Various Artists: The Joy of Living – Album Review

The Joy of Living A Tribute to Ewan MacColl
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Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Traditional
Label: Cooking Vinyl

To think that The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Dirty Old Town came from the same writer is testament to the three dimensional qualities that defined Ewan MacColl: as a polemicist, writer and singer.

This collection is tethered neither by stylistic predictability nor political uniformity.

The Unthanks jostle alongside Jarvis Cocker, Billy Bragg, Paul Buchanan and Martin Carthy.

It’s a who’s who of English and Irish and American folk (Rufus and Martha Wainwright get a peep in, alongside Christy Moore and Paul Brady), but the lingering feeling is of an impassioned campaigner who wrote as movingly of Cuban revolutionaries as he did of travellers.

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This is a fine introduction to MacColl; for the old guard, a reframing of a long-loved songbook.

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Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long

Siobhán Long, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about traditional music and the wider arts