Some Heavy Hand

Spanning the Anglo-American folk duo’s career from 2005 to 2018, Some Heavy Hand is a marvellous collection of unreleased session recordings and rarely-heard tracks by Cath & Phil Tyler, who met years ago when the latter was helping arrange a UK tour for the former’s then-band, Cordelia’s Dad. Sparsely adorned arrangements, minimal instrumentation and superbly crafted vocals characterise the album’s nine tracks, which present traditional and contemporary narrative folk songs in dramatically fresh settings.

With Phil on guitar, ‘Angeline’ showcases Cath’s singularly soft and crusty voice, perfectly capturing the forlorn nature of Stephen Foster’s mid-19th century composition. ‘Dying Boy’ highlights the Tylers’ reverence for the austere, ethereal hymnody of Sacred Harp singing. Similarly, on ‘Our Fathers of Old’, beautifully dissonant harmony vocals enthrall the listener in a timely interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem about the unreliable potions of early plague doctors (‘Half their remedies cured you dead/Most of their teaching was quite untrue’). By applying the minor chord changes of an Appalachian murder ballad to the traditional ‘Warfare’, the Tylers infuse a poignant anti-war message with a deeper, more emotionally charged, resonance. Some Heavy Hand resounds with mystical charm derived from careful scholarly study and richly imaginative experimentation.