MICK RYAN & VARIOUS ARTISTS - Here At The Fair
WildGoose Studios WGS428CD
This is Mick’s sixth folk opera. It is set at a country fair in 1850. Travelling showmen arrive and tell their stories against the political background of the times, and the leading characters (played by leading names on the British folk scene) are given names that tell us that Mick is steeped in the works of Charles Dickens.
It has been a long road (42 years) since I heard my first folk ballad opera – Peter Bellamy’s The Transports - and this stands comparison with the best. Of the two acts, I think I favoured the first act (CD) most, because it contains the showstopper songs. But the sadder Act Two with its references to Peterloo and the Chartists, certainly has its moments. (Incidentally, in Doug Bailey’s liner notes for the CD, he might technically be right calling Chartism an “English movement”, but that sentence sets this South Walian reviewer’s teeth on edge. “British” would have been better, given the bravery of those many Welshmen who died in The Newport Rising in 1839.)
Standout songs: We Must Wander (gloriously sung by Alice Jones), I Have Fleas! (gorgeous euphonium by George Sansome), As For Me (fine diction from Heather Bradford), all Act One. And from Act Two, A Good Old Gal (most movingly sung by Pete Morton). But clear best track award goes to Worth It In The End, which closes Act One, with a chorus to die for: guaranteed to get the audience on its feet.
Apart from occasionally wanting a lyric sheet, a definite thumbs-up from me.
www.wildgoose.co.uk
Dai Woosnam
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