Reviews

Sue Graves
Album: The Surrey Nightingale
Label: Self Published
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.facebook.com/suegravesfolksinger/

I've known Sue now for close on two decades, and I believe that in all that time she has been known as "The Surrey Nightingale". I don't know when the nickname was first bestowed upon her, but it is highly appropriate. I don't know who it was who originally first gave her the name, but it is a name that has stuck.

I think, at first, Sue was embarrassed when people called her that, but she has grown to accept it and she now has two guitars (one of which is a tenor guitar) that were custom made for her by the luthier Ian Chisholm, both of which have an inlaid mother-of-pearl nightingale on the headstock.

The song of the nightingale was, of course, immortalised in verse by John Keats. Here on Earth 'youth grows pale, and spectre-thin and dies', but the voice of the skylark was so full of joy that Keats felt too happy in hearing the skylark's happiness. Although it was dark and his eyes couldn't see the flowers at his feet, the full-throated song of summer painted the picture of the hawthorn, eglantine and violets that were around him. And if you wanted a description of Sue's voice, what better description could you get.

Sue was a member of a trio called Soiree, which broke up amicably when one of the members, Steve Poole decided that it was time to leave. In May of 2015 Sue was a guest vocalist of the band Suntrap during a concert at the Ram Club in Thames Ditton, and rapidly became a permanent member. She has, however, continued to perform solo at almost every folk club in Surrey and must have added many hundreds of covers to her repertoire.

Suntrap had already released four albums before Sue joined, with "Northern Lights" being the first after she'd become a member. The producer, recorder and mixer of "Northern Lights", Tom Evans, a multi-instrumentalist, made several additional contributions, and soon after became the fifth member, joining Sara Byers, Mary Wilson, John Sandall and Sue. Whilst recording "Northern Lights", Tom also recorded Sue's first album "Autumn Gold", and he has recorded, mixed, mastered and co-produced "The Surrey Nightingale" as well.

In addition Tom plays on all but two of the tracks, playing a variety of instruments including accordion, electric bass, double bass, pedal steel guitar and on one track Tom is credited as contributing 'harmony vocals, accordion, guitar, kitchen sink and bass. I imagine that the 'kitchen sink' is used as a percussive device, because I'm not sure how else it would be played.

Just as with "Autumn Gold", Sue has enlisted the help of a few other musicians and three of these tracks feature all of her band mates from Suntrap. I'm hoping that they also found time to record enough full band tracks for another Suntrap album.

From the vast range of songs that Sue has under her belt, she has selected eleven tracks for this album, with songs from a wide variety of songwriters, including some who are famous are some who are less often in the spotlight with a few that I have to confess that I hadn't heard of before.

The first song was written by a singer/ songwriter from Nashville, Diana Jones. For some reason I didn't see her when she played at Twickfolk back in 2023, but Sue must have done, as Diana has not yet released the song "In Good Company" on an album yet. The song can be found on Diana's Facebook page, where she introduces the song as "In Good Company", but entitles the Facebook entry as "Good Company". Sue plays her tenor guitar and Tom plays accordion for this track.

"Amsterdam" was written by Laura Carrivick, one half of the duo The Carrivick Sisters. This is the first of the tracks to feature the full Suntrap line up, with Mary and Sara on backing vocals, Tom on bass, and John on violin. Tom's mother, (also called Sue) plays hammered dulcimer, a beautiful instrument that I first heard via Daria Kulesh's band Kara. "Amsterdam" is in waltz timing, very appropriate as the song concerns a ballerina.

On her first album, "Autumn Gold", Sue included "Souvenirs", written by Lynne Whiteland (from Tudor Lodge) with the songwriter actually joining on backing vocals. Clearly, when something works there is no point in changing it, so Sue again covers a Lynne Whiteland song, "Poems", of course featuring Lynne on harmonies. John Sandall, (from Suntrap) accompanies the two on violin and viola.

Sue has included two Beatles covers on "The Surrey Nightingale": "If I Fell" and "I Will", both of which feature Lynne Whiteland, with Lynne providing backing vocals on "If I Fell", and guitar on "I Will". Tom plays bass on both of the Beatles songs, with Sue Evans again joining on hammered dulcimer for "If I Fell". The original "I Will", by Paul McCartney, is only one and three quarter minutes in length, and Sue has slowed it down to two and a quarter minutes.

The second song utilising the full Suntrap band is "Pinjara Dreams", written by Chris While (probably more famous from her duo with Julie Matthews). Chris wrote the song for the BBC Radio Ballads series and highlights the UK's child migration to Australia scheme in which around 130,000 children were shipped into servitude in Australia from 1920 to as late as 1970, with the intention of populated the empire with good, white British genes. A heartbreaking song, delicately and sensitively portrayed here.

The final full band song is "Folk Club Song" by Jonny Dyer. I've known Jonny for years now as he often used to play with Daria. When you are a folk musician you tend to visit hundreds of different folk clubs across the country, so tend to get meet a large number of people, some of whom you'll even consider as friends. You probably only visit each club once every couple of years, so you only get little snapshots of each person's life. Every now and then you'll visit a club to find that someone you knew has moved on, or died. So this is a happy, jolly song, with a deeply sad undercurrent.

There are two tracks on the album that were written by people I'd never heard of before. "Hobo Girl" was written by two Canadians, Cindy Church and Nathan Tinkham, both of whom were members of a band called Chinook Arch Riders. I can find no evidence that the Chinook Arch Riders nor Cindy and Nathan have ever visited any Surrey folk clubs, but I guess Nathan at least must have done, as he himself suggested that Sue sang the song. "Hobo Girl" is, I guess, a country song and as the name suggests is about a girl who can't settle down and is permanently moving from one town to another. The hairs on my arms all stand up when Tom's pedal steel guitar cuts in on this track.

I'd also never heard of husband and wife songwriters Phil and June Colclough before. Their song "The Call & The Answer" is a pretty little happy song about a perfect couple. One assumes that the couple in question were themselves. Somehow Sue and Tom give the song an air of sadness, which might be because June died in 2004 at the age of only 63. Phil died fifteen years later. The song was first sung by Irish Folk band De Dannan, which is where Sue learned the song from.

"Nightingale" is the only track on the album that isn't a cover. Sue's former band member Steve Poole and his wife Diane commissioned Tim Edey to write this song for Sue as a birthday present. Ironically, although Tim is a singer as well as an instrumentalist, this song, (written to celebrate the talents of an incredible singer), is an instrumental! Tom Evans accompanies Sue's tenor guitar with his accordion, and is credited for writing an additional section.

The last song on the album is the only song that doesn't feature Tom, and was written by another exceptional song bird, namely Sandy Denny. "At The End Of The Day" is a perfect song to end a perfect album.

And as the last track fades out, whose words would better describe how you'd feel but Keats:

Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:- Do I wake or sleep?

Pete Bradley

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