Jim Causley
Album: Cyprus Well
Label: Folk Police
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.jimcausley.co.uk

'The finest singer of all the current crop of younger folk artists' - so said the presenter of a well-respected folk/roots radio show when Jim Causley's name came up in conversation. Indeed, my first introduction to the artist was his excellent contribution to a track on a Show Of Hands album, where his warm burr of a voice blended perfectly with Messrs Knightley and Beer.

This album, his fourth solo set (not counting his work with The Devil's Interval and Mawkin:Causley), is therefore an enticing proposition. On Cypress Well , Jim has taken poems by the late, great Charles Causley (to whom he is distantly related) and has not only set them to music, but recorded them in the poet's Launceston home (the Cypress Well of the title) - using the poet's own piano. This fact bestows an extra layer of poignancy and authenticity to the project.

Charles Causley's poems seem particularly ripe for setting to music. I'm sure people of a certain age will fondly remember, as I do, singing versions of 'Timothy Winters' and 'Colonel Fazackerley Butterworth-Toast' at school, and the chilling, disturbing 'Innocent's Song' (which casts Herod as Father Christmas) has been very effectively set to music by Johnny Coppin and brought to vivid life by Show Of Hands.

Beautifully and simply recorded by Nick Marshall, Jim's tunes and arrangements suit the well-chosen poems perfectly, and the illustrious cast of supporting players and singers delicately and exquisitely frame his ageless voice and understated piano. From the gentle, stark opener, 'All Soul's Day' via the bigger band arrangements of 'My Young Man's A Cornishman' to the moving, undulating 'Angel Hill' (which opens with birdsong and church-bells, captured on an i-phone!), the album is a lyrical and musical treat. Hilary Coleman's clarinet and Ceri Owen-Jones trombone mix brilliantly with the more traditional 'folk' instruments and ensure that there are no musical clichés.

It is so hard to pick out highlights, but one of my favourite tracks is 'Eagle One, Eagle Two' where Jim's tune and arrangement perfectly capture the eerie nature of the supernatural poem (two stone eagles outside a hotel in Launceston which, according to local folklore, come to life at night). The closing Sibard's Well/Night Before A Journey is a fittingly emotional ending to the record, featuring Jim's fine spoken reading of the first poem. The only time a setting jars slightly for me is on 'Timothy Winters' where the tune and playing is perhaps slightly too jaunty and jazzy for the subject matter - a moving portrait of a school-boy from a deprived background. However the playing is as excellent here as it is on the whole album.

From the excellent artwork and detailed and fascinating sleeve-notes to the use of Cornish language, dialect and folk-tales, the whole concept of the album makes for an incredibly satisfying experience - reminiscent of the days of vinyl when one would pore over sleeves while listening to the music. You can get totally lost and immersed in these words, this sound and these tunes, and I can think of no greater compliment. A triumph and a fitting tribute.

Nick Hall