to excellence - a really fine track. The tone shifts significantly when it ends. Faster, rickety and a touch more upbeat, High on a Hill is a joy made of muted banjo strings and duetting.
I am pondering a return to work tomorrow following 4 days off for Christmas. The first two were family affairs, the last two a more lonesome low key affair. Today was supposed to have been full of boardgames but non-responses nixed that idea so instead I have frittered it away with a combination of dipping my toe into Steam sale-derived videogames and closing on the end of season 4 of Boardwalk Empire (if ever there is a show that wavers the line of my patience whilst just doing enough to keep me in...). This is the second listen of the day; Alt-J earlier was a torrid waste of time but it felt good to get through it. This one is a musical joy, but I am feeling obligated to write and it is killing the mood a little, making each track seem an age in length.
There are a number of Rusby's own songs here, and these tend to be the more interesting arrangements, making me wonder if reverence for the songs she sings holds back a bit of the creativity when tackling folk standards. If so, it is understandable - if you love the songs in the form they come to you, why change them? - but also why it is always nice to hear the tunes played by different artists with different takes. I am not savvy enough with track names to know where I have intersections of songs across the stable of folk artists in my library so I'll draw this sidetrack closed here, but it gives me something to think on for future perhaps. Meanwhile a couple more songs have floated by, one touched with maudlin airs, another much more bright. I have come to realise I love sad sounds - the particular melancholy that can be achieved by pairing a fiddle with other instruments is a favourite harmony of mine and one I find really lifts folk songs to the point of affecting me strongly. There is not too much of that here because fiddles feature less strongly in Rusby's arrangements than some other musicians' but still...
I am realising just how tired I am, glad to be returning to work tomorrow (to not beb sat here alone again) but also dreading getting up in the morning. The tiredness is part of what has me wishing for the end of this listen - the other factors being the encroachment of hunger into current feelings and more pertinently the excellent cover of The Village Green Preservation Society which closes the disc. This song, used as the title music for the unbearable (to me) BBC sitcom Jam & Jerusalem is a real gem. I am not familiar with the original recordings but Rusby's take is fun, light, delivered exquisitely and genuinely catchy. It is a strong end to the album which, to be honest, I think drifts a bit towards the end. The version of Blooming Heather is a bit warbly and slightly discordant, or maybe that is me projecting against the fact it is the one thing between me and stepping away from the keyboard for dinner.
There's the Village Green. I can close this album with the smile it mostly deserves now. Such a beautiful voice and a track arranged such that it lets it shine out across the moors. It is made of lovely. A fitting closer to anything, really. Now, to get me some tea...
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