Hatful Of Rain
Album: The Morning Key
Label: Union Music Store
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.hatfulofrain.co.uk

First, I must apologise. Would have liked to have begun this review with an explanation as to why Hatful Of Rain are called Hatful of Rain, but my research has drawn a blank. There is an old 1957 movie called 'Hatful Of Rain' depicting how morphine addiction wrecks family life, which sounds far to miserable to be associated with this vibrant East Sussex based band.

Hatful Of Rain have been around for about three years, and 'The Morning Key' is their second album, following their critically acclaimed debut album 'Way Up On The Hill'.

They claim that their style is English Folk With Appalachian Roots, which I suspect is a pun based on the fact that Cecil Sharp scoured the Appalachian mountains looking for evidence that American Folk music had roots in English Folk. In reality their music, all self penned, covers a fairly wide variety of genres and influences, particularly bluegrass. As a general rule, I'm not normally a fan of bluegrass, but "These Streets", "Map Or Compass" and "Little Bird" are so toe-tappingly energetic that I might even have to consider changing my opinion of the genre.

The cover is a still from the video of their first single relase from this album, "These Streets". Despite being quite a serious theme, (trying to re-focus after the end of a long term relationship), the music to "These Streets" is really cheerful, and should make an excellent single.

Chloe Overton, Phil Jones, Fred Gregory and James Shenton are incredibly versatile musicians, and none of them are credited with less than three instruments on this album. The majority of the songs were written by Chloe, but all of the others wrote at least one. Phil, Chloe and Fred all sing, with Chloe, (justifiably described as 'lark voiced'), normally taking the lead. The band are renowned for their three part harmonies, perfectly demonstrated by their 'anti-war song', "One Promised Land". This is almost sung a capella, only accompanied by long drawn out haunting violin notes.

In contrast to the almost a capella "One Promised Land", "Stranger" is almost an instrumental. Despite that, it still manages to achieve its goal of representing how it must feel to be a refugee living in a strange land. Not bad for a song without lyrics!

Yes, there are frivolous songs here, but there are also others that cover very deep subjects. The album title "The Morning Key" is taken from a line from "Broad Woolly Back", the lyrics of which are quite cryptic, but it was written by Phil Jones and is a eulogy to the memory of his father. Woolly Back seems to be slang for Welsh, so I'm guessing his father had a broad Welsh accent.

My favourite songs on the album (and I hasten to add that there are no tracks that I don't love), are "Stay" which is a beautiful love song, "Evangaline", a traditional styled folk song of unrequited love, sung (by Chloe, who also wrote it) from the point of view of the man accussed (falsely) of the murder of his lover, and the heartbreakingly beautiful track "Scarlet Ribbon", a song about domestic violence. There are songs on this album that will make you dance and songs that will make you cry. A wonderful selection.

If you get a chance to see them perform live, I'd recommend them. They have a very good stage act, as they use just one microphone between them, which leads to a warm friendly ambience for the three part harmonies.

Pete Bradley