ALBUMS: Johnny Flynn, Seth Lakeman

11:34am Thursday 17th July 2008

Johnny Flynn - A Larum Armed with a semi-acoustic guitar and a handful of songs with amusing titles - Eyeless In Holloway, Hong Kong Cemetry and Wayne Rooney - Flynn is a modern folk musician whose song writing and delivery remind this particular scribe of the legendary Ewan MacColl.

You'd think a song with the title Tickle Me Pink would be a jolly old tune but that particular song deals with death and the song title is about as jolly as Johnny Flynn gets.

Brown Trout Blues is particularly mournful and would demoralize even the jolliest of jolly souls.

Amusing song titles apart, Flynn is not a laugh a minute character but what he lacks in joyousness he makes up for in his song writing and guitar picking abilities.

Graham Scaife Seth Lakeman -- Poor Man's Heaven Seth's last album Freedom Fields was an exciting piece of pumped-up acoustic folk with frenetic fiddle to the fore.

I've played it countless times over the past 18 months and endured the long wait for this follow-up.

And the folk poster-boy doesn't disappoint with another clutch of stirring stories of brave men and wild women.

In some places the sound is more rocky and in others more atmospheric, but in essence it's more of the same.

One more album like this and Lakeman risks repetition, but for now this is a great album to warm the winter to come.

David Knights

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