Seth Lakeman
Album: Tales From The Barrel House
Label: Honour Oak
Tracks: 10(+DVD)
Website: http://www.sethlakeman.co.uk

I've long admired the chutzpah of The Lakeman Brothers and in particular Seth for his go-ahead attitude to the music business. Self-belief in one's creative direction is no bad thing and in respect of this he must now be truly titled a 'folk' hero for those that have followed him from his early career. He is now a fully paid-up member of the 'cottage industry' process with not only singer/songwriter under his belt but multi-instrumentalist, producer, mixer and record company director to his credit. Whatever next…Simon Cowell's chair on the X-Factor?

Drawing many influences from his colourful West Country background the songs he relates may be rooted in the traditional idiom but are given the driving passion (particularly with his attention to detail in the lyrics) of a young man more comfortable in the twentieth century.

Like Barry Dransfield before him his passion in allowing his double-stopped fiddle bow to be submitted to the indignity of winding-up looking more like Miss Whiplash's cat of nine tails at the end of a particularly energetic session shows just how much energy he can expel.

An advocate of really 'having something to say' whether it be the decline of traditional crafts ("Blacksmith's Prayer") or the demise of tin and copper factory workers in "Hard Road" the term 'Voice Of The People' could not be more justified.

Pete Fyfe