REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

LYNNE HERAUD & PAT TURNER - The Moon Shines Bright
WGS321CD

A fine, delicate collection of songs this, from two very experienced singers. Close harmony doesn’t get much closer than this; Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner’s voices are pitched very close together and lie lightly on the ear. Generally, the arrangements follow the pattern of the same voice taking the melody with a lower harmony – and I can’t work out, either from my memory of seeing these two live or from listening to Lynne’s CD with Keith Kendrick which has been in my collection for some years, whose voice is which. Perhaps that is a measure of the close balance that comes from two singers who have been singing together for some years before the release of this CD.

According to the sleeve notes. Pat plays concertina and spoons but the only instrument here to break up the pure sound of the human voice is her gentle guitar accompaniments on two tracks.

Both Lynne and Pat have many years of experience organising clubs and harmony workshops, and a keen ear for identifying potential material when they hear it. They say their leaning is towards traditional songs, but these comprise only 6 ½ tracks out of the 16 here (the ½ is Robert Burns, who certainly ought to count as trad. by now, given the way his words have passed into the oral tradition). There are songs here from several writers (including themselves); most striking perhaps being No More, from Brenda Orrell, inspired by recent wars but distressingly applicable across the generations – the theme that we never learn from history. Most puzzling is Spanish Dancer, which the artists claim they are still trying to understand themselves!

A good album for aspiring singers – you could do a lot worse than learn from mistresses of the trade like Lynne and Pat (no traditional double meanings intended, ladies!)

Corinne Male