REVIEW FROM www.livingtradition.co.uk

LYNNE HERAUD & PAT TURNER
Tickled Pink
Wild Goose Records WGS373CD

I first saw Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner in live performance before I encountered their CDs (this is their fourth) so I wasn’t entirely prepared for their singular mix of beautifully-harmonized traditional material, touching self-penned songs and more, er, challenging numbers addressing those of life’s little problems generally left severely alone by the sensitive singer-songwriter.  Amongst the odd Child ballad and laments for lost love I recall being ambushed by a ditty about vaginal tightening, a procedure of which I’d been vaguely aware but perhaps reasonably had never felt the need to explore further – until it was thrust (with great wit, admittedly) into my face. 

There’s more in similar vein on Tickled Pink, in the shape of IMIMB (breast enlargement), In Praise of the Menopause (hot flushes and night sweats) and The Smear Test (self-explanatory, I think).  But Heraud and Turner break genuinely new ground and plumb the depths of human experience in Distant Rumblings: ‘What can we say except that this was written from true-life experience’, they remark archly in their inlay note. 

Lest this review turn into an investigation of female scatology, it should be noted that Tickled Pink also includes fine interpretations of Bonny George Campbell, Rosemary Lane, Green Grows the Laurel and The Wife of Usher’s Well.  Pat Turner also presents movingly her compositions Small Fish and The Black Ship (it’s that Heraud hussy who’s responsible for the smut, it seems). 

Tickled Pink is a CD of contrasts, then, which would merit a warning sticker if folk clubs were frequented by the young and impressionable.  But they’re not – and Heraud and Turner can talk dirty to me anytime.

Dave Tuxford