Reviews
Artist:Gary Fulton
Album:Wail And Holler
Label:Self Released
Tracks:10
Website:http://www.myspace.com/garyfulton
First brought to our attention via the single, "Rosie", raising star of the North West folk and acoustic scene, Gary Fulton, has just released a full length album, "Wail And Holler". Gary runs to the principle of keep it simple, so the majority of the tracks are just him and his guitar and it really is a case of less is more. It gives Fulton's songs a resonance and consequently, "Wail And Holler" is an album that reaches out to the listener.
He puts good contemporary twist or two on some traditional themes. "Leather Shoes" feels of the here and now yet songs of harbourside whores stealing the clothes of sailors backs go back many hundreds of years. It's a song that shows much of the character of the album, strength against adversity.
The album also uses the folk trick of associating human frailties with occult entities, the Devil makes an appearance in "A Tipple For The Rogue", as a symbol of temptation. It also features a great line about the good book saying to have a cup of wine, but not when to stop.
Whilst Fulton does use more than just guitar for the instrumentation, it's the instrument that dominiates, not just for the chord structure, but also to generate a sense of rhythm in the absence of drums. It moves the songs forward as it provides the momentum for the lyrics to work alongside.
Fulton, takes a simplistic approach to the writing. There's plenty of rhyme, which in it's self works well with the rhythm, but it's not at the cost of description, in the aforementioned "Leather Shoes" it's easy to visualise the unfortunate sailor returning to ship dressed only in his shoes, with a sheet wrapped around him.
"Wail And Holler" is an album that it's easy to imagine being performed live. You can almost feel it in a bothy, the audience singing along to the choruses. It's music that can be performed anywhere and feels at home there.
The lead track for "Wail And Holler", "Crooked Path" can be found on the Fatea Showcase Session:Songsmiths, available free from http://www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk