Various Artists
Album: Way To Blue The Songs Of Nick Drake
Label: Navigator
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.navigatorrecords.co.uk

Before I get into a review of the album its self, there is one quick comment I'd like to make about the title. Hands up I may be a little oversensitive on it and reading in more than I should be, but I feel it needs to be said. "Way To Blue" or to give it the full title, "Joe Boyd Presents Way To Blue The Songs Of Nick Drake" seems a little inappropriate when you consider that Nick Drake got so blue he ended up committing suicide.

Drake was, it had to be said, a songwriter whose genius wasn't really truly recognised until after his untimely and self-inflicted demise. His death drew attention to his work and it struck a chord with a number of his fellow performers and then ultimately the wider public. What makes "Way To Blue" interesting is that it's not a repackaging of Drake's work, but a reinterpretation of those songs by a number of artist liberally drawn from the last forty plus years.

The album is drawn from two events, a BBC live at the Barbican concert back in January 2010 and an Australian gig in November of the following year. It has to be said that between the two you have a cast that includes the like of Teddy Thompson, Lisa Hannigan, Vashti Bunyan, Robyn Hitchcock, Green Gartside and Danny Thompson.

All of the artists take their own approach to the songs and whilst you get an idea of the psyche of the performer, for me, the important thing is that they do so without exorcising the ghost of Nick Drake from the material and that holds the album together. Luluc seems to most closely capture the spirit f the man, particularly on "Saturday Sun" which also drafts in the vocal talent of Lisa Hannigan.

In many ways, "Way To Blue" is better introduction to the works of Drake than diving straight into one of his own albums as it showcases not only the work of an artist who wrote some harsh and at times raw material, but also how strong those songs are to still have power all these years later.

Neil King