MARTYN WYNDHAM-READ & NO MAN’S BAND - Away To Tintinara
Wynding Road Music WR012
Let me start this review with something that might normally be included in a review, en passant, if included at all. But I regard it as important. Martyn tells us in his excellent liner notes to go to his website for the lyrics of all the songs. And of course, hotfoot I went there, because his songs sometimes feature obscure Aussie (often Aboriginal) place names: which, with my being a lover of Oz, and having driven extensively on one of my previous visits, I felt it vital that I checked them out on Google Maps. But what’s best about his moving the lyrics to his website, is that it frees up his liner notes for some fascinating insights from him into the songs.
And the songs on this album are largely traditional with a sprinkling by contemporary writers, with settings shared between Oz and the UK. Martyn isn’t mean with his time: he gives us 73 minutes. And the fact that this goes so quickly is a tribute both to his mellifluous voice and his outstandingly simpatico accompaniment by his No Man’s Band, plus his choice of songs.
Of the contemporary, I was most won over by A.W., Tony Bayliss’s tribute to Fell Walker extraordinaire, Alfred Wainwright. The song captures the great man’s spirit and his beloved Lake District landscape, quite magically. Of the traditional, my prize goes to the album’s closing number, Brisbane Ladies, a variant of that old favourite of generations of our Royal Navy men: Spanish Ladies.
www.dandadesign.co.uk
Dai Woosnam
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