Gavin Davenport
Album: The Bone Orchard
Label: Haystack
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.gavindavenport.com/

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was reviewing, "Brief Lives", the predecessor of Gavin Davenport's "The Bone Orchard", but that's because I was late to that release and I'm damned sure I'm not going to make the same mistake twice.

Whilst this is credited as a solo album, Davenport has recruited himself and impressive band of musicians to accompany him on the journey, and I use that term advisedly as this is an album that's rich in narrative songs, including Tom Kitching, Nick Cooke, and fellow Albion Band member and player of twin necked electric bass, Tim Yates, as well as a guest appearance from Jim Causley.

Whilst "The Bone Orchard" draws on the great folk tradition of story songs, it also adds a number of new songs to the canon, including, amongst others, the title song and "Wooden Swords And May Queens", a song that creates a vivid image in the mind, as well as being one of my favourite songs on the album as it blends story with a sword dance tune.

There is a timeless quality to this album, at times it feels almost as much a conversation with folk music as an album, something that feels more enhanced when Davenport brings in spoken word as a counterpoint. Deportation and war, those fighting and those left behind are reoccurring themes across the album, but rather than feeling repetitive, it gives the album a sense of both continuity and different perspectives.

As you can probably tell, I like this a lot. In an age of talking books, it's grand to go back to the days when a talking book was a five minute folk song sung in a pub, "The Bone Orchard" raises a glass to that tradition and does it in a way that should appeal to the tablet generation.

Neil King