Tom Yates
Album: Love Comes Well Armed
Label: Epona
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.eponarecords.com

Rochdale-born Tom was just one of the large crop of singer-songwriters who came into prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He got to know Paul Simon on moving to London in the late 1960s, and his first LP (Second City Spiritual) was recorded for CBS in 1967. It was in 1973, around a year after moving to Disley, a village near Stockport (Cheshire), that Tom released his second LP, Love Comes Well Armed.

While necessarily placing the spotlight on Tom's own distinctive and admittedly slightly idiosyncratic vocal style, the LP also featured a modicum of instrumental support, from (among others) B.J. Cole, Tom's wife Cindy, and Duncan Browne (with whom Tom had collaborated a few years previously as well as co-writing two of the LP's songs). There's some very skilful acoustic guitar interplay, and BJ's pedal steel provides a telling signature on a handful of the tracks. Even so, the general sound of the album was quite spartan, which made the more complicated arranged sections stand out all the more. It transpires that the original studio master tape has been sourced for this first-time-on-CD transfer, and the clarity of the aural image is often quite startling in the richness of its detail; and although there's the occasional click or crackle of surface-noise this proves no significant distraction in the overall scheme of things.

As far as Tom's songwriting is concerned, it chiefly encompasses a philosophical stance, one which encourages co-operation and kinship; even so, it can sometimes be more than mildly elusive in its refusal to preach. Less mystical, more mystique-inducing perhaps, and almost indefinably pithy on occasion, yet with a delicacy of expression that's mirrored in his vocalising. There's contrast too; the wry playfulness of early Robin Williamson is recalled on Bye Bye Bohemia, whereas Dear Life more resembles a tentative torch ballad. Finally, I mentioned Tom's vocal style above - and yet, idiosyncratic though it may be, you might hear hints of fellow-singers from the early 70s and later too (Roy Harper, Bernie Parry, and others that I can't quite place right at this moment), while derivative his style sure ain't.

For all kinds of reasons, then, Tom's work may not make a definite impression first time round, but it reaps rewards on closer acquaintance, and certainly doesn't justify the neglect which it has suffered over the past decades (I'd not even come across Tom in the persona of "cult figure"!). Sadly, Tom passed away in 1993, in Antwerp (he'd moved to Belgium in 1980), but this timely reissue, along with further plans including the remastering of albums one and three along with Tom's obscure 1980s cassette releases, should ensure his talent now gains some deserved, if belated attention.

David Kidman