Alex Hodgson
Album: The Brig Tae Nae Where
Label: Greentrax
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.alexhodgson.net

Alex, who hails from Prestonpans in East Lothian, was twice a finalist in the "Burnsong" songwriting competition (in 2005 and 2009), since then appearing live many times at prestigious high-profile venues and on BBC Radio Scotland, and releasing his debut album Jeelie Jars 'N' Coalie Backies shortly thereafter. His original songs convey in simple but evocative language his deep love of the Lothians and the heritage of the area, and he writes with evident insight about local historical topics. The Brig Tae Nae Where is for the most part a thematic collection of songs based on family memories of summer days spent at Belhaven Bay near Dunbar, its loosely nautical import binding the self-penned material to a pair of songs drawn from accepted folk tradition (MacColl's Shoals Of Herring and Burns' Red Red Rose, both receiving suitably charismatic readings here).

Alex's singing has an easy strength and power, a quality that I feel is sometimes too characterful for his own songs however. Sure, there's no questioning the depth of his affection for the old ways and how things used to be, but all too often the message doesn't go far beyond mere rehashing of the basic concept of simple nostalgia, and songs like The Guid Auld Trams are too repetitious for their own good. Musical accompaniments are assured, with piano, keyboards, fiddle, flute, guitars, double bass and percussion making an accessibly full sound, quite often more in the vein of easy-listening pop than traditional folk-inspired - yet the most effective tracks tend to be those which utilise the least number of instruments (Bonnie Meg) or else deploy their complement in a sparingly evocative manner (We've Lost A Lark, the tale of a pitheed lass who lost her life down Fife's Valleyfield Pit in 1919). Alex has a well-developed gift for melody, but it's a shame that the sentiments of many of his songs don't quite match the quality of those melodies (too often with songwriters it can be the other way round!). Indeed, Alex's songs do rather tend to err on the side of populist-sentimental, perhaps in a bid to escape sounding too traditional (if you get my drift), and even the affectionate tone of his ode to the wee toun of his birth is compromised by the twee schoolkids' chorus within the backing track, while as a change A Summer Tale resorts to a spoken delivery. Honourable exceptions to the general sentimentality include The Herring Road, which is used as a connecting thread - but I think it would have worked better if its three parts had been combined. But the CD is well presented in the award-winning Greentrax house-style, with full lyrics, notes and performer credits provided within the booklet.

David Kidman