Tunes from the Trenches: Songs from the First and Second World Wars

This kit-bag full of old songs springs from John Kirkpatrick's feeling that we get nearer to what the soldiers felt about the two world wars by listening to the songs they sang. The wonderful singer and squeezebox player researched these for a solo live show and recorded them on this enjoyable and informative album with his four sons – all in fine voice.

You might think you never want to listen to ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag’ again. But here, probably for the first time, you’ll hear the song's actual verses. They are all about Private Perks, who goes off to the front and returns to recount his experience (and recruit more soldiers), inspiring all he meets with his sunny smile. There is a song about ‘Government Ale’, the weak beer brewed because of the scarcity of grain. ‘The Thing-ummy-bob (That's Going to Win the War)’ humorously reflects the fact that, out of strategic necessity, people had only the vaguest notion of what, in their war work, they were actually doing. ‘Down Forget-me-not Lane’ and ‘They Can’t Black Out the Moon’ are sentimental but touching and evocative songs. John Kirkpatrick's wife suddenly fell ill and died while he was making this album. In performing these songs of yearning, parting and humour, he shows the same courage as those who first sang them throughout those great conflicts.