Nancy Kerr And James Fagan – An Evening With
Little Dish Records – 28 June 2019
For the first couple of minutes of An Evening With Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is not a live album at all, such is the crispness of the playing, the richness of Kerr’s voice and the all-round quality of the sound. Then, as the first song finishes, there is an eruption of applause (not to mention a fair bit of completely justified cheering), and you realise that what you are hearing is, in fact, a recording of a very special live performance by one of the most gifted and prolific duos in folk music. That first song, Broadside, is a perfect example of Nancy Kerr’s songwriting: an innovative interpretation of an unusual historical event (in this case the meeting between Queen Elizabeth I and the Irish pirate Grace O’Malley) delivered with pep and vigour, and to begin with you’re not quite sure whether what you’re listening to is a contemporary piece of writing or a traditional song, such is the sureness of Kerr’s touch.
It’s always been a strong point for Kerr and Fagan, that blending of the old and the new, and the resulting realisation that such distinctions don’t really matter when the music is this good. The pair are multiple award winners at the BBC Folk Music Awards, and with good reason. Five studio albums as a duo, as well as a variety of high-profile collaborations, have seen them build up a reputation as one of the finest acts in the business. An Evening With… is their first live album, and is actually spliced together from two separate dates (in Hertfordshire and Sheffield), though the recordings of the songs themselves remain untouched by any studio jiggery-pokery. So it is safe to assume that the record is as close a facsimile of their live performances as possible.
And what performances they are. Fagan and Kerr are a couple in a personal as well as a professional sense (they have been married since 2007), and the on-stage chemistry is palpable. But the partnership goes beyond an implicit understanding of each other’s musical strengths. Kerr has written a number of songs specifically for Fagan, including the brisk and blustery I Am The Fox, which is included here. It showcases Fagan’s assured singing and Kerr’s nimble fiddle playing. Fagan is of Australian heritage, and that is reflected in many of the tunes on show here, including Kitchen Dance (part of which was composed by his sister Kate) which hints at the Eastern European influence on Antipodean folk music, and the uptempo and almost jovial Australian Waltzes. Together they show off a strand of folk music that sometimes doesn’t get as much exposure as it deserves.
This being a live album, there are one or two obligatory folk standards thrown in for good measure, including a version of Barbara Allen. Even this, though, is highly original, full of delicate, lively interplay between fiddle and bouzouki. It is a world away from most adaptations of this well-worn song. Other traditional pieces include the set of tunes Sir John Fenwick/Nancy Taylor’s/The Pearl Wedding in which a lively Northumbrian pipe air is combined with a vigorous, crowd-pleasing fiddle tune, and a puckish, sprightly performance of the popular Dance To Your Daddy.
Fagan’s choices of song tend to be covers of those by less well-known twentieth-century folk singers. His rendition of Jimmy Gregory’s The Water Of The Clyde gets a stirring performance, a fitting tribute to Scottish singer Gregory, who died in 2001 aged just 38. The Herald Of Free Enterprise is equally moving. It was originally released in 1988 by Robb Johnson and tells the story of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster of the previous year, which resulted in the loss of 193 lives. Johnson’s song focuses on the human and political impact of the disaster, and Fagan’s interpretation manages to transfer those implications to a contemporary audience while also providing an impassioned memorial for those who died. There is also room for the wonderful Anderson’s Coast, a bittersweet tale of love cut short by transportation. Kerr and Fagan have been singing it together for twenty years and it has rightly become a firm favourite with fans.
Kerr too does not shy away from pertinent political statements and social commentary. Lovers Of Us All is a double-edged sword of a love song, a timely comment on the nature of consent in contemporary relationships. The beautiful Fragile Water is a more introspective song, glinting with vividly impressionistic lyrics. It was originally recorded for Kerr’s solo album Instar but is given a new, delicate setting here, benefitting from Fagan’s subtle backing vocals. Mr Weather is a new song inspired by the recent attempted removal of trees from Sheffield’s streets. It is a celebration of altruistic human spirit in the face of adversity, and a great example of just how wide-ranging Kerr’s songwriting is.
Fagan’s centrepiece is perhaps his version of The Outside Track, a poignant meditation on camaraderie and loss written by Henry Lawson, one of Australia’s prominent poets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fagan’s singing is reflective and restrained, and all the more powerful for it, and he is joined on the chorus by Kerr, proving that the duo have just as much affinity in their singing as in their playing. Equally impressive is The Turtle Dove. It is a genuinely collaborative song, the first thing that Fagan learned from Kerr after the pair met. It has a similar freshness and energy to the traditional songs that Maddy Prior and Tim Hart recorded early in their career as a duo.
Kerr and Fagan have been performing together for more than twenty years, but this album proves that their trademark high-energy live shows are as strong and as interesting as ever. An Evening With Nancy Kerr And James Fagan captures one of folk music’s most enduring and talented acts in their natural habitat and provides the perfect snapshot of the duo at the top of their game.
An Evening With Nancy Kerr And James Fagan is released on 28th June.
Pre-Order via https://www.kerrfagan.uk/
Nancy and James are touring from this month and are appearing at a number of festivals including Cambridge, Sidmouth and Folk East. For full dates and ticket links visit: https://nancykerr.co.uk/gigs/
Photo Credit: Elly Lucas