VARIOUS ARTISTS
Stepping It Out Again!
Veteran 10

www.veteran.co.uk\
 

Veteran’s established itself as very much a label of the people, documenting the songs, music and stories performed by ordinary people. You won’t find any stars here, or even any recognisable names, but they’re not missed. There are some sterling performances (although it would take a DVD to do justice to Jimmy Lynch with his melodeon and dancing dolls. Most of the pieces are unfamiliar, with the possible exception of “Cuckoo Waltz,” and all the better for it. Collected in different parts of Britain and Ireland (with a concentration on Northern Ireland, including the excellent storyteller John Campbell). Some of the dialect might be puzzling, as with “T’Owd Sow’s Getten Mezzeles,” from the North East. The playing is fun, but the real sense of tradition in these field recordings – which is what they are, even if of relatively recent vintage, made between 1975 and 2000 – is in the singing, which really bears the weight of tradition and offers a real delight, different songs from different areas, such as “The Barley Mow” from Norfolk. It’s another facet to Topic’s Voice of the People series, many of the performers having as much fun as the audiences. It’s real folk music.

— Chris Nickson