Sam Kelly
Album: The Lost Boys
Label: TCR
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.samkelly.org

Having reviewed Sam's "Spokes" EP earlier this year, I was looking forward to the release of his first album, and the anticipated progression.

Progression there is from the opening track "The Jolly Waggoners" where you immediately get the impression that this is a "band" rather than a singer songwriter. With Jamie Francis' banjo pushing the song along, Eva Carson crisp and tight on drums (as a trio these three have been touring) and the fiddle of Ciaran Algar and cello of Graham Coe leaving Kelly to sing with power and feeling.

As if to underline the band approach, session tune "Banish Misfortune" is given an energetic workout before we move onto "Six Miners". The banjo perfectly fitting the tale of Alfred Packer who led a team of miners into the Utah hills seeking gold, "Six miners went to the mountains, only one came back", a true story of Cannibalism. It prompted me to google the details.

Traditional tracks such as the "Kings Shilling" will be familiar, although here it sounds fresh and new with Kitty Macfarlane adding a lovely counterpoint vocal.

"Little Sadie" is a song claimed by many from Bod Dylan through The Grateful Dead back to Johnny Cash and Doc Watson, here Kelly stakes a strong claim of his own with a treatment that showcases the range of his voice.

The mood is lightened with a stripped down, shortened version of the "The Golden Vanity" treated with a feel of jollity you wouldn't expect it to work, yet it does.

Self penned songs such as "Eyes Of Men" and "Spokes" (strangely not on the EP of the same name) by Kelly and Francis stand up well to repeated listening.

On the earlier EP the mythical folklore story of the East Anglian "Hickathrift" was told, here we move to Ireland as we are treated to "Dullahan" a headless horseman who signifies death and rides to collect us, no door or window however well sealed can stop him. It's also a magnificent slab of folk rock and a great closer to the album. It leaves you wanting more.

If "Lost Boys" isn't massive then there is no justice in the folk world.

Ian Cripps