Trespasser

Chris Wood

The songs on this album are about enclosure in some form or another. Spiritual, geographical, cultural, legislative, chronological, imaginative... they are an invitation to step upon these places we have been lured into believing are no business of ours.

This is the bold opening statement in the booklet of 'Trespasser' Chris's second solo album. Certainly a tough brief to fulfil but he is up to the task. His qualifications are plain to see. He lectures across a range of musical subjects, is a recipient of a BBC Folk Award and has completed commissions for The Late Junction, The Sage in Gateshead and The Arts Council of England. Chris handles all the instruments here in consummate style.

Achievements do not always translate into the most pleasurable listening experience however. Also when I tell you the music is largely one-paced, some of it in demo form and that Chris's outline for the songs is closely followed, you may recoil.

Any fears are dispelled on the first listen. The fervently held views displayed here have been a springboard for an enthralling musical work and only the most discerning audiophile could pick holes in the sound. I immediately singled out my track of the year and 'Trespasser' also counts as one of this years best in my book (blimey, that sounds a little like Mike Harding!)

The boundaries of our youth are neatly alluded to in Chris's own 'Summerfield Avenue'. How we become accustomed to limitations at an early age. Are we shackled from the start? Does our imagination shutdown? String arrangements with the lightest of touches induce waves of yearning nostalgia.

'The Cottager's Reply' is an updated Frank Mansell poem. The narrator of the story is refusing to sell his Cotswold home for half a million pounds. When the piece first appeared the sum used was five hundred. A fine illustration of how some issues don't change. Chris draws out certain words to emphasize the contempt shown for the visiting town folk. His guitar playing and singing isn't showy but animated and poetic, not unlike his mentor, Martin Carthy.

John Ball was a friend of Watt Tyler. Banished from the church to become a hedgerow priest he eventually met with a grim death at the hands of King Richard II. Chris has taken the words of Sydney Carter, author of 'Lord Of The Dance' and bought the man vividly back to life. Karine Polwart joins him to step up and down the scales in a rousing vocal unison. It's a track I'll treasure.

You're probably getting the gist but a special mention must also go to 'Mad John'. This gives voice to the poet John Clare's bewilderment with the fencing in of his home landscape of Northamptonshire. It was to be his undoing. His mental decline led to him living out his days in an asylum. Chris's arrangement and singing carry the gravitas of the story and Rob Jarvis brings some fitting washes of colour with a trombone.

'Through the old trapdoor of English law, Mad John they made a trespasser of you'.

The exquisitely succinct essay in the sleeve notes completes the scene. The project's message reverberates through generations of English life and up to this day. To do all this in such a lyrical fashion and without pomposity is a resounding victory.

Who shall be met in the fellowship I say.
Who shall be met in the love of one another.
Who shall be met in the fellowship I say
and the light that's coming in the morning.
Sing John Ball and tell it to them all,
long be the day that is dawning.
Sydney Carter

David Kushar


www.EnglishAcousticCollective.org.uk