Under One Sky - The Songs EP

(Muso's Guide, December 16, 2008)

Single reviews

It isn’t often that the very cream of the music crop come together in one act - or, if you will, ‘Under One Sky’. Oh, there are artists you love, and who you put together in your fantasy music league, but in reality, they don’t come within a hair’s breadth of each other. Until now.

Acclaimed Scottish fiddler John McCusker has assembled this line-up of which dreams are made for his latest musical excursion.

First unveiled at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2007, Under One Sky has been on tour, but here we are witness to the first recordings of the artists involved ahead of the album’s release next year - and they are something very special indeed.

First of all comes english musician and actor, John Tams. ‘Hush A Bye’ is a gentle, personal song, which Tams’ deep, resonant, traditional folk voice renders utterly hypnotic, while a female vocal rounds out the sound. The instruments here blend in with Tams’ truly melodious vocal and repetition of the lyrics gives it all the sound of a real lullaby. The simplicity of the music throughout befits the nature of the song perfectly. When John’s singing fades out, the music swells and creates a beautiful, lush soundscape.

From Tams’ unique, classic folk sound, it is but a skip and a jump to Julie Fowlis‘ ”S Tusa Thilleas’ and the sound of the Highlands and Islands. The Uist native is renowned for successfully carving out a niche in Gaelic vocal work, and her exquisite voice and disarming music here are breathtaking. ”S Tusa Thilleas’ shrugs off the common rhythms and beats of folk and slinks by in the form of a moment of calm. Literally translated, the title means “it’s you who will come back”, and the song has all the hallmarks of love’s longing lament in any language.

Some will question the appearance of Graham Coxon. After all, Blur’s ex-axeman hasn’t paid any folk dues, per se. But in ‘All Is Gone’, Coxon showcases the versatility which is very familiar to fans of his solo work. This would actually not sound out of place on one of his records. It’s gentle and emotive, with a raft of emotion going through the lyrics. The musicality is unusual on The Songs EP - the ‘pom pom’ of the bass makes it stand out amongst these folk records - but McCusker must have seen something fitting in Coxon’s work, and we should be glad he did. ‘All Is Gone’ really showcases the expansiveness of Coxon’s artistry.

Another fugitive from indie rock’s cruel embrace, Roddy Woomble was best-known for his sterling work with Scottish indie popsters Idlewild in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Now with folk records of his own behind him - including the recent Before The Ruin record, recorded with McCusker and Scottish folk musician Kris Drever - the 31-year-old visits The Songs EP with ‘Lavender Hill’ like it is his natural habitat. The gentle string work and sweetness of Woomble’s Scottish burr make ‘Lavender Hill’ a haze of a song, the stuff of long days with friends and lost youth. The conglomeration of instruments is tremendous, and it truly fires the imagination to think of traditional musicians sitting in the round playing away. The song’s hook line, “I’d rather be staring at nothing”, is nothing like as existential as it sounds, but woven into the serene dream of Woomble’s lyrics like a true expert. McCusker’s fiddle brings out the emotion of the song, and the whole effect is breathtaking.

From there, it must have been tough to beat - but 27-year-old Exeter folk musician Jim Causley puts a stamp all his own on the final track. ‘Will I see Thee More’ is a tender, thought-provoking piece which begins with acoustic guitar and builds with McCusker on fiddle.

Causley has the vocal style and grace of a folk singer twice his age, and shines bright on this simple fairytale of a song.

To have a group of such astonishing musicians is fortuitous indeed, but to get them all here, Under One Sky - that’s McCusker’s miracle.