Sandra Kerr – Rebel With Her Chords
Self Released – Out Now
Sandra Kerr has a long pedigree at the forefront of the English folk music scene, with a CV that reflects a wide range of interests and activities. Her many claims to fame include membership of The Critics Group from 1963 to 1972 and the composition (with John Faulkner) of the music for the TV series Bagpuss (for which she also provided the voice of Madeleine Remnant the ragdoll). She’s also been involved in a number of BBC radio programmes over the years, and I believe she still both directs two folk choirs and regularly teaches and leads workshops. She writes songs (and what songs!), and not least, of course, she sings – solo (accompanying herself on the English concertina, or more occasionally guitar, autoharp or Appalachian dulcimer) or with daughter Nancy, or with the groups Sisters Unlimited and Voice Union. Little wonder, then, that she only rarely gets round to releasing a CD; her total discography to date barely reaches double figures (and that’s including those made in tandem), thus the appearance of a brand new solo CD, the punningly-titled Rebel With Her Chords, is cause for celebration indeed.
This new CD brilliantly reflects the various strands of Sandra’s musical personality. On one hand, it encompasses her love of the traditional music of the British Isles (both song and dance) and in particular that of the north-east of England, while on the other hand, it turns the spotlight on her own keen compositional skills. Her songwriting is characterised by a lively passion for her subject, and ranges from women’s themes, deliciously sharp and perceptive political commentary and caustic satire, to recounted tales from local or regional history, and delightfully timeless and unpatronising children’s songs.
Through all of these runs a thread of genuine warmth and humanity, and an enthusiasm that infectiously transmits to everyone around her. Perhaps that’s only to be expected when (as here on this record) musical collaborators include “family” (daughter and son-in-law Nancy & James Fagan) and good friends Will Pound, Tim Yates, Rosie Hood and Tom A. Wright. Tom was also responsible for the empathetic production of the record. Quite rightly, of course, Sandra’s own striking singing voice is dominant, on distinctive (and still impressive) form, and her signature fluid, dextrous, melodic and naturally creative concertina playing is well to the fore on almost all of the album’s 13 tracks.
The disc kicks off in typically thought-provoking fashion, with Young Girl Upon The Road, which gives us the best of all worlds in demonstrating Sandra’s oft-proven skill in adapting a traditional song structure and melody to a contemporary issue. Bang-up to date, this song (loosely built on Fause Knight Upon The Road) is dedicated to Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg (the young woman who instigated the recent high-profile school climate change protests). We then encounter the first of the disc’s four instrumental items – the beautifully pointed chamber-folk waltz Solace, which Sandra wrote in memory of her mother Molly following her funeral. On this tune, Sandra enjoys some supremely elegant support from Tim’s double bass, Nancy’s fiddle and James’s piano keyboard. Back to the tradition then for Must I Be Bound, where Sandra in her intimate solo rendition skilfully points up the contrast between the harshness of the song’s subject (an abusive relationship) and its rather too lovely imagery and melody. The tradition is furthered in the Elfin Knight variant Whittingham Fair, which is sandwiched between the next couple of instrumental tracks. On the first of these pairings, the lead-off tune Me Mother’s Jig (learnt from Nancy’s father, Ron Elliott the Northumbrian piper) is especially invigorating, for Sandra here enjoys Nancy’s sparkling fiddle counterpoint before James and his bouzouki enter the fray for his own composition in the Lydian mode (Nancy’s favourite), Sting In The Tale. The second family-ensemble instrumental track, The Surgical Set, is a vivacious three-tune medley of fun 3/2 hornpipes,
The next pair of tracks both concern the north-east mining community – Five Lives Of A Bucket, written by Sandra for Doreen Henderson (of the Elliotts of Birtley), laces fond reminiscence with broad humour, while the two linked traditional songs, The Bonny Pit Laddie and The Keelman Ower Land, are put across with real feeling (and a deftly fingered concertina interlude midway). Immediate contrast is then provided by Sandra’s torchy composition Women Having A Hard Time Round Here, a riposte to government cuts to social and welfare services, given a delectable swinging arrangement with bluesy harmonica, double bass and snare. Back in chamber-folk territory, My Complex Valentine is a life-affirming (if tricky!) 7/8 tune written by Nancy and James for Sandra’s 70th birthday a few years back.
Thence to the disc’s modest quotient of covers: first, Robb Johnson’s superbly bleak critique of racism Anne Frank’s Sister, in a powerfully-felt stripped-down voice-and-concertina reading, which contrasts with a more “arranged” ensemble account of Randy Newman’s prescient global-warming-themed Louisiana 1927. Fittingly, the disc ends with a wonderfully airy solo (again pure vox-and-concertina) account of the haunting traditional ballad fragment Low Down In The Broom, rounding off this commendably accurate (and credibly and sensibly-sequenced) self-portrait of a wryly self-confessed septuagenarian still in mighty fine canny fettle and eternally committed to the cause.
Order the CD via Sandra’s website here.