All the tracks are from Bram's first three LP's and most will be familiar to readers. They were recorded over a period stretching from 1984 to 1989, and have been cleaned up and remastered, a good job having been done by Paul Adams at Fellside. Any release on that label is worth a listen, this being no exception. The material is firmly rooted in the Eighties, but many are still sung today proving that you can't keep a good song down. True some have not aged as well as others, the brass arrangements for instance, but there are some gems here.
I like the tracks featuring one of my all time favourite voices - that of Fiona Simpson, (remember the giggle?) with "Valley of Strathmore" being outstanding. The same can be said of the moving "Miner's Wife's Lament" (often wrongly known as "The Sun and the Moon" ) which is about a mining disaster in Lancashire- sorry but I couldn't bring myself to write St. Helens.
Bram still works quite a lot so I'm sure this will do pretty well. It's a comfortable album, gentle not earth shattering, a pleasant listen.
Dave Beeby
 |
Buy
this CD online from The Listening Post The Listening Post is the CD mailorder service of The Living Tradition magazine. This album was reviewed in Issue 38 of The Living Tradition magazine. |