CHARLOTTE PETERS ROCK - Lifeboat Rescues 1: North Wales
Private Label
You cannot fault this CD for being and doing what it says on the tin. There are 18 short stories of lifeboat gallantry on this CD, most of which are written by Charlotte in the traditional ballad format, set to a series of pretty interesting tunes that manage to sound familiar and different at the same time. Most were written in or around 2002 while Charlotte was working on a project in Llandudno dealing with the bravery and heroism of coastal communities.
This is uncompromising stuff, simply recorded in Charlotte’s powerful voice with a raw a cappella style, and none the worse for that. It suffers a little from the sheer number of stories that, after a while, begin to sound rather the same, though the tunes provide light and shade to some degree. Most of these songs are short, but the highlight, for me, is Recording The Harvest which runs out at over seven minutes. This allows Charlotte the time and space for more variety and dynamics in melody and rhythm. The number 1 in the CD title would indicate that there is more to follow.
www.charlottepetersrock.blogspot.com
Philip Thomas
This review appeared in Issue 137 of The Living Tradition magazine