Word of Mouth

Most musicians, when they make an album, head for a recording studio full of sophisticated equipment. Seth Lakeman has an aversion to such places: Kitty Jay, his Mercury Award-nominated second album, was made in his kitchen. His last CD, Tales From the Barrel House, consisted of story songs recorded in a cooper’s workshop (except for the one he sang in an old copper mine).

He made Word of Mouth in the 15th-century church of North Tamerton in Cornwall. He speaks about capturing the sound of the place, of playing the room, but even more important to him are the people and their stories.

It’s worth making sure you get the limited-edition double-CD and DVD edition of this album because the second CD consists of the interviews from which these 12 songs grew.

There’s a conversation with Reg Hannaford, whose recollection of disastrous exercises prior to D-Day is subsequently dramatised in song by Lakeman in ‘Tiger’. ‘The Wanderer’ is a song that sprung from a traveller, speaking of the road that, though he is now settled, still calls out to him. From these Lakeman forges songs that are unmistakably his, driven by his fiddle and forthright vocals. They are melodically powerful, and even anthemic. He captures not just the sound of the church, but the voices of the people who have gifted their stories.