Sarah Morgan
Album: Only Remembered
Label: Wild Goose
Tracks: 19
Website: http://www.wildgoose.co.uk

From time to time, I receive a disc that reaches me by chance rather than by mailout, accompanied by the statement "not being sent out for review", but (treading carefully and side-stepping the express-stipulation angle) presumably that means "not not to be reviewed", if you get the distinction… And this abnormally well-stocked (71-minute) disc is a prime example.

It's labelled rather modestly as a retrospective, and it pays the most lavish and blindingly appropriate of tributes to one of the folk scene's finest singers. It was such a tragic blow when Sarah died last August; a blow felt by everyone on the folk scene (and not just the legions of singers to whom she's imparted crucial confidence or advice over the years). Indeed, it's tempting to remark that such was her legacy that she leaves behind so many folks for whom she will be "only remembered" for one field of endeavour - singing, teaching, leading, inspiring. Put simply, Sarah has had an indelible effect on anyone who ever met her.

Although this disc necessarily concentrates its spotlight on just the one aspect of her artistry - her uniformly brilliant solo and harmony singing - it touches also on other aspects: her immense gift for songwriting (View The Land and the lovely, enduring Keep You In Peace), her special skill in word-setting (her justly celebrated treatment of C. Fox Smith's Home Lads Home), her unbridled generosity (two songs recorded privately for a friend). Additionally, and all-encompassingly, every one of the disc's 19 tracks is a perfect embodiment of Sarah's intrinsic humanity. What finer tribute could we have?

WildGoose's Doug Bailey has assembled, with much evident care and love, a real treasure trove of recordings from all stages of her career, many never before available and several featuring Sarah in a purely solo capacity. We can of course regard her recordings with the Craig, Morgan, Robson trio lineup as inevitable jewels in this crown, but those five representative tracks are "known quantities" since they're taken from existing, still-available records - as are a brace of Hen Party tracks and Lord Derwentwater (from The Axford Five project). Four further cases are rather less "known", for they're culled from frustratingly non-available records (under the umbrellas of New Wood - in an ear-watering grouping that included Mary Eagle, Helen Hockenhull and Keith Marsden - and Bread & Roses). Two further items are sourced from a Forest Tracks live recording made in 2012 with Jeff Gillett accompanying Sarah on guitar. The latter-mentioned six examples would make purchase of this CD mandatory, I suspect, for those of us who so treasured Sarah's contributions to the folk scene. But there's more! For where this retrospective scores especially intensely is its ingenuity and enterprise in seeking out and enabling for inclusion (in some cases audibly restoring) a small handful of fabulous private recordings, done by Sarah at home for rehearsal or personal purposes.

Summing up, then: if this were a vinyl LP, I would be able to say that every groove is alive, radiating Sarah's endearing and entirely sincere musical personality: the glowing welcome, the overpowering warmth, the overwhelming desire to share, the natural ability to encourage, the gift of communication with genuine enthusiasm, the unassuming expertise that you feel you can trust without question. Purely physically speaking, Sarah was not a tall lady, but her presence and inspiration reached head and shoulders above so much of the rest of the folk scene. In that sense alone, this exceptional disc demonstrates that she will be only remembered: in other words, we mean never forgotten.

David Kidman