Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If only life was easy as others seem to make it be, but then if it was, how would we acknowledge genius, how would we praise hard work and determination; life is awkward, demanding, it is the challenge we must all seek out and relish when we have the opportunity to grasp the chance to inflame the passions pf others, life is easy if you want to never have achieved something beautiful, held something extraordinary, if you want to thrill a set of people and be the Raconteur at the party.

Storytelling is a conversation that involves more than just dialogue, it needs to create appreciation, the narrator holding court in a sea of the perhaps judgemental, of dropping plots into the speech and all the time holding a smile so broad that it cannot but help to induce allies to your side; you are never alone when it comes to influencing people with a humorous tale of derring-do and completion.

It is with a sense of fulfilment that the Frank Burkitt Band hold sway and the volume of thoughts as they become one again the epitome and embodiment of the genial story-teller in the audience’s midst, weaving tales out of the Americana, Jazz, Blues and Folk influences, creating characters that you cannot but help imagine, from the idea of the Penny Dreadful to the modern day free spirit, all human life is worthy of repeating, of holding an audience’s attention with and being gracious to their efforts.

Effortlessly is not painless, it takes huge strides of introspection to be that confident, it takes courage to be the one to captivate the banal and beige, to urge them to take up arms against a sea of life’s boredom, the Raconteur after all is versed in speech, it is the message that requires to be naturally fluent to raise the ambitions of others.

In songs such as Work So Hard, Breathe Slow, the excellent The Gypsy Barber, Albert Woodfox, Too Much Noise and the album’s title track, Raconteur, Frank Burkitt and the band, Kara Filbey, Cameron Burnell and James Geluk don’t just sparkle with wit and the clink of glasses coming together as one story is greeted by another, they have lived a life in which they speak; a narrator’s job is put people at ease but also make them think, give them a flame in which to admire and hold, Raconteur does that with sweat, struggle, and striving passion, they make it appear to be so easy, when the truth is they have worked out of their skins to produce a piece of art that is glorious.

Frank Burkitt Band’s Raconteur is out now.

Ian D. Hall