JOHN WALTHAM & HELEN ENGLISH - Deep Waters
Private Label
John’s name will be familiar as a contributor of album reviews to this magazine, but he is best known as fine singer wherever people gather to sing traditional songs.
John has been singing in public for decades now and memories of a partnership with an older singer, George Withers, linger. However, he writes that he and Helen “have been making music together for over a decade now, occasionally for audiences but mainly for their own relaxation and pleasure.”
He has a sure, strong voice with a pleasing natural vibrato and a singing style that is relaxed and with a fairly free approach to rhythms. This makes Helen’s spare, laid-back accompaniments on the harp an ideal foil for his singing, fitting it around his natural style.
At one time John favoured singing traditional ballads but over the years some fine modern songs have found their way into his repertoire, and he clearly knows the ones that are going to resonate with him. Ron Kavana’s Reconciliation makes an arresting opening track, and he manages to make the much recorded The January Man sound fresh.
Of the traditional songs, The Cherry Tree Carol comes over well as does the last track - over the years John has learned a number of songs from members of the House family in Dorset, and Tom House taught him the Yarlington Wassail; the song and the custom having now been restored there.
jhnwaltham@yahoo.co.uk
Vic Smith
This review appeared in Issue 145 of The Living Tradition magazine