DAMIEN BARBER & MIKE WILSON – The Old Songs – DBS Records DBS004

The Old Songs is the second album from Damien and Mike and follows the pattern of their debut, Under The Influence, drawing material from, in the main, two distinguished singers – in this case Peter Bellamy and Mike Waterson. None of the songs are really obscure although ‘The Charlady’s Son’ may have you scratching your head unless you have Mike Waterson’s solo album and Dave Dodds’ ‘Drinking Song’ may be unfamiliar unless you live in this corner of the Surrey/Hants border where Dave was a well-known figure thirty years ago.

That’s really the point, though. These are old songs engrained in the memories of old folkies – even Richard Thompson’s ‘Down Where The Drunkards Roll’. Hands up if you’ve sung it or along with it in a folk club. That’s pretty much everyone, then. The words of the title track are by Bob Copper, whose family also supplied ‘Come Write Me Down’, and its music is by Peter Bellamy who is also the source of ‘Rag Fair’, ‘A Pilgrim’s Way’ and ‘Santa Fe Trail’. One song comes from June Tabor and then there is ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’. Mike sings it with great tenderness but it isn’t a song I care for due to an embarrassing incident when I was seventeen. No, I’m not going there.

Two voices plus Damien’s guitar and concertina make for an uncluttered album that could be reproduced live at a moment’s notice in keeping with the nature of the songs: to repeat my point, they are part of our collective repertoire. Damien and Mike stamp their own style on them although Damien can’t keep a hint of Bellamy’s vibrato out of his voice by the time they reach ‘Santa Fe Trail’. This is grass-roots folk singing at its best.

Dai Jeffries

Artist Web Link: www.damienandmike.co.uk