Keith Hancock
Album: This World We Live In
Label: Epona
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.eponarecords.com

Now here's a treasurable (and by many folkies, long-awaited) CD reissue. Hot off the grooves of a wonky cassette dating from the mid-80s… that oft-maligned in-between era when CDs hadn't quite "arrived" and vinyl was staggering on with obscure independent releases that sported restricted, localised and/or indifferent distribution, and, of course, when folk was distinctly unfashionable in many quarters. But then again, it was when some really vital music was being made - if you knew where to look. In certain regional folk clubs and centres of activity, for instance the north-west, where formidable melodeon supremo Keith Hancock held court.

Keith's debut LP, made with the help of a gang of trusty local musicians and some higher-profile musical mates like Clive Gregson and Christine Collister (then fresh from their appearances with the Richard Thompson Band), was a proud and defiant stall-setting affair, a record notable for its confident (and almost bullish), determinedly eclectic sense of enterprise, where Keith's own larger-than-life, ebullient musical personality is stamped throughout like a stick of Manchester Rock. Here we encounter a veritable gamut of classic songs chock-full of the courage of the good Mister 'ancock's personal convictions. Tell-it-like-it-is social conscience was getting to be the new rock'n'roll once again, and South Africa, War Games, Chase The Dragon and the disc's title song are all prime examples of biting, powerful, passionate and incisively savvy commentary. Keith's compassion is also much in evidence on the pair of standout tracks - The Eyes Of A Child and Absent Friends - while his cheeky, gutsy sense of humour comes to the fore on the jaunty, well-oiled catch-you-out singalong Ee When I Were A Lad and the slightly saucy true-life portrait of Le Pétomane.

This album launched Keith on a successful career during which he toured extensively, both with his own band (which included Messrs. Carthy and Swarbrick) and in a duo with Lee Collinson. He made three more albums before retiring from full-time touring in the mid-90s and relocating to Saigon (Vietnam), where he currently resides and writes. In the opinion of many, though, his vibrant debut This World We Live In - albeit a mere snapshot in and of a time - represents what might well be regarded as something like Hancock's Finest Half-Hour-And-Half-As-Much-Again.

David Kidman