Marc Block – Faerie Fire Dances
Glaspool Records (Glasspool003) – 28 October 2020
On first acquaintance, the elegant and symbol-laden cover of Mark Block’s latest collection Faerie Fire Dances promises a crossword puzzle-like process of dissemination prior to the enjoyment of the music itself. For anyone unfamiliar with his work (myself included) the initial encounter of the package promises both cerebral and intellectual possibilities as well as philosophical densities.
So far so promising and the cover art is as fetching and as laden as the music within it is. More of that however anon as Marc’s background is also interesting, his community credentials extend to working as a music therapist in hospitals as well as professional performances and social activism. Marc worked as a qualified nurse for more than twenty years; he started consciously to incorporate singing into his interactions with clients after completing the OPUS Music in Healthcare training, while also working as an entertainer in care homes. Having done this, he began the Wellspring Music outreach to hospitals and care homes to which is his main occupational calling.
A singer all his life, Marc played piano and oboe at school, then took up the guitar at 15 and began writing songs at 16. More recently, he has taken up harmonica, bouzouki and bodhrán, and regularly gigs on the folk scene. Prior to his third album Faerie Fire Dances, he recorded two other CDs, The Hawthorn Spring (2013) and Brisk & Breezy (2016). He also became an accompanist and driver for the late Roy Bailey and his influence extends to musical and intellectual reference points. In the sleeve notes, he declares that the album consists “largely of songs inspired by my connections with the radical faeries-an independent worldwide collective of queer nature”. His active participation in the LGBTQ community extends to having helped organize the Queer Spirit Festival, a cross-disciplinary LGBTQ centred arts festival and according to his own blurb “Now a seasoned folkie, Marc is a highly engaging and personable performer, disarming and wooing his audiences with his emotional honesty, and combining tradition and innovation with a magickal and Queer slant to his songwriting”.
Approaching an album like this one, context helps in forming an impression but this is just secondary to the music itself which deserves comment and space, hovering as it does within the contemporary folk framework with more than a customary nod to traditional roots. The presence of such folk heavyweights as Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Gina LeFaux, Doug Eunson and Sarah Matthews adds considerable credence to the affair and lifts it way above peripheral interest alone. The subject matter depicts both personal and universal themes- love, loss, separation and renewal. Opening with Faerie Fire, the clarion call to faerie gatherings, the song is blessed with a strong earthiness extended to a rousing chorus and craggy throaty vocals. We Tend Our Gardens, a circle of life song, holds a wistful balladic melody and traditional sounding motif –had it not been self-composed it could pass for a traditional song. The melodic approach is so entrenched within the folk idiom and the link is emphasized by the frisson between more atypical folk songs like We Tend Our Gardens and the more strident Happy Alone, the delivery of which recalls the sadly departed Kieran Halpin in its impassioned interaction between despair and acceptance, highlighted by Martin Simpsons’ five-string banjo and Block’s impassioned vocal. The Sailor Home from The Sea borrows lyrically from the traditional Cock of the North to form a fine elemental ballad and Your Love Be Mine occupies a heady intensity while Red and Green derive from the protest and social activist idioms. There is plenty of weight and substance to these songs and their attraction lies within the conviction delivered by Marc Block and his supporting musicians. It’s a work of well-intentioned and achieved poise and precision and well worth spending time with to discover its manifold riches.
Order Faerie Fire Dances via Bandcamp: https://marcblock.bandcamp.com/album/faerie-fire-dances
Photos by Tom Koukoulis