Nick Rooke
Album: Jericho Wales & Other Tales
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.nickrooke.co.uk/

You really don't have to get much beyond the opening track, "Jericho Wales" to get a sense of what this album is going to deliver, a feeling confirmed by track two "Fanny Was A Fat Fruitarian", yep Nick Rooke and co are delivering an album of good time music that will raise your spirits.

Taking in a number of folk styles, from both sides of the Atlantic, "Jericho Wales & Other Tales" has everything from piracy to schauenfraud spread across it's ten tracks, though it feels a bit shorter as a number of those tracks are delivered at a fair old gallop, that said he manages to squeeze in a relationship or two.

At times there's an almost punk feel to it, you can feel Rooke referencing the likes of The Men They Couldn't Hang and the Pogues, a good couple of bands to have a nod towards. Most of the album has got a live feel to it and you get the feeling Nick and his motley crew could deliver a really raucous set at almost any given festival, getting the whole crowd moving, but as the 'other tales' part of the title implies, this is also an album of narrative.

"Sundowner" for all its energy doesn't forget that it's a song that references the courage of all those that attended to the small ships at Dunkirk, something that makes this an album for the home to be listened to as much as moved to.

"Jericho Wales & Other Tales" seems to address body and soul, well spirit. It's a well crafted, well written album, one you can easily imagine being referenced by other bands down the years. Whilst there are albums out there that feature better musicianship and better vocalists, this really does come together as the whole package, an album to be enjoyed and savoured and you can't ask more of it than that.

Neil King