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Our old friend Christian Williams has returned with his fifth(!) recording: "Songs of the Iron Men".
To keep his creative fires fueled he's stoked them a bit differently this time. Instead of applying his own deft hand to the lyric writing he's taken twelve poems written in the 1950s from the magazine "Iron-Men Album" (later "Steam Traction") that readers had submitted about the bygone days prior to gas tractors when when steam-powered equipment ruled the farm and set these odes to music.
Lesser musicians would've have given us a tepid collection of by-the-numbers "folk" songs.
Not Christian. As always he's written and performed all the music on this collection, but it's his heart that makes sure that these songs sparkle with individual brilliance. Each one of these numbers has it's on feel and style. Yes, Mr Williams mines the rich veins folk, roots music and proto-country but the end results have a vibrancy and life most artists couldn't achieve.
Christian is smart enough to give us a good variety of sound, these numbers are slow and somber and optimistic and upbeat by turns. In addition to the various types of folk/roots/blues/etc music we've come to expect from Christian he works in a couple of new sounds. The fourth track "Haywire Sawmill" rolls with a vaudeville pulse and "Smoke on the Prairie" moves with a 1970s singer/songwriter swagger that's almost danceable. Fittingly the album's closer, "Death of a Steam Man", is lullaby-like in its wistful melancholy.
I loved this collection, but I do have one caveat: I have to wonder why the orginal poems are not included in the CD booklet? They deserve to be front and center. The liner notes say that they can be found on the SteamTraction website, but I couldn't locate them there anywhere. Luckily Chrisitian Williams has posted them on his website.
This album is worth adding to your collection and (until somebody wises up and re-issues Don Bilston's "Farewell to Steam") is the undisputed best "steamfolk" album you can lay your hands on.
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The original poems:
http://www.christianwilliams.net/user
Christian Williams:
http://www.christianwilliams.net/
SteamTraction:
http://www.steamtraction.com
http://www.farmcollector.com/steam-engines/songs-of-the-iron-men.aspx
http://www.farmcollector.com/press-room/news-releases/songsironmen.aspx
Ogden Publications:
http://www.ogdenpubs.com/
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