"Originally given away at a concert at Cecil Sharp House, London, on 28th May 2005," it says on the back of this CD, and that's where I got it. It was a strange gig. I saw Roberts three times in London that year, and this one (between the other two) was by far the most sparsely attended. It was promoted by Pete Paphides, who seems to be an all-round good egg, and I understood that his previous promotions at Cecil Sharp House had been a big success. So I was eager to get tickets in advance: to do so I had to post a cheque to Pete — I can't remember posting a cheque for tickets at any other time in the last decade! I certainly did my bit to promote the gig, as there were seven in our party (Lucy, me, Jeremy and Alex, Medwyn, Ali and Rado), but I think we made up more than 10% of the audience.
Richard Youngs was the support act. Though Jeremy and I were quite taken by his largely a capella performance, much of the audience was restive and some in our party admitted to being concerned that this was the guy I'd brought them to see.
Anyway, I rate Alasdair Roberts as one of my top new discoveries of the decade, having first come across his work in Appendix Out five years ago (Philip Jeays would be another). In recent weeks I've been enjoying Roberts' latest album, which I got off eMusic, and that just reinforces my feeling that he's getting better and better. I'm seeing him again in a few days' time at my favourite venue in London.
The four self-recorded songs on this CD are all traditional in origin: Roberts website shows where he got them from. They involve, respectively, a young man drowning, a silkie (a shape-shifting seal-man) who fathers a child with tragic consequences for all involved, a Scottish pirate, and a final song that I haven't quite grasped, but which has hints of incest and sororicide among the King's offspring as well as lots of stuff about brooms (it's called "Sheath and Knife" but one suspects the sheath is not a sheath and the knife is not a knife). It may be a low key release, but it's very high quality, and I've heard vociferous (but unsatisfied) requests for the silkie song at recent shows.
Roberts must also be added to the Hall of Fame for great titles on the basis of this CD alone (other inductees include Ballboy and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra).
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