June Tabor: A Quiet Eye

I bought this album on the strength of a review in the Sheffield Telegraph — thought not by Martin Lilleker, the regular music writer, because when I met him once I thanked him for recommending this album and he told me someone else did the folk and blues reviews. Can't remember his name.

It was one of those times when you stumble upon what feels like a real new discovery and you want to explore the seam and find out how best to mine it.

I haven't listened to the album the whole way through for quite a while, and was impressed by its range and its consistently high quality. Lots of really imaginative settings of songs that mostly have some connection with folk tradition, but also reach into jazz and recital. Great arrangements by Huw Warren.

My favourite songs initially were The Writing of Tipperary/It's a Long Way to Tipperary (which brilliantly makes a fairly hackneyed music hall song profoundly moving through its context), the a capella version of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, better even than Appendix Out's, and A Place Called England.

The latter is written by Maggie Holland, and I saw her perform it at the protest folk music event that Billy Bragg presented at the Barbican last year. I didn't imagine it would be as good as June Tabor's cover version, but actually it was pretty close. When I hear the verses

I saw town and I saw country
Motorway and sink estate
Rich man in his rolling acres
Poor man still outside the gate
Retail park and burger kingdom
Prairie field and factory farm
Run by men who think that England's
Only a place to park their car

But as the train pulled from the station
Through the wastelands of despair
From the corner of my eye
A brightness filled the filthy air
Someone's grown a patch of sunflowers
Though the soil is sooty black
Marigolds and a few tomatoes
Right beside the railway track

it seems a cert that they were written on a train pulling out of Sheffield along the Don Valley past Meadowhall towards Rotherham. But then you can probably imagine somewhere near you that inspired it. That's its genius.

What I'd forgotten was how great many of the other songs on the album are — not a duff track among them.

After falling in love with this album, I really I wanted to see June Tabor live. It would be nearly two years before I did, and then I saw her several times in the space of the next two years, but I'll save those details for another time.

I also burned a copy for D, in that way that boys do when they feel the need to convert their nearest and dearest. After much water had flowed under the bridge I got a late night text from her once "David, just wanted to say thnx 4 June Tabor (& many other things....)", which I found very moving.

MusicBrainz entry for this album