Marching Donald
Album: Marching Donald
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.marchingdonald.co.uk/

If you like your folk and blues dirty with plenty of thrash and attitude then "Marching Donald" the self-titled album from, well, Marching Donald should be high up on your list of albums to check out. He's even given you a try before you buy option, with a free alternative version of "Duvet Day" available as a free download from his site.

The philosophy of the album is simple enough, go for it and he does over eleven tracks. He's smart enough to know that even the most ardent fans of aggressive folk music need to take a break every now and then so wisely he intersperses his set with a few gentler numbers. Even so they retain that delightful rough around the edges feel.

The great thing about rough edges is that they have a habit of snagging you and pulling you closer in a way that smooth edges don't, smooth edges may cut deep, but rough edges rip things open and are more inclined to leave the raw flesh exposed beneath and the same is true of Marching Donald's songs. You can feel every sentiment in the song.

"Creeping Thistle" is one of the less aggressive song, which features as its theme the line "I'm not a rambler, I'll stick around", the thing I like about the song is that feeling that loyalty can and should triumph over the feckless and turns on its head the idea of the eternal wanderer, space can be found almost anywhere.

Marching Donald definitely falls into that angry young man space, the album has a real force about it, not all of the ideas are fully formed and they don't need to be, music is as much about a time and a place as anything else. More about asking the questions than delivering the answers.

Folk and blues with a punk attitude, it's been done before and will no doubt be done again, the important thing is to make sure it's done well and Marching Donald definitely achieves that on this, his debut cut.

Neil King