Pete Morton
Album: The Land Of Time
Label: Fellside
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.petemorton.com/

I am so glad that I got to review "The Land Of Time", the new album by Pete Morton. I have followed Pete's career since I first saw him at the Bothy Folk Club in about 1987. His music and approach immediately struck me as fresh, innovative and original and I still have that opinion, some twenty eight years later. For me, Pete is one of the best songwriters that the British folk scene has ever produced [and he also one of the nicest people you could wish to meet].

Pete is probably best known for writing "Another Train" but that is just the very tip of the iceberg. His fifteen [at the last count] albums are crammed full of equally great songs and this latest album "The Land Of Time" is no exception. In fact, it's a cracking album from start to finish.

The thing about Pete's songs is that they are full of humanity and compassion ; he is no dispassionate observer of the human condition, he lives it. One minute he can be railing against injustice in the world but at the next moment can melt your heart with a tender ballad. Both sides are evident on this new album.

Pete's previous album was called "The Frappin' And Ramblin' Pete Morton". Frappin' is an invention of Pete's where he takes a traditional chorus song and adds verses in a talking blues style rap. There are two examples of frappin' on the new album.

The first is "Poverty Frap" on which Pete takes the industrial folk song "Poverty Knock" [which is about working conditions in cloth mills in the North of England in about 1900] and brilliantly transforms it into a rap about working conditions in the sweatshops of Bangladesh in the present day.

The other frap here is "Slave To The Game" which is based on the broadside "Up To The Rigs Of London Town"[which came from the repertoire of Harry Cox and was collected in 1924]. Pete brings this up to date with a chilling condemnation of human trafficking in the underworld of modern-day London. A lovely tune hides a dark message.

A very different view of London is taken in "Bloomsbury Boy", a gorgeous ballad about a love that supersedes everything else. Equally beautiful is the title track, "The Land Of Time", a tender song to and about his son, which I found extremely moving in the way it describes the love of a parent for his or her child.

Staying with family matters, Pete's song "One Hundred Years Ago" tells how his great grandfather was wounded in battle in the muddy fields of the Somme during the First World War and was saved by the enemy, who could have left him dying. Pete reflects on how this act of kindness gave life to three more generations. An inspirational story, beautifully told by a master of his craft.

Only a gifted songwriter like Pete could encapsulate 200, 000 years of the history on mankind in a five minute song, but this is what Pete does in "All The Life Before", a beautifully eloquent meditation on the evolution of humankind.

By way of contrast, in "Old Boston Town", Pete manages to combine a rant/rap about the iniquities of the arms trade with a good old-fashioned singalong chorus ["Me and me good horse will never turn round, I'm coming preaching to Old Boston Town"].

The album ends with "Oh What Little Lives We Lead", which starts somewhat pessimistically by listing the failures and insignificance of mankind but finishes on an optimistic note by proclaiming "Oh What Mighty Lives We Lead".

Thus far, I have been concentrating [justifiably, I think] on Pete's song writing rather than the musical accompaniment. I will now rectify this by saying that the playing on this album is absolutely superb. Pete and his producer Paul Adams have assembled a fabulous group of musicians who provide a wonderful accompaniment to Pete's guitar and vocals. The players are:

Jon Brindley [guitar]; Chris Parkinson [melodeon, accordion, harmonica, piano, chorus vocals]; Ciaran Algar [fiddle, bouzouki, banjo, mandolin, chorus vocals];James Budden [double bass, bass harmony vocals] and Linda Adams [harmony vocals].

In conclusion, all I can say is that this is a wonderful album by a master songwriter and I unreservedly recommend it. Album of the year? You bet!

Peter Cowley