Presented by David

V.A. "Rubber Folk" (a Folk Tribute to the Beatles)

David said...
Hi,

Maybe you can link to this album on your website:
amazon.co.uk
This is the download link (no pass):

Download

Cheers,
D

Forty years on from the original Beatles album Rubber Soul, Mike Harding and his production team have gathered together a host of present-day British folk artistes to record their own versions of the songs - I mean one song each. The tracks were broadcast on BBC Radio 2 last year, and now at last we have a permanent record of the sessions. Mike was trying to prove that a great song is always a great song, and most great music is in some way folk music, and for the most part his thesis survives the exercise. Part of the success of the project is indisputably due to the high standard of musicianship on display, not to mention the lively and fertile imaginations of the various participants. Equally inevitably though, the project spawned its share of comparative turkeys, of which the CD's opener, Drive My Car, is a prime example - two minutes of dire Jerry-Lee-style rock-bash through what I've always regarded as a lesser creation on the original album; still, someone had to do it I suppose! Things improve immediately, however, with the combined might of the Watersons and an Eleanor-Rigby-style string section (Norwegian Wood) and Paul Brady (an attractive Latin-inflected take on You Won't See Me). Actually, there isn't really a weak track thereafter, although one or two of the reinterpretations are decidedly oddball. John Tams' Harry-Lime-style saunter through Girl is one of those "hear-it-once for surprise effect, but palls on repetition" moments, for instance. But June Tabor's beautifully-considered, penetrating unaccompanied rendition of In My Life is a spine-tingling high-point, possessing an intimacy closely matched by Boo Hewerdine and Eddi Reader floating airily through What Goes On (and vastly improving on Ringo's original in the process!). Chris While does a really lovely, plaintive makeover on Nowhere Man, and Show Of Hands bring a spicy eastern air to If I Needed Someone (to which we'd already "borne witness" when previewed on their latest CD, of course). Coope, Boyes & Simpson come up trumps with an imaginative take on Think For Yourself, Johnny Dickinson proves a natural choice to take on the twelve-bar creation The Word, and Ralph McTell brings an appealing Parisian-café feel to Michelle.("Mc-Telle, my belle", anyone?!). Neither Cara Dillon's Wait (with Sam Lakeman in tow) nor Martin Simpson's I'm Looking Through You let the side down, and Spiers & Boden's stomping take on Run For Your Life makes for an unexpectedly effective "that's the end" conclusion to the project. Now me, I've always liked Beatles For Sale ... (don't tempt fate!).

Thanks, David!!