SWEET ENGLAND [CD]

They say that Jim Moray created this album on his own laptop. He must be pretty good with the laptop - but that's not the whole story. I actually bought the album just after it won the "Best Album" prize in the Radio 2 awards in 2004. My daughter and I were both captivated by it. To me "Early on Morning" was a song we sang at school in a dreary arrangement, and Jim's treatment is fresh and exciting.

My favourite track is a spell-binding performance of the Child ballad "Lord Bateman". I had never really connected with this ballad before (not even the Nic Jones performance had made much impression), but Jim Moray puts heart and soul into the telling of the story, and now I can't get it out of my head.

And it's not just the laptop, because I've heard Jim live as well. And it's just as good as the album. It's great to hear one so young breathing fresh life into English traditional songs, and keeping the tradition alive.

"Folk music? That's all finger in the ear and hey nonny nonny stuff isn't it?" laughed a man I met recently.
How I wish he could hear this album. He'd have a job dismissing folk in those terms if he did. And an even harder job describing this unique new approach to traditional English music.
Jim Moray, just 21 and a recent graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire, is making mischief in the folk world,turning it on its head and injecting it with colossal new life.By adding the word "techno" to "traditional" he could be the best hope yet of taking folk/roots to a mainstream audience.
He made his mark as runner up in Radio 2's Young Folk Awards with a haunting version of "Poverty Knock" and hearing him on the radio some time afterwards was one of those rare moments when you literally stop what you're doing and listen. The only word for it is "arresting".
Now, after his EP "I am Jim Moray" comes "Sweet England", a collection of 10 songs, including some of our best known ballads. The recording started life in his bedroom, created by equipment largely paid for by a student grant and took on a life of its own. Few folk singers walk on stage with state-of-the-art music software ready to sample snatches of songs that are then brought back into play to huge effect throughout the number. Don't ask me how it works - you'd have to ask him. But those echoing vocal samples are mesmorising, especially when you see him live.
This is an "into the future" slant on ancient songs about love and longing, heroes and villains, squires and maidens - and the odd colley bird thrown in for good measure!
His "Gypsies", based on the traditional "Raggle Taggle Gypsies", will send shockwaves through the veins of purists with its dischordant menace while the unaccompanied clear tenor singing on this and "The Week Before Easter" proves he can sing without the help of high tech trappings, not to mention play guitar and keyboards.
His voice is effortless in the opening classic "Early One Morning" while "April Morning" is enhanced by his sister's (I think)beautiful fiddle playing and the title track is simply sublime.
Then there's the echoing soundwash of "Lord Bateman" while the technical wizardy is probably shown to best effect in "The Seeds of Love" with its complex sound layering. A self-penned song "Looking for Lucy" wraps the album up and shows he has songwriting skills too.
So, at one take, Moray has preserved our musical heritage and taken it to a higher technical plain. It's an album that will grow on you with each playing, just as Moray's fame will escalate if there's any justice.
So buy this album and even better catch him at one of the many folk festivals he is playing this year. Whatever you make of his music, you can't ignore it. Moray is an innovator and the haunting nature of this album is even reflected in the bizarre pictures on the CD sleeve.
As he says himself :"This is just folk music from the point of view of someone that has heard hip-hop and The Smiths and Radiohead and S-Club". He's already played Glastonbury, littered the radio airwaves with his music and made teenage girls swoon on the other side of the Atlantic. What next for Jim Moray?
His album is on the amusingly-titled label Niblick is a Giraffe. If Niblick is a giraffe, Jim Moray is a genius.....

I first heard the name Jim Moray when at Oysterband's recent tour for their cd, 'Rise Above' (also a worth while buy!). As a die-hard Oyster fan I was initially dubious about other artists stealing the show, but by the end I was in awe of the fantastic tones of Jim's voice and his talent for shedding new light on such classic material.

Sweet England doesnt have a single weak track, and will keep you captivated from start to finish. Favourites of mine include 'One Early Morning' (there could not have been a better chosen opening track), 'The Seeds of Love' (an absolute masterpiece), 'The Suffolk Miracle' (Id never heard this wonderful ghost story before, and it was very moving) and 'Longing for Lucy' (an excellent demonstration of song writing skill).

This is without a doubt the best cd that I own, and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone, especially newcomers to folk music. If you can only have one cd this Christmas then make it this one!