KATE DOUBLEDAY – Flutter (Copper Records CRCD004)

FlutterThere’s a real pastoral vibe about Kate Doubleday’s new album, not to mention a certain fruity motif. It does get perilously close to the imagined rural idyll hated by critics, however.

It begins with ‘Orchard’ but Kate does tell us that the orchard in question is in her memory. It’s just as well, there’s more fruit in it than most greengrocers can stock, but it is a very pretty song. ‘Spring’ reaches out to include flowers and wild garlic and ‘In A Land’ is set in “in a land where the oranges grow” and gives the record its title. In between is ‘Fifty Years’, being the reminiscences of a man who stayed in his village, content with what he had, while his friends moved away to better themselves. What Kate doesn’t say is that when he goes the modern world will sweep it all away but that’s just my extrapolation from my own boyhood.

‘Lion’s Lullaby’ takes us to Africa and is adorned by Dan Wilkins’ kora and also contributing are Jamie Smith and Ruth Angell’s string quartet The Froe. Although I mentioned the imagined rural idyll earlier, Kate did actually hear a lot of stories from her Traveller father which gave her the inspiration for ‘Tilly’s Song’ and her ambition to be a gardener. This is a lovely record and probably more true than you might think.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: http://katedoubleday.com/

‘Tilly’s Song’ in the studio. Not a brilliant film but a fine song: