Nick Wyke And Becki Driscoll
Album: A Handful Of Sky
Label: Wild Goose
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.englishfiddle.com

The Devon-Dorset border seems to be a reasonably fertile area for creation of folk duos, in this case aided and abetted by Wren Music, which brought together Bridport's Becki Driscol and North Devon's Nick Wyke.

Folk music is particulrly well suited to the duo, it opens up a healthy combination of tunes and songs, both traditional and contemporary, giving enough range of musical textures to provide real variety, whilst keeping small and compact enough to be a viable unit across a range of venue sizes.

Of course, being part of such a compact unit still leaves you a little bit exposed, you know you need to be on the top of your game all the time because there is virtually no where to hide regardless of whether you're playing a dance tune or a murder ballad.

Not that Wyke and Driscoll need to hide anywhere, both are consumate musicians that really know their way around the fiddle and both rate in the vocal steaks to boot. It leads to an album that is rich in variety, one that shares well between instrumentals and songs.

One of the things I like about folk music is the way that songs are interpreted and changed to address different audiences around the country, by way of example, the sign off track, "The Exmoor Ram" is a West Country variation on "The Derby Ram" with the folk of Pickery mailgned as those that tend to exageration, rather than the liars of Derby. It's also a song that really captures the humour of the genre as well as the darkness.

That's not to say the duo have held back on the darkside, nope there is a reasonable body count across "A Handful Of Sky" as well as tales of deceipt and treachery, including a chilling version of "The Cruel Mother", a song that really brings home the impacts of poverty, a song that Iain Duncan Smith would do well to listen to occasionally.

"A Handful Of Sky" is a powerful album well performed. Nick Wyke And Becki Driscol have selected their material well and interpreted and arranged it well. It leads to an album that really captures different moods and emotions and one which ends on a high and happy note, which can't be bad.

Neil King