efn Reviews
Simon Mayor

"Music from a Small Island” Simon Mayor with Hilary James
Acoustics CDACS055
Before even playing this CD I as intrigued to discover that Amazon had classified it as “classical”. That does prompt a debate on how far you can arrange “folk” material and still call it “folk”.

Like most of Mayor’s material the arrangements for mandolin or violin (note that I didn’t say “fiddle” there) owe little to traditional instrumental styles but are none the worse for that.

The CD itself is structured into three sections with a group of English songs and a group of Scottish tunes set either side of Mayor’s Warfdale Suite.

With only two instruments it would have been nice to have a few more of James’s excellent vocals. In particular among the Scottish tunes I kept waiting for the voice to come in on Such a Parcel of Rogues. In the English songs Mayor could not get permission to use Vaughan Williams’ tune for Linden Lea and I am afraid that his own setting does not stand comparison.

As with the previous CDs from Mayor and James that I have reviewed (issue 130) this is an excellent recording which will be enjoyed by both a specialist folk and a more general audience.

Review By: Peter Crabb-Wyke
From efn issue 132 - September 2006
Copyright © 2006 - efn magazine