The Magpie Arc – Glamour In The Grey

1.6K

Creation stories are rarely straightforward, and even the apparently simple task of getting a talented bunch of musicians together to record some songs is often fraught with setbacks. In The Magpie Arc’s case, the major problem was unavoidable: the band began its journey just as the Covid pandemic reared its head. This made the timeworn trajectory of recording, releasing and touring obsolete, for a while at least, and might have contributed to the decision to release the first twelve songs as three separate EPs. Everyone had to find new ways of working, even folk-rock supergroups.

And The Magpie Arc have certainly earned the right to call themselves a supergroup (even if, through modesty or a wish not to be associated with the word’s more bombastic connotations, they eschew that particular descriptor). The current line-up consists of award-winning Nancy Kerr (Vocals, fiddle and strings), world-renowned Martin Simpson (Vocals and electric guitars), Findlay Napier (Vocals, electric and acoustic guitars), the former Albion Band member Tom A Wright (Vocals, drums, percussion, keyboards, programming, electric, acoustic and pedal steel guitars), and Alex Hunter (Electric bass guitar) who doubles as the band’s manager.

Glamour In The Grey is their first full-length and the first chance the band has had to function as a band in the more traditional sense. The result is an album that goes beyond the excellence of those first EPs: the edges are sharper, the interplay between musicians is understandably more well-honed, and the whole thing feels more condensed. There is a mixture of material from the band’s three songwriters and a sprinkling of traditional songs, but the overall sound is impressively coherent. Opener All I Planted is a Kerr original and sees the band at their heaviest and most pounding – Simpson rocks out like Jimmy Page and Kerr taps into the wildest moments of early 70s folk-rock (it comes as no surprise to learn that it was originally written for Maddy Prior). There is even a genuinely psychedelic breakdown halfway through.

Napier’s Don’t Leave The Door Open, a thinly-veiled treatise on Scottish independence brings a power-pop punch to proceedings. He is the band’s newest member, and his writing opens up many new doorways. Tough As Teddy Gardner is like a Ray Davies character sketch filtered through crunching blue-collar rock, while I Ain’t Going Nowhere, which closes the album and gives it its title, is a bittersweet country-pop slow shuffle.

Simpson takes lead vocals on two tracks, the American traditional Pans Of Biscuits – which ripples along on his characteristically adroit guitar playing and a muscular rhythm section – and a cover of Mike Waterson’s Jack Frost, which quickly moves beyond its soft, tender opening bars to something darker and stranger. An apparently simple combination of guitar and fiddle creates an icy soundscape.

Kerr’s contributions are equally confident. Long Gone, which she sings with co-writer Wright, dips into prog but keeps a folky, intimate heart. It flows into The Gay Goshawk, one of a handful of traditional songs arranged by Kerr, which deftly approximates the classic Steeleye Span sound while adding Simpson’s harder-edged guitar. A comparatively gentle version of The Cutty Wren is a perfect vehicle for Kerr’s voice and fiddle, while Wassail imagines what might have happened had the bands of the late-60s heavy psych boom turned their attention to British folk song.

Glamour In The Grey is an incredibly varied album which shows that there is nothing predictable or pedestrian about folk-rock. It’s a welcome shot in the arm and a wild ride. Ideas head off in every direction at once, emboldened by the band’s incredible array of talent but kept in check by their enviable affinity for each other’s playing.  

Pre-Order Glamour in the Grey: Digital | CD/Vinyl