Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path was published in 2018 to critical acclaim and went on to become one of the most successful non-fiction books of the year. It’s a difficult work to pin down – part memoir, part treatise on the English landscape, part travelogue – it has at its heart the poignant journey undertaken by the author and her terminally ill husband, Moth. Just after Moth’s diagnosis, the couple were made homeless and decided on impulse to walk the South West Coast Path in its 630-mile entirety. The resulting book is a written record of a journey that was both physical and emotional, by turns lyrical, angry and sad, and always touched with hope and humour.
Gigspanner’s Peter Knight became aware of The Salt Path when his wife Deborah (the band’s manager) was lent a copy. The band – one of the most pioneering groups in folk music – began to explore the musical possibilities of a journey along the coast path, which takes in an area rich in culture and history. Saltlines was always meant to be more than a collection of songs tied to a particular place, and the band’s masterstroke was getting Winn herself involved. The result is a tour (starting 19th October – details below) and a double album of mostly traditional material from Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall punctuated by Winn’s striking prose interludes.
A clue to the album’s overall feel can be found early on in Shower and Sunshine, a song collected in North Devon. It talks of the ‘wondrous breath’ of rain, of weeping in anguish and for joy. It is a song in which human love and the forces of the landscape intermingle and become one, a perfect introduction to the subjects – monumental and deeply personal – of Winn’s book. Hannah Martin’s singing is always powerful and passionate, and here she calls on her deepest reserves. A similar theme is explored in a Cornish version of the song Lemonday with its slow, calm melody wide-eyed in the midsummer light. Cadgwith Anthem, another Cornish song, is interspersed with Winn’s words: it becomes both a comment on the oral tradition and a new addition to that tradition. When the song kicks in properly, with Knight leading an ensemble vocal performance, we can hear years of tradition being cast off as the song emerges fresh and new, complete with an Indian-inspired instrumental section.
As is so often the case in folk music, there are political undertones to many of these songs, not least the short snippet Cornish Lads are Fishermen, which became an anthem for both fishermen and tin miners as their livelihoods were stripped away. Winn’s commentary sets the scene in a brisk and insightful way and brings the story up to date with observations of young, unemployed men meeting in the queue for the foodbank.
Winn’s spoken sections are about more than giving narrative structure to the album. She is a brilliant scene-setter too: her lists of flowers and plants before Lemonday, for example, become a kind of meditation, a trance-like state where fiddle strings buzz and drone-like bees. Her reading style is unadorned, delighting in its own wildness. We learn a lot – about the withiers’ trade, for example – without ever feeling we are being preached to.
As we have come to expect from Gigspanner, the musicianship is consistently top-notch. John Spiers (concertina, melodeon) is in great form throughout, livening up The May Day Carol alongside Knight’s breezy fiddle solo. Phillip Henry’s nimble dobro weaves in and out of the album, while his harmonica playing is uniquely expressive. Rhythm section Sacha Trochet and Roger Flack provide the necessary bustle when needed but are not afraid to stray into more experimental territory when the need for a soundscape (or a seascape) arises. The minimal, brooding intro to The Isle of France is one high point, the stripped-back instrumentation giving space to Martin’s stirring vocal performance.
The second disc kicks off in the most uplifting manner, with a bracing run-through of The Padstow May Song, whose percussive bounce recalls Knight’s days as a groundbreaking folk-rocker with Steeleye Span. Sweet Sweet Spring’s rhythm has a decidedly modern feel, while its tricksy melody and soaring fiddle double-act give it a feeling of lightness and exaltation. Also in the second half are some of the record’s stranger, most experimental (and most satisfying) moments – a set including an adapted shanty and a version of Helston’s famous Furry Dance or a mysteriously symbolic counting song, The Dilly Song. The unusual version of Ten Thousand Miles has a distinctly Breton flavour, something that Spiers helped tease out.
Saltlines’ final combination of songs is hugely impressive. The only non-traditional track here – Hannah Martin’s Salt Song – is an intensely moving account of Raynor and Moth’s journey. The final, exultant combination of the Cornish-language Estren and the Cornish dance tune, The Three Knights, provides a highly uplifting conclusion. There is an almost theatrical flourish, an epic feel to it, which is perfectly suited to the subject matter and to performance in a live setting. Saltlines is a massive, ambitious and highly unusual project; the fact that it feels perfectly judged at every moment is down to the sheer excellence of Gigspanner Big Band’s musicianship and the touching, clear-eyed nature of everything Winn writes or speaks. It is a constant delight.
Pre-Order Saltlines here: https://www.gigspanner.com/shop/details/saltlines
Gigspanner Big Band & Raynor Winn October 2022 Tour
Wed 19 October – Hall for Cornwall, Truro
Thu 20 October – Quad Theatre, Plymouth
Fri 21 October – Theatre Royal, Winchester
Sun 23 October – TrinityTheatre, Tunbridge Wells
Tue 25 October – St Mary in the Castle, Hastings
Wed 26 October – Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead
Thu 27 October – The Octagon Theatre, Yeovil
Fri 28 October – Farnham Maltings, Farnham
Sat 29 October – The Landmark Theatre, Teddington
Sun 30 October – Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh
Mon 31 October – The Stables Theatre, Milton Keynes
Tickets and further details here: https://www.gigspanner.com/live