Karine Polwart's long awaited third solo album left the folk scene on tenterhooks for a good while as they waited towards the end of 2007. In this humble reviewers opinion - Polwart is one of the finest traditional singers to have come out of Scotland since the folk revival back in the 60's, not only that, but her grasp of the tradional ballad is mind blowing. Artists are often applauded for their ability to write songs which sound as though they've been around for many hundreds of years - though in most cases reviewers possibly get slightly carried away. Her songs such as 'Follow The Heron', 'Thaney' and 'The Dreadful End Of Marianna For Sorcery' were responsible for lifting Malinky to legendary status, and though she's no longer with the band, she continues to write classic after classic.
Since leaving Malinky, her first two solo albums consisted of a much more contemporary approach to songwriting, with a slightly poppy edge to the albums (to the point where Channel 4's teen soap 'Hollyoaks' picked up her song 'Maybe There's a Road'). As a fan of her traditional work, I was pleased to hear when she spoke to Archie Fisher on 'Travelling Folk' in June of last year that she would be moving away from the contemporary stuff, even if I thought she was slightly hard on herself describing it as "ceech".
'The Fairest Floo'er' did not dissapoint, though it took a few listenings to aquaint myself with the album. Opening with a truly epic performance of the epic ballad 'Dowie Dens Of Yarrow', the album is a journey through atmospheric and emotional numbers such as 'The Death Of Queen Jane' and 'Wife Of Usher's Well' which are extremely depressing (but, it is folk music after all) - Polwart's strong connections with the anti war movement can be seen in 'Will Ye Go Tae Flanders', which tells of the propeganda which enticed so many to sign up and fight in the trenches in the 1st World War.
The last track on the album, 'Can't Weld A Body' is a slightly more contemporary number, billed as a demo - it is an extremely accomplished track which charts the downfall of industry in Britain, the Thatcher years and the loss of the voice of the worker, all good stuff - and a taste of what you're likely to expect from Karine's next album, recorded at the same time and due out in March - 'This Earthly Spell'. And if 'Fairest Floo'er' is anything to go by, we're in for yet another seminal album that will go down in folk history alongside the Sandy Denny's of this world.
