Anna Shannon
Album: Horses, Beasts, Fairytales
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.annashannon.co.uk

The latest CD release from North-Yorkshire-based Anna, one of the UK's most prolific singer-songwriters, follows on from a series of CD-singles, the latest of which (on a "Titanic" theme) was reviewed on this site a little over a year ago. Horses, Beasts, Fairytales, however, is an honest full-lengther, the creation and careful assemblage of which has been occupying Anna for a good couple of years. And I'm convinced that now it's out in the racks at long last it will soon come to be regarded as Anna's finest collection yet.

I guess I first need to declare upfront a minor personal involvement in the post-production phase of this album (some humble advice on track sequencing and other matters), to avoid this review coming across as over-partisan, But even the casual listener can't fail to notice immediately the very high standard of the songs, the writing, the musicianship, the overall execution and the artwork and presentation - all of these are exclusively down to Anna herself. She's an immensely skilled multi-tasker - a creative and strikingly accomplished singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and designer, with her own definite, intense vision and a strong musical identity to match.

Each of Anna's CD releases thus far has sported a theme of sorts, and that of Horses, Beasts, Fairytales encompasses and brings together three of those which are dearest to Anna's essential psyche. She espouses, values and celebrates the timeless traditions, responds deeply to nature and the cycles of life, and yet keeps her feet firmly on the ground of reality and contemporary life, finding fresh meaning and relevance for us all in the old ways. Her humane respect for, and devotion to, beasts (animals) is unashamed and entirely unsentimental. Two songs examine the travelling community's close relationship between man and beast: the compassionate Cow Parsley & Wire brings us a gypsy widow, dog at side, recalling the heartbreaking times of persecution suffered by her family and their belongings, while on Jukkal, an old gypsy's dog tells his own life-story. Three songs concern hunting, but these are no all-purpose soapbox-cliché anti-hunt vehicles, instead they evocatively retell spine-chilling local legends (The Wraith and The White Hare Of Eskdale) or cheekily turn the tables on the field (The Devil Fox). Northern Star relates a small farmboy's excitement at discovering a new-born foal in the stable. But finest of the "beasts" songs here is Precious Metal, a beautiful (and genuinely tear-jerking) personal eulogy that Anna wrote in remembrance of her veteran pony Mojo, who died at age 35; incidentally, this song, sparingly and sensitively accompanied by a lone Spanish guitar, brings out the best in Anna's voice, revealing new expressive shadings and dynamics. The worlds of horses and men are also brought together in the disc's fun, vibrant final song-opus, Returning The Velvet - a true story that's nothing less than the Shannon Family equivalent of Steve Knightley's Galway Farmer.

The Faerie Knotte self-evidently represents "fairytales", but this category companionably stretches to include local mythology and the jaunty oboe-and-recorder-flecked Solstice March which celebrates the turning of the seasons and kicks the whole album off in rousing style, the Gryphon/Blondel-like mode then being rekindled on the disc's closing instrumental bookend Medi-evil Mother-in-Law.

Throughout this new disc, Anna's trademark delivery, her strongly characterised, distinctive and earthily persuasive singing voice, proves (as ever) both freshly intimate and outwardly involving. At the same time, the album still firmly places rightful emphasis on Anna's tremendous, and very real, gift for songwriting. So in any case this is in no sense a run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter album. But on top of all that, it's impossible not to admire Anna's especially keen ear for instrumental colour and her well-developed penchant for imaginative arrangements. At times, indeed, there may be a suspicion that her almost childlike relish, her delight in naturally showing off her puckish and well-practised musicianly skills, just occasionally gets the better of her, with a slightly over-busy palette whose final complexity forces her to trip over her own feet (and hands!) in an attempt at some tricky rhythmic synching within the multitracked musical soundscape she gleefully conjures in the studio (it's Brian Bedford's this time, no less!). This is an observation rather than a serious criticism, however, and the sheer unbridled ebullience, the life-affirming conviction, of Anna's performance, imparts an irresistible, overwhelmingly positive feel to the proceedings. In the end, the infectious surfeit of invention Anna displays on the (without exception intensely memorable) songs within this latest generous package surely can't fail to overcome resistance from even the most determinedly glum of listeners.

David Kidman