Ben Walker – Echo
Folkroom Records – 5 July 2019
If the apocryphal 60-something bearded men called Brian took umbrage over Ben Walker daring to do something different a couple of years back on a release with Josienne Clarke, then I just hope that they have taken their medication before getting their ears around, Echo, Ben‘s first solo album.
Seven critically acclaimed releases into his career, a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner with the aforementioned Josienne Clarke for Best Duo in 2015, together with a long and illustrious list of credits as a producer, Brighton-based Ben is not one to allow the grass to grow beneath his feet.
His 2018 E.P. release, Fox On The Downs, reviewed in FRUK here, was a collection of four exquisitely performed guitar instrumentals demonstrating his love for traditional English music. Whilst this passion is clearly evident on this latest release, the music presented here has moved in a much more expansive direction.
Yes, you will find six-string finger-style guitar virtuosity on display, on both self-penned instrumental pieces and traditional songs, but the influence of both electronic and classical music, clearly evident, might just be too much for the narrow-minded, previously mentioned ‘Brians’. They might also be averse to the vocal efforts of a fine array of featured singers, with Thom Ashworth, Hazel Askew, Bella Hardy, Laura Hockenhull, JinnWoo, Kitty Macfarlane and Laura Ward all making guest appearances. They could also baulk at the additional instrumental contributions of Basia Bartz violin, Anna Jenkins violin/viola, Jo Silverston cello, John Parker double bass, Bella Hardy fiddle, Laura Ward flute and Katherine Price oboe, but the curmudgeons are not only foolish so to do, but are wrong on both counts, the project benefits greatly from their participation.
The album is also replete with poems set to music, with inspiration drawn extensively from both the EFDSS library, the Sussex Tradition archive, together with lyrics from the 18th and 19th Centuries, as Ben attempts to try to glean some comprehension of a very unsettled present through an appraisal of elements of the past, covering timeless themes such as loss of purity, fulfilment and remorse, aspiration and foreboding and the cyclical pattern of life. Indeed the title is an explicit reference to the fact that wherever you look in the contemporary world, you will be certain to find echoes of the past of some kind.
The album opens with a gorgeously flowing and dreamy instrumental, Afon, as in Welsh for river, but here relating to the Avon, suggesting a natural continuation of the dynamics created by Fox On The Downs before moving to one of two songs on the album with words from Songs Of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake. The Echoing Green, features the wonderfully warm vocals of Thom Ashworth, and Ben’s tune really does evoke a traditional feel.
Ha’Nacker Mill, here sung by Laura Hockenhull, also Brighton resident, was found by Ben, in the Sussex Traditions archive, and sung by Bob Copper, and is certainly a mood-changer. Written by Hilaire Belloc in 1923, the story of the eponymous mill was inspired by a derelict Sussex mill, known to Belloc, that had been struck by lightning in 1905. With lyrics suggesting the mill almost being haunted by a more prosperous past, this song perfectly encapsulates the echo motif.
Track 4, Rings, the first single released from the album, is ostensibly an instrumental based on a tune from Shillern’s 24 Country Dances for the Year 1790 preceded by a 1960s archive recording by 90 years old Copthorne, Sussex singer, George ‘Pop’ Maynard of A Sailor From The North Country. The combination works well, an is an inspired piece of marrying of the old with the new.
Hazel Askew is the featured vocalist on Let Me In At The Door, taken from a poem by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge called The Witch. The eerie tone of the music is a perfect accompaniment to the chilling words; should her pleas to be let in, to be rescued from the “cutting wind” to rest her “little white feet” be acknowledged, or are there inherent dangers in this course of action?
Another instrumental track, Cross Fell, inspired by a mountain near Penrith, is a sheer delight, with the cello of Jo Silverston a beautiful foil to Ben’s guitar, before moving into On Humber Bank, a broadside ballad from Cecil Sharp House. With Ben’s altered melody and slight variation on the verses featuring Laura Ward on vocals, this song is believed to originate from “Being a copy of verses found on the Humber Banks, near Hull. Inclosed in a letter to have been wrote by Miss W a young Lady of Hull, who drowned herself in the River Humber on Tuesday Night the 17th of December 1812 for the love of W.F. a shopkeeper by whom she was with Child, directed by her to be Published as a warning to all young Girls”
This, in turn, is followed by a second broadside, How Stands The Grass Around, arranged by Ben and sung by Jinnwoo. Also known as Why, Soldiers, Why? (Wolfe’s Song) this was a popular soldiers’ drinking song during the latter half of the 18th century, but here is delivered in a much more measured way, as a slow march, thus emphasising the helplessness of the combatants’ plight
Should next campaign,
Send us to him that made us boys;
We’re free from pain,
But should we remain,
A bottle and kind landlady
Cures all again.
Over acoustic guitar, lead vocal on The Island is provided by Bella Hardy. Taken from Floating Island by Dorothy Wordsworth¸ this thoughtful poem, written circa 1830, uses wonderful imagery which depicts an island which metaphorically represents not only life cycles, but also the immense power wielded by Nature itself. Even with the omission of the original stanza, this is powerful stuff indeed.
And thus through many seasons’ space
This little Island may survive
But Nature, though we mark her not,
Will take away — may cease to give.
With the penultimate track Nurses’ Songs, Ben returns to William Blake and is joined by Kitty MacFarlane¸ who seems to be making a habit of singing words by Blake. Taken from two related poems, Nurse’s Song from Songs of Innocence and Nurse’s Song from Song of Experience, the first poem’s theme of children’s innocence and simple joy is superbly captured, both by the musical arrangement and sound effects and the sympathetic delivery by Kitty¸ whilst the parody inherent in the words and images of the second suggest that the nurse is reflecting upon unfulfilled pleasure and the fact that the children are now adolescents with an awareness of their own sexuality. Once again deep and thoughtful material, accompanied by equally accomplished, high-quality musicianship.
The album closes, as it started, with an instrumental
Eostre, on which Ben is joined by the oboe of Katherine Price and the flute of Laura Ward flute. Whether Spring Goddess, Pagan Festival or any other interpretation, what is certain is that this is a tremendous way to end a recording.
Echo is a very special, imaginative album. The depth of research that Ben has undertaken, giving both historical contexts and information appertaining to associated personae, results in the listener being richly rewarded. Also to be applauded is the thoughtful sequencing of tracks, a healthy nod to the days when such things were important, (at least to some of us).
Ben has said that “Making this album has felt a bit like a treasure hunt”. On the evidence presented here, there is no question that the treasure has well and truly been found.
Ben’s reputation for melding tradition with ground-breaking, innovative, indeed passionate, music, is truly enhanced with this exceptional release.
Echo is released on July 5th, via Folk Room Records. Order via Amazon.
https://www.benwalkermusic.com/