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01/03/2004 Jim Moray - sensational new electric folkie, with more than just a hint of mid-'60s Dylan
Folk? Folk music? You gotta be kidding. A succession of dreary beards lamenting the passing of ye good olde days of the exploitation of honest labour. An audience of time-warped Drabbies, dressed as if for another anti-war demo (Vietnam war, that is), wallowing in a deep heritage yearning. Acoustic Celtic Waterboys is fine. Early Dylan is, well, simply wonderful. They transcend the folk genre, shining light into its dark recesses. But the rest of the folk canon rings few bells in this parish. So, sitting through last week's BBC Folk Awards on BBC4 TV was more duty than pleasure. Maybe I was perversely testing the First Commandment of Music for Grown-Ups - that you find good music everywhere, in even the least promising setting? The gig didn't start too well, showcasing a succession of resolutely provincial/Celtic bad dressers lamenting the passing of the days of back-breaking labour in the fields/down the mines/on the pirate-infested seas. Furious fiddlers, bearded bassists. Listening, seeking confirmation, were the serried ranks of ageing folkies, brooding into their check shirts and denim dungarees about the sheer unfairness of it all. They were even treated to a bonus: good ole Joan Baez, duetting with Steve Earle in his diatribe on the injustice of war - Iraq, I think - and a somewhat optimistic lament for Woodie Guthrie to "come back". Then Queen Joan, solo, led them on a trip down Nostalgia Avenue, with Blowin' in the Wind. But then, just when you were losing the will to live, up popped Jim Moray. From his first note, he transformed the BBC Folk Awards concert. Moray is one of the most exciting new talents encountered for some time - in any genre. He plays traditional English folk songs, but, unusually, he sets them to electric rock arrangements, complete with drums, piano, guitars and synth, as well as camcorder visuals. His keening voice - more Radiohead than Copper Family - demands that you listen carefully to the lyrics of songs like Early One Morning, Lord Bateman and Sweet England, and reveals them as polished gems. (The trad arrangements you'd heard over the years had made you wonder why anyone even bothered to revive them.) Moray's triumphantly innovative fusion of two musical traditions, folk and rock, and the transformation of slow acoustic ballads into up-tempo, angsty electric anthems will remind many Dylan aficionados of the changes Zimmerman went through in the mid-1960s. The singer's outstanding first album, Sweet England, was released in June 2003 (by Niblick Is A Giraffe; distributed by Pinnacle). It's one of the most exciting debut releases you'll have heard in many years. Will it lead to a Britfolk revival? Er, no. Let's hope not.
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