Reckless River - New full-length album by Zoë Wren
Review by Simon Haines
If you were in the audience at the Canopy Theatre in Beccles on October 31, you will have seen two first-rate performers: Finn Collinson and Zoe Wren. Since that evening Zoe has released her long-awaited 10-track album. I have been l lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this excellent album. Here is my longer-than-usual review. First some information about Zoë herself.
Zoë Wren started her musical career as a busker and still works regularly on the London Underground. She also plays folk clubs, festivals and other venues as a solo performer, with Jasmine Watkiss in the duo Roswell, and in a trio, The Honeybees. She helps organise singing workshops in prisons for the grassroots charity Sing Inside, and has raised money with her live-streaming performances for the C4WS Homeless Project.
Zoë has recorded several EPs, but Reckless River is her first full-length recording and comprises nine of her own songs and the traditional Let No Man Steal Your Thyme. An odd mixture? Not at all. Zoe’s compositions have a lot in common with traditional songs: they have appealing melodies, tell personal stories and have catchy choruses and, without being overtly preachy or political, they also seem to present a consistent view of twenty-first century life, a view I’d characterise as refreshingly positive, empathetic and optimistic.
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On listening to this 6-track Ep from the Cambridge-based band Red Velvet, I felt with each track that I was being taken back to another time of sepia colours and pork pie hats. The CD begins with the title track If Hawks Were Doves where I could imagine myself sat in an old time, honky-tonk bar drinking in the atmosphere. In some ways this song would fit well as the theme tune to a 70s comedy show, the words paint a story and the blues piano break in the middle fits perfectly. 
The Silburys are a full-band extension of Silbury Hill, the well-known guitar, mandolin, flute duo playing regularly around East Anglia. Here, Scott Dolling and David Stainer are joined by Diz Deacon on bass / 12-string, and Martin Linford on drums. When this live album arrived on my doorstep for review, I was delighted to realise I had been at the event when this was recorded and am one of the lucky listeners who can reminisce from my armchair.
On first listening to this recording made by East Anglian musicians, it took me back to music I’d first heard and been thrilled by in the mid-1970s: The Old Swan Band’s first recording: No Reels. Until that point I’d been a folk rock fan obsessed by the music of the Albion Dance Band, specifically the sophisticated drum and bass dominated The Prospect Before Us. That is still one of my favourite albums, but the appearance of No Reels sent me to music from older Topic label recordings: English Country Music (1965) and Country Music from East Anglia (1973). I felt that this was music that would have been played by the people of my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generation and I identified with it.
Waterbound is the third full–length offering from the Norwich–based folk trio Alden Patterson and Dashwood (Christina Aiden on vocals and guitar, Alex Patterson on fiddle, vocals and shruti and Noel Dashwood on vocals and dobro guitar). It’s a refreshingly different listen from many similar offerings for one simple reason. The entire album of nine tracks was recorded in a studio in just ten hours. They played every track twice and chose one of them for the album. In only one case did they choose the second recording. There was no editing and no overdubs added. It’s an album stripped down to the basics
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Vicki and Jonny are among the hardest working musicians on the folk scene. In addition to their vast performance schedule (sadly now covid-19 depleted), they have a back catalogue of 10 albums (some with supporting musicians) and eight books of tunes. When not playing the true folk stuff, they can be found in medieval garb at castles, Victorian costume at Christmas markets and in 17th century finery for the Playford experience. Jonny has even done a stint at the Globe Theatre. I’m guessing that for 'contra' they dress in their own clothes.
On my radio show “Strummers & Dreamers” I chose this sea-themed album as one of my favourites of 2019. The title of the album (and of one of its tracks) is taken from the name of a novel by Jack Kerouac. The album has delightful harmonies from the duo David Harbottle and Freya Jonas, along with lovely instrument arrangements for the songs, with the double bass, cello and violin particularly worthy of note.