Cyril Tawney
Album: In Port
Label: Talking Elephant
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.talkingelephant.co.uk

This is the third of Cyril Tawney's Argo-label LPs to be reissued on CD by Talking Elephant. First released in 1972, it presents 15 of Cyril's classic compositions: though these are mainly Royal Navy-related, he also includes a few landlocked ones for good measure.

The liner notes, Cyril's own, are reproduced in full, and make for entertaining and supremely informative reading beyond the call of duty and transcending mere anecdotal interest in their degree of insight regarding the genesis of the songs. The track listing embraces a goodly number of Tawney compositions that are now rightly regarded as evergreens, several of which were written around the same time (1958/59) and others half-a-dozen years earlier.

The disc kicks off with the "full-blooded holler" of Sally Free and Easy, with Cyril's trademark nylon-strung guitar providing a "non-accompaniment" based on the throbbing of a submarine's diesel engines. The ensuing procession of great songs includes The Ballad of Sammy's Bar, Cheering the Queen, The Grey Funnel Line, On A Monday Morning and Chicken on a Raft, plus the less well-known Six Feet Of Mud and New Names For Old, the poignant but underrated In the Sidings and the pithy nonsense of My Mother Came from Norway (a piece Cyril tended to use when a very short encore was required!).

On four of the songs, Cyril is sensitively accompanied by Dennis McCallum (accordion), and on a further six - including the slightly dubious mock-rustic ditty Five Foot Flirt - by The Yetties (at a time when they were still considered a vibrant "character" act); and by the way, it's interesting to compare these stirring group-backed renditions with Cyril's later recordings of the same songs…

Valuable though the earlier Cyril Tawney reissues have proved, it's definitely In Port that will be the most eagerly welcomed back aboard the shelves, for it's a brilliant, and highly treasurable, collection that's stood the test of time exceedingly well.

David Kidman