Fran Morter
Album: Fran Morter EP
Label: Moth House
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.mothhouserecording.com

Considering Fran’s background as long-term vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with Essex-based Irishers Arfur Doo & The Toe Rags and, more recently, singing with London-based trio Stick In The Wheel (whose EP was reviewed on this site last summer), this delicately minimalist gem of an EP might come as a little bit of a surprise.

It’s very much a back-to-roots record that showcases simply and affectionately Fran’s deep love of traditional folk song. She has a lovely voice, calming and caressing with an even tone and a trademark soft tremulous vibrato, and she phrases plainly but beautifully, undistractingly and unsentimentally yet with comforting and gently beguiling impact. Although her emotions are clearly engaged and involved she feels no need to over-express them for dramatic effect, resulting in a refreshingly honest and attractive interpretation of the song.

The vast majority of folk enthusiasts will know most if not all of Fran’s five chosen songs pretty well. The EP kicks off with a coolly measured Dives And Lazarus, controlled but not lacking in narrative power; this is succeeded (for suitable contrast) by an animated and precise a cappella delivery of The Tailor’s Britches.

The centrepiece is a considered, delicate treatment of April Morning, which is followed by Lovely Joan (one of three tracks to feature apposite guitar accompaniment from Adam Rees and one of two on which Fran also plays flute); the disc then closes with a well-poised a cappella rendition of The Irish Girl. A very appealing EP, and I eagerly await a full-length album that will give Fran the chance to unearth some more unusual material on which she can place her own stamp with equal conviction.

David Kidman