Dave Arthur has produced a CD that’s an entertaining, informed and intelligent look at songs, ballads and tunes that crossed from the British Isles to the United States, ‘on the lips, in the fingers and in the hearts of generations of emigrants’ as he says in his excellent and witty sleeve notes.
..Well steeped in both the British and American traditions Dave’s made a lively choice of material that’s beautifully played by him on 5-string banjo, guitar and melodeon, and by two master musicians, Pete Cooper on fiddle and viola and Chris Moreton on guitar…..If I had to pick a favourite track it would be The Two Sisters which is quite achingly beautiful in its simplicity and restraint.
I was put in mind of lines in Jeffrey Eugenides’ remarkable novel The Virgin Suicides: ’an occasional fiddle evoked the country the country had once been.’ Dave Arthur succeeds in doing that with this album.
- Shirley Collins review in FolkRoots December 2003
