Ragged Trousers – War To The Palaces
Free State Records – 2020
Ragged Trousers is a male vocal trio from the Southport (Merseyside) area, consisting of Ben Basson, David Hirst and Alastair Vannon, who perform a cappella. (Beyond that I can tell you next to nothing background-wise I’m afraid.) Each is an excellent – and strongly individual – singer, but what a sensational team they make too. They’ve risen to “must-see” status very rapidly indeed, chiefly through appearances at Whitby Folk Week (from 2017 onwards) and Sidmouth Folk Festival last year – the ensuing buzz has quickly gotten around!
For they make a hell of an impact – which although of course not in the “sheer wall of sound/weight of numbers” bracket (in the “Wilsonian” sense), is just as visceral in its own way. Even so, their unique blend is not all that easy to translate onto disc, at least not without some very careful management of sound and balance. Which may well be the underlying – and perfectly valid – reason why only now are they finally releasing their debut recording. So far, we’ve been treated to a tantalising mere handful of live clips on Facebook and some promotional videos on YouTube, but even now that this full-length CD (well, a rather too modest 32 minutes) has at long last arrived I find myself wanting more, much more.
It’s curious, but at first acquaintance, despite Ragged Trousers’ precisely pointed ensemble sound, there may appear to be something mildly elusive about their particular blend of voices. Anyone familiar with the concept and sound of a three-piece male close-harmony group might expect to find a ready-made comparison here with, say, Coope Boyes & Simpson. Still, it might be argued that Ragged Trousers achieve greater clarity of texture, in that it’s easier for the listener to differentiate and follow the individual lines. That shouldn’t, however, be taken to mean that their harmonies are lacking in interest or imagination – far from it. Indeed, their harmonies (in common with their part-division and other creative aspects of their arrangements) are invariably insightful: yet while unusual and surprising, they can also at times sound peculiarly natural, even almost inevitable. Another big factor contributing to Ragged Trousers’ distinctive vocal style is the way they convey the songs’ innate drama by exercising a restraint that’s born out of a real understanding of the text. They’ve evidently thought long and hard to arrive at key interpretive decisions which they then carry through with unbridled confidence. Rather than going all out for effect, then, their performances are thus measured where necessary; dynamics are expertly controlled and preserved, and they hold considerable power in reserve for where it’s needed.
A fair majority of the songs on the trio’s debut CD will be known to folk devotees. So does it help if you know the songs? Actually, here it probably does. This is definitely not a case of “familiarity breeding contempt”, though, for the group’s obvious respect for the songs has manifested in their carefully considered settings. Let’s be clear: that’s not to say that other artists’ versions of these songs are in any way redundant or have nothing valid to say. But hearing Ragged Trousers’ renditions, you’ll realise how much more the songs can yield – not just in terms of fresh perspective, but in the sense of how they communicate to you down the ages. As their credo, outlined in the copiously informative CD booklet, states: “what continues to speak to us across the long decades and centuries that separate us from the singers who moulded so many of these songs as part of a long unconscious process of traditional song transmission and development”.
Take Rigs Of The Time, for starters. The fabulously detailed booklet note places the song in due context, and this is mirrored in the reflective nature of Ragged Trousers’ sung interpretation (I’ve heard too many overly “jollified” renditions of this powerful statement over the years). There’s considerable musical interest in the lads’ setting too, in tandem with their intuitive, expressive nous and vitality. And that’s a key combination of attributes which characterises their approach generally, I’m glad to say. Even the lightest and least “weighty” (and ok, most arguably “disposable”) of songs, The Brisk Young Widow, retains a degree of freshness that takes it out of the realm of auto-pilot.
The CD’s highlight for me is a pindrop, unerringly finely poised rendition of Mountain Fields, a gorgeous original composition by Pete Sutherland learned from Kieron Means, which features the trio’s spellbinding use of dynamics within the spread of their individual, highly contrasted vocal ranges. Another of the disc’s standout tracks is an atmospheric and ingenious blending of The Cruel Mother and The Well Below The Valley, two songs from parallel song traditions (again supported by excellent expository booklet notes). This, by the way, is the only track to embrace any instrumentation, here in the form of a subtle, almost subliminal eerie droning backdrop (provided by Alastair on phonofiddle and David on slide guitar and harmonium). And in a total of just under 5½ minutes, for all its status as a collation, it proves perfectly credible as a story and succinct and complete in itself. As indeed proves the trio’s sturdy account of maritime broadside The Flying Cloud (this version learnt from the singing of Ewan MacColl), which here too loses nothing of its drama and achieves full due gravitas in just 5½ minutes, without resorting to the more self-consciously epic proportions of Jon Boden’s (admittedly magnificent) new recording, or for that matter Louis Killen’s benchmark account (not that either of these alternatives are any less worthy, of course – just different).
But then again, all of Ragged Trousers’ chosen songs have been gleaned, if not directly learned, from “approved” sources of exactly the right kind; there’s one (Bright Morning Star) from the singing of The Young Tradition and two (Greenland Whale Fisheries and Rap Her To Bank) from the singing of the Watersons, for instance. And Ragged Trousers are not the only a cappella performers to discover (and unlock) the potential of Todd Rundgren’s Honest Work (others who have clearly “seen the light” include Lady Maisery and Maddy Prior). It’s to be noted, though – and heartily celebrated – that in each and every instance Ragged Trousers’ renditions are done “in their own voices”: audibly “owned” by them, yet all the while cognisant of, and respectful to, their inspirations.
As debuts go, this CD is very impressive indeed. Recorded, mixed, produced and mastered by David Hirst himself, it’s also a pretty accurate representation of what they offer live (even though it’s missing further examples of their more overtly rousing repertoire – e.g. Sailor’s Prayer, John Ball). So let’s have more please, lads – and soon!
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