Jim Moray
Gallants
(Managed Decline)
★★★★★

IT’s 25 years since Jim Moray released his first EP and, in common with other younger performers, helped to revitalise the folk scene by bringing traditional songs to a younger audience. Since then he has released eight albums and won five BBC Folk Awards.

His new album Gallants, released on April 24, marks his quarter century of performing and is a collection of songs, mainly traditional but with one new song, Three Gallants.

I was able to speak to Moray about the album which starts with Flora (Lily of the West), a song recorded by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez among others, and is followed by the single from the album When I Was A Little Boy.

The song The Nightingale is given the most interesting interpretation, however, with a theme common in traditional songs of love across the class divide, with the girl’s rich parents arranging for her boy lover to be press-ganged. In this version however it becomes a song about love between two young men.

“There is often a reaction against the idea of a man trying to sing from a woman’s perspective, but when singing songs I also try to cast myself in the story. Listening to older folk singers, Shirley Collins has the approach of singing a song from a story teller perspective whereas June Tabor becomes the person in the song, and that’s the approach I prefer to use.”

Spencer The Rover, the most famous song in The Copper Family repertoire, is a song Moray feels he has grown into over the years and on the final track, Fortune Turns The Wheel, he is joined by Maddie Morris and members of Trans Voices choir. This was a favourite of north-east England shanty singer Louisa Killen whose story is told in the Jez Lowe song Louisa’s Choosing. Starting life as Louis Killen, and known by this name for most of her career, her subsequent choice was fully accepted by the Folk community.

As well as performing, Jim Moray is also a professor of folk at Leeds Conservatoire teaching the music to 18- and 19-year-old students. This album can definitely be a learning tool for anyone looking to explore innovative approaches to traditional songs, as well as being very enjoyable to listen to.