Alasdair Roberts: The Crook of my Arm

Initially I downloaded this from eMusic in 2007, but then I did one of those "Marketplace Pre-order" things on Amazon and picked up a new vinyl copy last year for a modest price (that is, cheaper than the download version). I listened to the vinyl once when I got it, but, aside from that, iTunes tells me it was April 2008 when I last played The Crook of my Arm. I'm amazed it's been that long, seeing as I inhabit that grey area where fan turns into stalker obsessive. Even in my psychopathologies I come up short.

So how does it sound when I come back to it after so long away? This first Alasdair Roberts solo release came out the year before his band, Appendix Out's final one — the one that initially got me hooked. Unsurprisingly they overlap.

The songs on The Crook of my Arm are obviously folk songs, but the delivery retains that monotonic lugubrious tempo from the Appendix Out albums. There are no flourishes; the only time Alasdair really pushes his voice — as he has done quite often in the years since — is in the last verse of the last song.

The back of the albums notes, "These songs are from the singing of: Shirley Collins, Robin Dransfield, Dick Gaughan, Anne Briggs, Nic Jones, Sarah Anne O'Neill, Dougie Maclean, Alan Roberts, Paddy Tunney and Alex Campbell." It could be seen as the first of the trilogy in Alasdair's solo career that also includes No Earthly Man and Too Long in this Condition, while Farewell Sorrow, The Amber Gatherers, Spoils make up a parallel trilogy of original songs.

The Alan Roberts in that last paragraph was Alasdair's dad (who, if Wikipedia has it right, played with Dougie Maclean). I believe he died a while back. I know hunting for biographical explanations of creative decisions is facile, wrong-headed and potentially intrusive, so let's not call it an explanation, but merely note the approximate coincidence of this loss with Alasdair's turn to more traditional forms. But let's stick to what the work means now it's been made public, rather than any private motivation.

I think I read something recently where Alasdair denied that his albums were arranged thematically. Still The Crook of my Arm has a noticeably lower frequency of incidents of bodily harm than No Earthly Man. And, in keeping with its title, most of the songs feature courting couples in one way or another. Inevitably these courtships are doomed, and the relationships mostly defined by separation — of time, distance (especially the sea), memory and class.

I'm setting off at 9am this morning, with Guy and family, to see Alasdair and others at this gig in Snape. Please, wish us luck with the five or six hour in the car, and the weather. [Update: luck was with us and all was fine, so thanks for the wishes — I expect there will be a report of the gig over here before long.]

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