Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
What does it mean in these days of the divided nation that we can find hopeful common ground, that we might be able to travel across the country and find hope in what the words From Here might mean, a loaded question perhaps but one that is found to be full of conversation, of a meaning that some might understand if they travelled beyond the end of their roads and narrow minded cul-de-sacs.
From here is not a dogma that in the current state of the world we should be lauding but in terms of reflecting what is artistically striven for, what conjures up the imagination when looking out at where great ships were once built upon Jarrow’s and Sunderland’s foundations, where the Mersey River holds the memory of sailors greeting poets, where workshops produced the noises which would later urge voices to be united in song and where the looms clattered alongside the enveloping sense of community from Bradford, to Birmingham and Barnsley, the English Traditional music is a fixed point in which we can look back upon to give us an answer of how the country should redeem itself in the eyes of the world.
From Here: English Folk Field Recordings Volume 2 is the act of travelling to discover that there is so much that binds us rather than tearing ourselves apart, that it is not to other countries we should hold as scapegoats in our disdain of nationality but those who would take away the songs we have sung. The more we travel the more we should be intrigued and fascinated and one that the superb band Stick In The Wheel have engrained into their musical experience by taking a snap shot of musicians and experimental passions, of seeking assurance that all we know, is not everything we understand and in that mystery the result is exceptional.
Even as individuals we are more than our country believes we are, we can feel proud, but we should also be wary of the stories that we hear, we should feel the depth of their meaning, and in songs such as Gan Tae The Kye/Peacock, Cottenham Medley, The Almsgiver, The King Of Rome, the excellent Two Lovely Black Eyes, Nightingales, Bonnie Pit Laddie/Lads Of Alnwick and So Much To Defend, the album captures what England is, a land of people with stories to tell, memories to verbally display before an audience and not one in which we ask to be separated from the world.
With the unique voices of artists such as Nancy Kerr, Rachel Unthank, Richard Dawson, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Belinda Kempster and Kathryn Tickell all contributing with sublime passion to the journey undertaken, From Here: English Folk Field Recordings Volume 2 is a treat, a rare gift, that gives an honest view of what being from here really means.
Stick In The Wheel Present Various Artists From Here: English Folk Field Recordings Volume 2 is released on From Here Records on April 19th.
Ian D. Hall