GREG RUSSELL & CIARAN ALGAR – The Silent Majority (Fellside FECD275)

The Silent MajorityI have to say that this album represents everything that folk music should be about. There is tradition, there is musical invention and evolution of the tradition and there is the sort of protest on which the revival was based.

The opener is ‘Prologue’, ethereal, other-worldly sounds that morph into what I’m guessing is a traditional tune before finally resolving into the title track. ‘The Silent Majority’ was written by Lionel McClelland and seems particularly appropriate in our present circumstances. The examples it cites – Hitler, Chile – are familiar but still it’s a song to make you stop and think. From the global we turn to the local and ‘George’, the story of a Glasgow bad boy written by Findlay Napier and Nick Turner. George is not a pleasant character but I’m sure that there are men like him all over the country.

‘We Must Be Contented’ is a piece of social commentary from the 19th century; a sort of cousin of ‘Hard Times Of Old England’ with the optimism of the latter replaced by a weary resignation. The words are old but the tune is modern, written by Ron Flanagan, which leads into ‘Did You Like The Battle, Sir?’. Why have I never heard this song before? Its form is old but it was written in the 70s by Bev Pegg and John Richards and I thank Greg and Ciaran for bringing it to my attention.

After Ciaran’s epic instrumental ‘The Tide’ which he describes as his attempt to write film music the attention switches to Greg for two traditional songs, ‘Limbo’ and ‘Brisk Young Man’. Both have been tweaked, the latter to the extent of having a new tune written for it and some new words added. What a cracking version – I can imagine Eddi Reader borrowing it. After a second mostly traditional tune set, ‘Swipe Right’, featuring Ali Levack’s whistle and pipes the album closes with Pete Coe’s ‘Rolling Down The Ryburn’. Pete’s summary of the life of a travelling musician is a cut above the usual “life on the road it tough” lament. He still sings it, of course, but it’s good to have it on a new album.

The Silent Majority will be on my list next awards season

Dai Jeffries

Artists’ website: www.russellalgar.co.uk

‘Did You Like The Battle, Sir?’ – official video:


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