Behold, we have the self-titled debut album from George Sansome. His background is as a traditional singer and guitar player with the English folk group Granny's Attic and a pretty fine debut it is.
Ten songs drawn mostly from the English traditional genre. A fine voice, very sparse arrangements, mostly delicate guitar accompaniment. Once again, the younger generation of singers in this field seem to be very heavily influenced by Nic Jones and Martin Carthy. Nothing wrong with that but perhaps a tad more variety might spice thing up.
Clearly a lot of work and research has gone into this collection. The background notes on each song are very knowledgeable and well researched, and presented in such a way that they will be of interest to the casual reader and anyone interested in delving deeper.
There is a nice spread, range, and choice of subject matter starting with ‘Collier Lass’, note the gender. ‘The Bold Princess Royal’ is a tale of daring by a naval ship, once again with a female heroine, at least in part while ‘Australia’ is a tale of convict transportation.
I particularly like ‘Bonaparte’s Departure For St. Helena’, based on the Nic Jones version and very tastefully delivered. The balance of songs is nice and the sparse arrangements give George’s voice a chance to shine through. A little variety of instrumentation, however, might have given the work a bit more light and shade.
George Sansome is a talented performer adept with vocals and guitar playing. He has an ear for a melody and a good tale well told. The English folk song tradition is safe in hands such as his.