Various Artists
Album: Out Of Reach
Label: Treewind
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.outofreach.org.uk/

This is (honestly) the most gloriously feelgood CD I've heard so far this year, absolutely guaranteed to lift the spirits with the very first bars and keep them aloft for almost exactly an hour. It consists of a well-balanced programme of tunes (mostly in the form of medleys, and leavened with a couple of songs) recorded by six of the musicians frequenting the traditional pub folk music sessions at The Dyke's End in the village of Reach on the edge of the Fens north-east of Cambridge. The music may since have been, quite literally, taken "out of Reach" by leaving the pub (for various reasons), but it has continued to thrive, both in other pubs in the area and by being permanently enshrined on this studio recording, which has been made with the express purpose of raising as much money as possible for cancer research (participating musician Danny Gallagher's wife having died from breast cancer in 2010). The seed for the idea having been planted with respected folk performers Mary Humphreys and Anahata, no time was lost in gathering together with Chris Sullivan, David Dolby and Simon George-Kelso to record a representative yet enterprising collection of mostly little-known but thoroughly enjoyable tunes. The welcomingly diverse instrumentation (various permutations of melodeons, concertinas, fiddle, octave mandola, mandolin, banjo, guitar and cello) is invariably tastefully and imaginatively deployed, without overloading textures but retaining that frisson of participatory togetherness that comes with a relatively small number of musicians who work so well and intuitively with each other. The listener can sense this at once, and yet (unlike in many similar pub-based folk sessions) not feel in any way excluded by the sheer cameraderie of the participants and the expertise and musicianship on entirely natural display. It fair makes you want to dance!

Tune aficionados will doubtless wish to learn more about the provenance of the selections, and ample detail is provided in the concise liner notes (with further pointers to the website); suffice to say that sources include early collections of English, Welsh and Scottish dance music including the manuscript collections of John Clare, also tunes collected from village musicians - not to mention the occasional Russian march, French quadrille or Swedish Rejländer. The arrangements are delightful and wholly listenable, the tunes themselves interesting and intelligently combined to form harmonious and logical medleys. One could listen to these musicians all night - and I fully expect the sessions would have lasted even longer!… Finally, I must mention the pair of songs which, though included as respites from the scintillating foot-tappery of the tunes, are gems in their own right. Here, to a gentle guitar accompaniment, Simon provides a reflective take on Colin Cater's charismatic A Penny For The Ploughboys and introduces us to a powerful broadside concerning the 1832 Reform Act, both items also featuring some finely judged chorus singing (and selective, sensitive accompaniment) from the rest of the musicians.

The fund-raising rationale for the CD is of tremendous importance of course, should any motivation for purchase be needed - as if the sheer vivacity of the music within were not sufficient incentive in itself! Joyful and joyous; totally irresistible, totally infectious and totally recommendable in every respect.

Should you wish to find out more about Cancer Research UK, please visit their website:http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/home/

David Kidman