The UK wide folk scene may well
have seen a bit of a resurgence with yet another wave of bands coming crashing
in on the shore, but while the cable knit sweater wearing beardy types struggle
with the populist attraction that ‘their’ music is drawing across the nation, it
would be fair to say that while the scene has ebbed and flowed in places that
it is here in Scotland that it has always found a home.
We seem to have an affinity with the
sound. and it has never really been in, nor out, but just maybe more so that it
is there where it always has been and it isn't going anywhere.
Maybe it has something to do with
the sea, the windswept crofts, the sound of the fiddle, or the roots element of
it that can be transferred from the stage to the kitchen.
Who knows?
It could be one of a million
things, but it is simply a truism that the folk scene has always been a robustly
healthy one in this nation, and there are no signs that it will loosen its grip
on us any time soon.
If anyone does require proof of
this - and of course there is always one - then they need look no further than
to listen to the ongoing vitality can be found on King Eider’s début album ‘The
Deeper the Water’.
With headphones clamped to my
head I can hear a sublime balance to the material that will act like the sirens
song and bring the traditionalist fans, and the indie pulse holders, drifting
in to freely lend an ear.
There’s a great deal of inclusive
magic woven through the songs, and come the summer I hope they have some solid
festival slots booked as it is from those stages that the band could spring up
the musical ladder of success from.
If they don’t all is not lost
though, as with such a strong début it’s doubtful that they are going to slip
by unnoticed in the coming months.
After all they could equally comfortably
fill the corner of a bothy as they could a large venue, and bring the same
intimacy to them both.
Yet another example to be used in
the argument against those who vocally promote the view that there’s nothing
new out there to listen to that can hold a candle to the music of their youth.
They’re wrong, I’m right and here’s
King Eider to prove it.
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