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| | Upon hearing County Durham folkie Bob Fox’s new album, Ralph McTell felt compelled to comment that: “at last, the record we’ve been waiting for from Bob. It’s the sound we hear in live performance – that astonishing guitar technique coupled with one of England’s finest voices”.
It’s nice to have friends in high places, and these sorts of recommendations usually need to be taken with a large pinch of salt, but McTell’s sentiments are not without merit. For the most part, Fox takes traditional folk songs and rearranges them to make them his own.
The subject matter rarely wavers from the trials faced by the working man (be it whalers or miners), and Fox’s voice is perfectly suited to deliver these tales of hardship and despair. It’s his guitar work that is most impressive though.
Fox isn’t the sort of folkie who is happy to sit on a stool and strum. He picks his way through The Blast with a style more akin to a classical player, and it is this fact that makes him such a unique talent. In fact, The Blast is possibly the best traditional folk album released this year.
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