Album: Blue Murder

No One Stands Alone, Topic

The line-up of the a cappella group Blue Murder has changed somewhat since its inception (as The Boggle Hole Chorale) at the 1986 Whitby Folk Week. Originally an aggregation of The Watersons and Swan Arcade, its present personnel is like an extended royal family of traditional folk music, with Mike and Norma Waterson and Martin and Eliza Carthy joined by Barry Coope, Lester Simpson and Jim Boyes.

The collective warmth of their intricately meshed harmonies fully bears out the togetherness made explicit in the title-track, a secular hymn of common purpose: there's a clear determination here to keep alive the notion of community singing, in every sense of the term. Whether winding gently through the Western waltz "Blue Mountain" or tripping through the sprightly "Rubber Band", the septet's burnished antique tones bring dignity and affection to their songs, with Norma Waterson's commanding voice proud and plangent at its heart. There's a good mix of material, too, with the revivalist hymn "Standing on the Promises Of God" balanced by Mike Waterson's drolly sceptical "Man in a Hole", and beautiful renditions of traditional folk songs such as "Stars In My Crown" and "The Banks Of Sweet Primroses" tempered by the poignant sway of something like "The Land Where You Never Grow Old", in which the spare guitar break is backed by warmly intimate humming.