You are hereAlbum Review: Kris Drever - Mark the Hard Earth (Navigator)
Album Review: Kris Drever - Mark the Hard Earth (Navigator)
If there's one thing that irritates Kris Drever, it has to be the Weatherman. Rejoicing in the wind and the rain, Kris Drever opens his new solo album, the eagerly awaited follow up to BLACK WATER, with the sole self-penned song on the record that also incidentally provides the album its title, MARK THE HARD EARTH. Kris believes that we are manipulated into believing that inclement weather is a bad thing and that we might just be missing out on something rather nice, despite the sullen apologies we hear each day from the grim weather reaper. As Bill Bryson once noted: British people looking out of their windows each morning saying 'oh, look at all that rain' is rather like Eskimos looking out of their igloos and saying 'oh, look at all that snow!' Kris doesn't like being told that rain is bad by the people who work on the telly: "'Oh I'm afraid it's raining tomorrow' - why are you afraid? Why don't you put on some decent clothes you arsehole."
When not thinking about the weather or growling at egotistical meteorologists on the telly, Kris Drever is an otherwise very busy man in the music world. As one third of the award winning folk supergroup Lau, the singer/guitarist has gained the reputation as one of the finest musicians in the country, blessed with a distinctive voice and dexterous guitar playing style. As a solo performer though, Kris has reservations "I'm not in love with being a solo artist, it's kind of lonely and there's nay craic." Despite a distinct lack of 'craic' when playing solo, Kris fills this lonely chasm by inviting an array of excellent musicians on board to help him embark on these solo excursions. On this album, once again produced by John McCusker, Kris is joined by McCusker, Phil Cunningham, Andy Seward, Ian Carr, Donald Shaw, Roy Dodds, Heidi Talbot, Karine Polwart and Tim O'Brien, a musician Kris has been itching to work with since first meeting up with him around eight years ago. "I met Tim a long time ago at Celtic Connections. I ended up playing double bass for him at a gig and we've been friends ever since. I've always enjoyed the way our vocals sit together." Those voices sit together supremely well, particularly on This Old Song, with its alternating time signature and The Call and the Answer with Tim's trademark high lonesome harmony, very much in a bluegrass style, which brings to the album a much lighter touch than previously.
Speaking about Tim's contribution to the new album, Kris may be uncertain about whether it's the style of the performance or the song choices themselves that make some of these songs work so well, but points out one certain truth "If you put Tim on anything it sounds better."
Like BLACK WATER, Drever includes two more Sandy Wright songs here, one of Edinburgh's finest song writers. Shining Star sounds like it could've been written decades ago; a timeless lullaby with an old timey feel courtesy of McCusker's fiddle and Cunningham's accordion delicately sparring in harmony. The beautiful Wild Hurricane once again demonstrates O'Brien's high harmony vocals and gives McCusker a break on fiddle, whilst reminding us of what a great grass roots fiddle player Tim actually is. These songs, together with the two to be found on Drever's first solo outing beggar the question, is Sandy Wright Scotland's best kept secret? "He's an amazing guy, he's been around forever. He's a really brilliant jazz guitar player."
You sense that Kris chooses his songs very carefully for each of his albums and fortunately finds most of them close to home. "I like trying to find good songs to sing or write good songs to sing, most of the material that I do is either traditional, written by me or written by people I know personally." With such good choices so far, there's a tendency to believe that everything Kris touches turns to gold. The Midas touch however, according to Kris, is not as apparent as one may believe: "I have to be quite careful because for every one of them that works, I do have to attempt a few that I make a terrible job of, so it's not all plain and simple."
If the title song provides the album with one Drever original, The Crown of London provides the second, this time written by Kris's brother Duncan. With a sort of reggae rhythm, provided by Ian Carr's guitar, a little like on Honk Toot from the previous record, Kris delivers one of the highlights on the new album, underpinned by O'Brien's banjo and Donald Shaw's harmonium together with the outstanding rhythm section of Seward and Dodds.
If Boo Hewerdine's Harvest Gypsies was a memorable inclusion on BLACK WATER, it would only be right to trust Hewerdine to come up with probably the stand out track on this album. The bluesy soul of Sweet Honey in the Rock could be the choice finisher for singers throughout the land in due course, but for now Kris Drever has once again made it his own. The debts owed to Hewerdine are becoming seemingly incalculable.
Reciprocating Heidi Talbot's request for Kris to duet with her on The Blackest Crow on her solo album IN LOVE AND LIGHT, Heidi makes an appearance here, sharing verses of The Banks of the Nile with Kris. Speaking to me on St Valentine's Day, Kris explained that it was John McCusker's suggestion that the two singers share vocal duties on this much loved traditional song. "I was singing the song myself actually but John McCusker suggested we tried it as a duet. So there is actually somewhere in existence, a whole track of me singing the vocal, a whole track of Heidi singing harmony and then this, this alternative as a duet." A very natural and very supportive singer, according to Kris, Heidi Talbot's contribution here leaves you wanting more of the same. Kris was pleased to say that he will be appearing on Heidi's next album, which is eagerly anticipated.
Perhaps the strangest inclusion here is the enigmatic Allegory by Murray Attaway, which Kris found on an old LP record "When I was a teenager, I used to do teenager things, a gang of us would go up to this guys house and sit in his bedroom for many hours, not doing very much, drinking tea and other things that teenagers get up to. He was a big music collector, always had good music on, he had a good stereo and there was a record called GEFFEN RARITIES (DGC RARITIES VOLUME ONE) and this song was on it and I used to enjoy that song." Drever manages to create a tension in the arrangement which is thoroughly engaging and demonstrates superbly McCusker's empathetic production.
Whilst not even attempting to make a ground-breaking style-changing difficult second, Kris has instead made a beautiful companion piece to sit alongside BLACK WATER, and when the re-issues come along, together they will potentially constitute one of the best folk double albums in existence.
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Kris Drever Mark the Hard Earth Navigator 2010-03-08 £13.99 |
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