Vic Shepherd & John Bowden
Album: A Motty Down
Label: Hallamshire Traditions
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.hallamtrads.co.uk

First, before you complain to Fatea's Editor about my incorrect spelling of John Bowden's name, I will tell you that this John was active on the Sheffield and South Yorkshire folk scene long before Mr Jon Boden the erstwhile Bellowhead leader relocated from Oxfordshire! And yet, surprisingly few folks know that. He and his wife Victoria Shepherd constituted a well-regarded performing duo who, in 1982, released this album on vinyl (on the tiny Burlington label); following a rare live appearance at a concert in the 2012 Sheffield Sessions Festival, and due to the enterprise of Paul Davenport, the LP was reissued on CD in the autumn of 2013, around a year after its 30th anniversary.

I'm taking this opportunity to bring A Motty Down to your attention now, following the release only last spring of Vic and John's latest (second) CD, Still Waters. Both albums are well worth your attention if, like me, you appreciate traditional songs extraordinarily well sung - and often quite rarely-heard ones at that. The material Vic and John perform has a strong North American bias (reflecting their earlier extensive travels across the pond, we're told), with several of the disc's selections having been sourced from indigenous US singers Hobart Smith, Lena Bourne Fish, and Frank Profitt and Rosa Hicks Presnell from North Carolina, and ex-pat folkies Margaret Christl and Ian Robb. Having said that, a significant proportion of the duo's repertoire comprises "local" Yorkshire material: the epic (a magnificent 8½ minutes!) tale of The Oughtibridge And Saddleworth Trail Hunt and the somewhat rumbustious Six Jolly Miners (whose lyric furnishes the LP with its title, by the way) were both learnt from Grenoside Sword Dance Team members, while dialogue song The Bower was heard sung by George White and Joe Atkins.

So what if a number of the songs contain well-familiar elements (not least paraphrases and floating verses), although their familiarity to us is likely born as much of hindsight and 30 years' worth of folk performances since the LP's original appearance, for they sound genuinely timeless rather than stale in these sturdy accounts. Vic and John's forthright and enthusiastic performance style is accessible and appealing without patronising its audience in the slightest. Their performances often remind me of the robust delivery and approach of the likes of Pete Coe and Brian Peters in their sheer vitality and stylishness. And, like those artists, Vic and John continually ring the changes in their song accompaniments, with the duo's own melodeon or anglo concertina succeeded by, or supplementing, recorder or jew's harp, and occasional additional colourings provided by Dave Shepherd (fiddle), Gerry Hallom (guitar, banjo), Paul Stockton (dulcimer), Christine Stockton (English concertina) and Dick Shepherd (drums). There's also a healthy sprinkling of a cappella items (three in number), which demonstrate at a stroke just what fine and characterful singers Vic and John are, whether solo or in harmony: John's captivating solo rendition of Fair Phoebe And The Dark Eyed Sailor is complemented by the duets The Bower and Soldier John.

The music on this admirable CD reissue will inevitably be new to a majority of listeners, even those with experience of the '80s folk scene, but it sounds as fresh today as it undoubtedly did then, and purchase is strongly recommended.

David Kidman