Barnstorming Folk CD - Review (From Stroud News and Journal)

Barnstorming Folk CD - Review

Barnstorming Folk Various £10

THE MINCHINHAMPTON Folk Club celebrates it first year and a bit in fine form with its first CD of Barnstorming Folk, performed by all the folk who sing and play there every week.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Meningitis Trust, and - in a happy reversal of the usual trend - this is a really rather good charity record.

From the purity of Heather Bristow's voice on Wayfaring Stranger to Dave Gass' witty Language Cop - which sounds like Woody Guthrie as raised in the wilds of England - and from Jeff Gillet's tender rendition of Blow the Candles Out, augmented by his fine guitar playing, to John Mills' delightful evocation of the five valleys, seen through the eyes of a highwayman as he is hung, in Tom Long's Post, this is a remarkably good grassroots folk record.

The highlight, for sheer wit, is Muirsheen Durkin Revisited, as performed by Richard Cox. He's packed it through with amusing modernisms, even rhyming boredom with Carol Vordeman and managing to get away with it.

What could have been an embarrassment is in fact an embarrassment of riches - the CD has been exquisitely produced and there are uniformly clear and spirited performances by all concerned.

Well worth a listen. Barnstorming Folk is available from Trading Post and Kane's Records.