Gentle imagination...
Usually with split albums you get two bands, however here we getting a bumper-fun packed fabulous four artists together, each bringing to the party three songs of gentle and poetic quality.
To start with we have the heavyweight Chuck Ragan, who whilst being the singer of Hot Water Music, has also penned a handful of solo albums (most recently this year's 'Covering Ground'). His songs are exactly what you would expect, solid hard acoustic guitar strumming, with Ragan's signature gravelly voice that holds the ability to be strong and macho whilst delivering beautifully scribed lyrics with subtle harmonies. First song, 'Steven Patrick' is slightly better than the harmonica-led 'This Company', and the ballad of, 'Not Superstitious', though in truth these would all fit nicely on any of Chuck's albums.
Sam Russo has a style that is a little like an English Chuck Ragan with a dash of Billy Bragg. Slightly laid back but with the same strong guitar strumming, Mr Russo dances around his lyrics like entertaining musical drunken stories. 'Tinned Peaches And Diamond Rings' is a great song that is more of a foot-tapper but one of the best songs on this whole album. 'Letting Go' is more thoughtful, and 'Rattling Keys' is nice and catchy.
Jimmy Islip has fronted many bands and chances are you've seen him at some point live around the country (most notably for The Magnificent). He has a voice that blasts out a happy confidence, sounding a little like Kevin Seconds after a hard night or a little like Frank Turner. '1990' is a great upbeat tune of reminiscence from that year, which if like me you remember like it was yesterday, will be shocked to realise was 21 years ago. You get the feeling that you will have fun with whatever Jimmy writes and sings about. 'Big Heart' will have you humming along, whilst 'Fortune Teller' will leave you slightly contemplative.
Helen Chambers brings a touch of Country Folk with a voice that would sound more at home in Nashville than her native York. 'Biding My Time' shows that Helen has a foot firmly in the Folk world whereas the other artists here are more rock influenced-Folk, or Acoustic-Rock, the song is however one that you will find yourself nodding your head at. 'Paper And Glue' is gentle with a lullaby-quality to it, and there is a hint of Ecclesiastical with 'Speak Your Name' that could be a haunting church song. This is beautiful folk at it's best.
All in all this is a nice album that showcases some of the best in acoustic music from today. All sit quite nicely together and whilst some songs a more accessible than others, they work well together as a team as opposed to competitively against each other. What can you say? Chuck is Chuck, Sam has some great poetry, Jimmy has the upbeat enthusiasm and Helen brings the beauty and tradition. Great stuff.