The Magpie Arc – EP3
Collective/Perspective – 5 March 2021
The third and final instalment in The Magpie Arc’s ambitious cycle of three EPs feels like it’s been a long time coming. If, in drip-feeding us these songs, the intention was to build a sense of anticipation, then it has certainly worked. EP3 is just as accomplished as its predecessors, and even more full of musical surprises.
While it works brilliantly as a denouement, it’s not quite a synthesis of the two previous EPs, both of which featured entirely original material. EP3 is a little different in that two of the four songs are covers. A version of Townes Van Zandt’s Loretta kicks things off. Where the original was a bittersweet and almost rueful look at an ambivalent relationship set against a backdrop of bars and gambling dens, here it is made to sound like a love letter to a time when the pleasures of going out and drinking and dancing were second nature. It’s the most overtly country thing they’ve done, and Scottish guitarist Adam Holmes’ vocals are an unexpectedly perfect fit for the twang and bounce of the fiddle, guitar and rhythm section.
Singer and fiddler Nancy Kerr and Albion Band stalwart Tom A. Wright combine on songwriting and singing duties for It’s Too Hard, a sad, sophisticated slice of folk-pop. Wright’s vocals are a revelation, full of a downbeat kind of confidence, and Kerr’s violin is as expressive as ever. Kerr also contributes the EP’s loveliest, most pastoral track, Greenswell. It’s a beautiful slow-burner in the tradition of Anne Briggs or Lal Waterson, underpinned by the lushest of arrangements and some subtle but stunning guitar work by Martin Simpson.
And it is Simpson who takes on the lead role in the final track, a cover of Si Kahn’s What You Do With What You’ve Got. It’s an extraordinarily powerful finale. Simpson gives an impassioned performance, his singing coming across like a more melodic take on Bob Dylan’s early protest songs, while the rhythm is sinuous and even danceable. Despite being over half a century old, the song’s defiant message remains as potent as ever. It is a fitting way to cap a set of EPs whose very existence seems to celebrate the lasting power of musical collaboration at a time when it feels most at threat.
EP3 is released on this Friday, 5th March 2021 which is also Bandcamp Friday.
https://themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/