Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The urge for revolution is one that is a driving force but one that must not consume all in the rage and the battle, it surely must burn the excess and the ravages of desperation. It should not harm a single breath of the tradition that is built up from the songs and thoughts of the labourer, the seamstress, the cook and the cloth maker, all who have worked in the fields have their songs, all who have manually lifted in the factories and toiled underground have sang to ease the day, and On Clay Hill the sound continues, the song of tradition and ancestors is revered.
Folk is a family affair with visitors welcome to pull up alongside and add their own memories to the stirring pot of invention and institution, one that in the robustness of On Clay Hill sees Stick In The Wheel’s harmony singer Fran Foote tackle stories and much loved favourites on her debut album with her mother Belinda Kempster right by her side. It is in this family union that the songs of Fran’s great uncle’s life are rightly honoured and a way of expected duty that would be alien to most of us now caught up in the digital age.
To have your life enshrined is perhaps a right, too often do we lose touch with other stories, the history of we came to be is diluted, drowned, lost forever as the generation go past, only resurfacing as myths and hearsay. On Clay Hill is not just a set of songs that typify the Folk tradition, they are a keepsake for the living and in songs such as the opener John Barleycorn, Dark Eyed Sailor, the excellent Female Drummer, Dearly Missed, Knife In The Window and the fabulous homage to their relative, Ernie’s Song the sense of organic and textured stands conjoined, connected as a mother and daughter can be, allied, full of communication and respect, delivered in harmony but as one discerning voice.
A vigorous and full-hearted album, On Clay Hill is unrepentant in its appreciation and honour bound obligation to the past, whilst all time displaying a fortitude of will that will carry it onwards and down through the generations to come.
Belinda Kempster and Fran Foote’s On Clay Hill is released via From Here Records on July 19th.
Ian D. Hall