Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
For lovers of traditional English folk music, there is a new name to get to grips with that has emerged from the halls of the University of Liverpool. The University may not be the first name that comes to mind when thinking of this genre of music, more known for almost every facet of composition available, traditional folk barely gets a mention. However in Galloway, Culbert and Doyle the scene has a new champion and their self-titled E.P. is an expression of all that is good in the youthful playfulness they exude.
Marianne Galloway, Samiran Culbert and Tim Doyle have merged and combined elements of their own personalities with melodies of a past. They have made something exciting, something tangible that steers away from the commercial and money driven and speaks to something inside, something that reaches into the soul and that is impossible not to like.
To call a melody jaunty or even chirpy may be doing the track a disservice but there is no doubting the sprightly nature that flows like trickling honey on the taste buds on every composition. Even the dark world of Dick Turpin, the 18th Century highwayman whose tales were romanticised by William Harrison Ainsworth, gets a huge nod in Dick Turpin and the Lawyer. This song, whilst a different breed to the other five songs on the eponymous E.P. with its gravelly dark nature still manages to be a song of high kicking repute.
The three music students of the University of Liverpool have captured a mood that is hard to shake off and best of all, it is so enjoyable that to listen to anything else, anything of differing nature, straight after is a waste of time as the infectious music will grab hold of the soul and make you stamp your feet to it all night given half the chance.
Galloway, Culbert and Doyle have broken a mould that for too long had been the reserve of an older generation, proving that traditional English folk music is just as good as any other type.
Ian D. Hall
You can find out more on the band’s facebook page www.facebook.com/gcdfolk or website page www.gcdfolk.co.uk