It’s getting close to that time of year when many folk singers and musicians are preparing for festive themed tours. One such folk singer and proud Devonian is Jim Causley who will soon embark on ‘A Causley Christmas’ sharing lesser-known West Country carols as well as medieval and secular carols from around the British Isles.
Being such a big fan of Christmas, the tour is clearly something Jim is relishing and it turns out that he has Waterson:Carthy to blame for his ‘Christmas touring bug’…
“Back when I was in a trio called ‘The Devil’s Interval’ we landed the dream job of being backing singers for the Waterson:Carthy Christmas show; ‘Frost & Fire’ and even got to record the accompanying album with them too. We joined them on that tour for seven consecutive years and I must admit that after it ended I’ve felt a certain void in my life every December since! So last year I decided I’d create a Christmas show of my own. I’ve long been a massive lover of Christmas songs and carols and have been collecting interesting songs and unusual variants for several years. And being from the West Country I obviously have a particular affinity with any material that hails from our little peninsula. Some carols are unique to the West and some are versions of songs that are known all over but have survived in a particular form in a particular place for the longest. Just as with the well-loved carols that are found around Sheffield and Derbyshire, pockets of unique carols have also survived and continue to be sung in other places all around Britain. For example in Padstow and Coverack in Cornwall, Dartmoor and Exmoor in Devon and Somerset and some in Odcombe, South Somerset. So there is certainly no shortage of interesting and “new” Christmas material if you are bored of the same old carols you here year after year from Kings College, Cambridge!”
For those of you that have followed Jim will know, he has a strong connection to Devon, something he is very proud of. It’s a connection that goes back many generations – of course, he’s not unique in this love for his home-turf…
“I think most people have a natural affinity with where they are from, especially if their family has lived there for many, many generations. When I went to uni in Newcastle I was inspired (and slightly intimidated) by the huge pride they have in their Northumbrian traditions and culture. I also lived down in Cornwall for a year and had a similar experience there and had a bit of an epiphany; “I came from a place with just as much culture and tradition to shout about as anywhere else!” And so I began shouting… well, singing to be more precise! We have a massive amount of songs, dance music, customs, food, drink, history and traditions which are unique to the West Country and it also looks rather gorgeous too so I am extremely proud to call it my home. And when I was living in Newcastle and labelled a ‘Southerner’ by Northern types I always corrected them by saying ‘No, I’m WESTERN thank you very much!'”
I read in his tour description the mention of medieval and secular carols which isn’t something you tend to see a lot of. I imagine him engrossed in research and wonder whether he has made any exciting discoveries. Turns out he has…and a groovy one at that.
“One of my most exciting discoveries was a chap called Richard Smart who was vicar in the village of Plymtree, not far from my home village of Whimple in East Devon. He lived in the 1500’s and was also the Vicar Choral at Exeter Cathedral. He was a massive fan of Christmas like me and wrote several very groovy carols. One has a claim to fame as featuring the very first mention of a personification of Christmas in the English language and another is a boar’s head carol written especially for Exeter Cathedral.”
Much as I’d love to imagine Jim searching dusty old corridors full of forgotten manuscripts, the reality of modern research is healthily aided by the work of others before us and the wonders of modern technology which has made that research more readily available…but it wasn’t that long ago that this wasn’t the case. “Like most people these days I use a combination of old books, new books, CDs, LPs and the internet – so everything basically! We are so very lucky to have all these resources available to us these days to find new old material. The ground-breaking artists back in the folk revival had a much harder job sourcing their material and we are deeply indebted to them. My favourite thing about the internet is how much easier it has made it to find rare books. No more trawling through obscure book shops although that is still fun too!”
In 2013, with his album Cyprus Well (released on the late great Folk Police Recordings), Jim set to music the verses of Cornish poet and distant relative Charles Causley. The Charles Causley Trust was so impressed by the results that they asked Jim to produce a 2017 follow-up, this time to mark the centenary of the poet’s birth. Released on Wild Goose Recordings, rather than simply repeat the approach with a further collection of Charles’ poems, Jim instead chose to explore another aspect of the writer’s output, his verses for children. The result I Am The Song: Children’s Poems By Charles Causley was reviewed on Folk Radio by Peter Shaw who concluded it was:
…a little gem of an album, which – like Cyprus Well – makes it seem staggering that these poems weren’t songs in the first place, and very satisfying that they are now. Car journeys with the kids just got much, much better.
…With such an enthusiastic response from Folk Radio, I naturally feel it my duty to ask if there’s any possibility of some Charles Causley related songs on this tour, otherwise Peter Shaw may be disappointed. The response is even better…
“Yes indeed. Charles actually published an entire book of Christmas poems so I couldn’t possibly do a Christmas show without including a few of those. Some are hauntingly beautiful like ‘A Song of Truth’ about Mary & Joseph searching for somewhere to stay, some are rather naughty such as ‘Ballad of the Breadman’ and some are slightly unsettling; ‘The Innocents Song’ disguises King Herod as Father Christmas!”
And what’s this about Panto?
“Well, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a spot of panto right?! I’ve always strongly believed in the importance of variety in performance, you need it with some of the heavy material that traditional folk songs throw at you and so I like to sprinkle in a few light-hearted numbers and humorous monologues here and there!”
Narthen (viz. “now then!” in the Barnsley vernacular) is a foursome comprising Barry Coope and Lester Simpson (two-thirds of Coope Boyes & Simpson), Jo Freya (of Blowzabella and Moirai) and Fi Fraser (of Polka Works and The Old Fashioned). They released an album at the back-end of last year which we reviewed here. So what has this all got to do with Jim? Well, he’s their new member…how?
“I got a call from my dear friend Jo Freya last year saying that Lester Simpson had decided it was time to retire from performing and as they didn’t want to stop performing as Narthen – it being a relatively new outfit – they were looking for a replacement and would I fancy joining them. I didn’t have to mull it over for too long! We met up and sang and played together for a weekend and got on like a house on fire. The folk scene being as it is, I’ve known them all for several years anyway, especially Jo and Fi who I play with regularly on the English Country Music scene. We’ve just done our very first gig at Halsway Manor in Somerset as part of a carol teaching weekend and we had a blast. We’ve got six dates together this December including two in Belgium which I am very much looking forward to. It’s always a great joy to work in different combinations with other musicians and it’s very good for helping you to think outside of the box. We’ve got more dates coming up in the new year performing our non-Christmas material and also will be touring with Michael Morpurgo for some of his shows, so pretty exciting stuff all in all!”
The first thing that pops into my head when he tells me this is how it has changed the dynamic of the group.
“In some ways it hasn’t changed it too much as I’ve slotted-in nicely into Lester’s hole, what with having a low voice and playing the accordion. As Fi said I’m just a slightly younger, less ginger and more fragrant version of Lester! But having a different personality in a band does undoubtedly change the dynamic no matter what that person plays. I’ll obviously approach things differently to Lester and bring new material to the table as well so I’m looking forward to seeing how it evolves.”
So are we, we called that album “a lively, eclectic CD from a vibrant quartet; a memorable and life-affirming set.” Can we expect another album soon with you onboard?
“Well, funnily enough, we did discuss this briefly at the weekend! As the first Narthen album came out only a year ago it’s slightly too soon at the moment but we think 2021 will be when Narthen Mark II gets released!”
Well, that was a pretty newsworthy interview, anything else you’d like to share with us?
“Next year I have a new song-writing project of my own with a working title of ‘Causley Contemporary’. I know it’s bad but it does what it says on the tin until I see how it evolves! Basically I’m touring a set of songs entirely written by myself. Some from Forgotten Kingdom but it’s mostly going to be made of entirely new songs written about more modern issues and concerns that the more folky subjects I have previously written about. Usually, you record an album and then tour it. And then after you tour that material it evolves and settles in and I often wish I had the opportunity to perform those songs more before I recorded them because I often end up preferring what they become after the process of performing them live! And so this time I’m going to have the luxury of doing the other way around for the very first time and I’m looking forward to seeing what people make of my new songs and how they take shape.
“I’ve also got several other projects on the boil… I’m working with artist Simon Pope who was behind the project that created my song ‘Pride of the Moor’ about the Dartmoor tin mining industry. This time he’s looking at microbial ecology and wassailing so it’s going to be very interesting to see what comes out of this project! I’m continuing to perform my show of Charles Causley’s poems, mostly for literature festivals but it’s open to anyone who is interested in booking it and I also do that show with Cornish filmmaker Jane Darke where Jane introduces a screening of her film about Charles’ life and then I play some of my settings of his poems.
“I’m working with the actor Charlie Coldfield, supplying the music and songs for his one-man version of the Tempest called ‘Clarke Andrew’s Tempest’ and finally I’ll also be touring with BBC TV’s historian Sam Willis when we launch his new book ‘Pirates, Highwaymen and Rogues’. Last year I appeared on his BBC TV show of the same name performing traditional songs which related to the themes of the programme and we’ll be doing the same again live with Sam reading excerpts from his book. The official launch will be in the British Library on the 16th April 2020… And I think that’s about it!”
Get in the mood for the winter festivities by making sure you catch Jim on one of his upcoming tour dates, details of which are below. Ticket links and more details can be found on his website here: https://www.jimcausley.co.uk/
