JAKE WALTON - Sunlight And Shade – Celtic Song Affairs
Heupferd Musik ISBN: 9783923445110
Jake Walton is a singer-guitarist resident in Cornwall, who I first encountered in a duo with Jez Lowe many years ago. I haven’t seen him live for some time, but he always impressed me with his knowledge and interpretation of traditional material, and his instrumentation. This collection of songs, 42 in all, is a brilliant collection of arrangements of traditional and contemporary songs, some of which are from the collaboration with Jez – in particular seven of them can be found on the rare 1986 Two A Roue album, thankfully now available on CD (although Patrik’s Song reappears here as Patrick’s Song).
The book has been typeset and published in Germany, and as such features a German translation of all of the extensive notes accompanying each song. Sadly, nobody told the German typesetters that German quotation marks („ and “) are not used in other languages – and this becomes tiresome after the first dozen times you see them in the English text.
These minor gripes shouldn’t detract from the content, which is a super collection of songs – from The Trees They Do Grow High to The Wheel Of Fortune, from Bogie’s Bonny Belle to Tom O’Bedlam’s Dream. Melodies and guitar tunings are provided for all, and a very useful chord chart at the rear for all the quirky chords. The book is also a handy size for popping into your gig bag, when session bound. All in all, a very useful book, and a great introduction to Jake Walton’s arrangements (and a couple of Jez Lowe rarities that you can’t find in his songbooks).
www.jakewaltonmusic.co.uk
Grem Devlin
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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 108 of The Living Tradition magazine. |