THE folk music industry down south has a tendency to ascribe new messiah status to still developing talents as soon as it gets an inkling of the tradition being preserved through another generation.
Sam Lee, a triple nominee at the recent BBC Folk Awards, is one of the latest examples.
Lee's sources are immaculate: he has delved into the traveller community both in person and through recordings and while it's to his credit that he hasn't affected a cod traveller's singing style, he has yet to grasp the art of telling a song in the manner of singers such as his mentor, the late Stanley Robertson, or his guests here, the wonderfully roguish Thomas McCarthy and the touring party's landlady for the night, Fife traditional singing stalwart Chris Miles.
To listen to McCarthy, whose delivery was as rich in its language as it was in his natural, untouched-by-the-passing-ages brogue, was to tap into generations of traveller camp-fire singing and storytelling sessions. His story-songs about the 19-year-old bride who turned out to be 90 and the husband who was deficient in the trouser-content department were priceless.
Lee, on the other hand, has taken a little bit of Rufus Wainwright and quite a lot of the musical theatre tradition and added arrangements that blend jazz, chamber and world music elements to create, at its best, an effective, dramatic sound reminiscent of the Cauld Blast Orchestra. At other times, especially when he essayed some rather prim dance steps, he brought to mind Michael Crawford when what was really required was the substance of an Andy M Stewart.
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