Sharron Kraus
Album: Friends And Enemies, Lovers And Strangers
Label: Clay Pipe
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.sharronkraus.com

Sharron’s is a distinctive voice within the world of latter-day English folk singer/songwriter/musicians who, while clearly inspired heavily by tradition, invest their own special gifts, intelligence and literacy in the creative reworking of traditional legends and elements. I’ve really admired Sharron’s earlier projects and involvements, from the superb solo offerings Right Wantonly A-Mumming and The Woody Nightshade to Leaves From Off The Tree (a collaboration with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall of Philadelphia outfit Espers). Each of these has invariably cast new light on traditions, and now her latest venture finds her gaining specific inspiration from her time living in rural mid-Wales. Here she digs deep into The Four Branches Of The Mabinogi, a collection of 11th century Welsh folk tales whose common themes of love and hate, power struggles, loss and displacement resonate powerfully right on into the present day.

Sharron’s special achievement here is that she enters the skin of the tales’ characters, imaginatively retelling all but two of the stories (including arguably the most well-known, that of flower-lady Blodeuwedd) from the first-person perspective, thus rendering them even more involving for the listeners gathered round her fireside. Musically involving too, for Sharron’s clear, pure, beguiling singing voice sets itself amidst a backdrop of similarly pure-toned instrumental colours (harp, recorders, bowed dulcimer, guitar and, on one track, piano), an ethereal and refined yet warmly inviting sound-world that conjures a delicately atmospheric invocation of the ancientry of the tales themselves and the medieval age in which they were written. It’s at one and the same time graceful and darkly sinister, curiously modal and yet psych-folk-modern. Interestingly, much of the drama is embroiled within the melodic development, where the tunes may seem simple and folky but somehow they don’t always follow the course you might expect. It stands to reason, then, that you’ll need to listen more closely to get the most out of Sharron’s storytelling.

Sharron’s acutely realised settings convey the definitive poetry of the tales through their inherent quiet sense of drama, their darkly glistening aura of genius loci and the atmosphere of memory. There’s a delicate grace and poise to Sharron’s phrasing too, a quality that may initially contrive to conceal her strength of purpose and vision. For it’s a given that you the listener will come under the spell of these stories even though you may not quite understand them at first. Indeed, Sharron herself “fell in love with these stories while being mystified by them”, and for her the act of writing the songs was a way of getting to grips with what was happening in them. Even so, she’s not by any means the only modern-day folk artist to have been captivated by immersion in the Mabinogion (you may recall Robin Williamson’s vital and yet quite different but complementary treatment of a selection of the tales just a few years ago). And Sharron’s musical collaborators (harpist Harriet Earis, singer Nancy Wallace and pianist Nick Palmer) also clearly find themselves much in sympathy with both the tales themselves and, importantly, the magical and natural aspects of the Welsh landscape (it can’t be too fanciful to imagine the clear-toned harp depicting the rippling, rushing watercourses and the organ drones the brooding woodlands). Nancy’s vocal harmonies in particular are gorgeous, a superb match for Sharron’s own voice.

From the angle of literary achievement too, Sharron’s own retellings would amply repay serious study, for they’re so very appositely constructed and truly in the spirit and idiom of the original works. While their down-to-earth magic is indelibly communicated, Sharron’s linguistic ingenuity extends naturally to the parallels and consistencies within her own life and experiences – and by inference also our own lives.

This album is released on vinyl, and the packaging is certain to be sumptuous and hand-crafted in accordance with the high standard set by Frances Castle’s Clay Pipe label. The music is also available on download via Sharron’s Bandcamp page.

David Kidman