Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Hard Times, whatever we do we cannot seem to escape them, the fear of the depression, the spectre of Victorian era which haunted the populace with visions of the workhouses and the possibility of starvation, we are no longer just three pay checks away from ruin, we are at the mercy of the overlords and politicians, the greed of bankers, the scourge of political idolatry, we are pawns in a harrowing situation, made deeply soulless by a virus that could and should have been contained and eradicated, the virus of capitalism.
Hard times, it takes heart to understand such a prospect, it takes a soul to sing to the despair that such evil can cause; and for Peggy James, Hard Times is the point of an exclusive single that has come after one of the most glorious album, Paint Still Wet, was released in the summer of this year.
Should we but be fortunate to know nothing of the evil that destroys others, but if that were true then our lack of empathy would set us apart from humanity and make us weak, drive us to indifference and meaningless response; but the very being of hard times discriminates, and it is never to those who see ivory towers as a perfectly acceptable second home who suffer.
Hard Times brings memories to the listener’s mind, it pokes and squeezes the conscious, with conviction it strides in the same passionate grounds one walked by the likes of Woody Guthrie, of Bruce Springsteen at his most pomp and loyal, but it is also different, it is that most crucial of aspects, the viewpoint of the mindful feminine, the place where the caring is often deeper, it hurts more because of the compassion that is placed at the very heart of the song.
Harrowing but beautiful, responsive and delicate, there is no sugar coating the moment we find ourselves collectively in; what we must remember is the way we find out exactly who has our heart and our hands in these times, and to be joined by Peggy James in the struggle is to know you have a friend looking out for you.
Ian D. Hall