If you’re not familiar with the voice of folk singer June Tabor, you’re in for the treat of the week. She’s been a major factor in the traditional folk scene in Britain since the 70s, winning me over with her glorious disc with Maddy Prior (Silly Sisters) in ’76. Since then, she’s swerved and swayed between folk and cabaret-styled jazz, and this one with iain Bellamy/ts-ss and Huw Warren/p is one of the elite best.
The three meld various musical styles, with material such as “Come Away Death” mixing traditional Irish sounds with jazz and even a bit of Shakespearian lyric and iambic pentameteric rhythms. “Lassie Near Me,” on the other hand bends between folk, modern poetry and late night sepia sounding jazz with Bellamy’s tenor smoking as heavily as a two pack a dayer. Tabor goes a cappella on the radiant “Brigg Fair” and if anything, her voice sounds better by the two score years of aging and maturity. There’s a haunting richness to her voice that makes each word sound like she’s lived it; she floats over Warren’s Schubertianly lyric piano on “Lads in their Hundreds” like a mist over Verdun. This music will not get out of your veins for quite some time. Like a deep conversation, you’ll keep coming back to the main points and keep reflecting back on them. Hopefully also, it will be an invitation to explore her earlier materials. Any chance of a return to the US after too long an exile?
ECM Records
www.ecmrecords.com