Reviewed by Jonathan Day

Drowsy Maggie are a Midlands-based folk team led by Mike Stanley (who has a praise album reviewed this month). In case you don't know, Drowsy Maggie is a well known traditional tune. I'm sure I've seen their name around but perusal of several copies of "Mid­lands Folk Diary" has failed to find it. This set is mainly traditional Irish oriented material, including the excellent "Step It Out", "Mary", "Hard Times Of Old England" (I said mainly Irish!) and "Come By The Hills". The first is a little pedestrian for my taste, "Hard Times" is a pleasant accapella and "Come By" is also pleasant but catch Clannad's Gaelic version for perfec­tion. A word of explanation is needed. Within the apparently tight definition of "Irish traditional" exists the whole gamut of musical genres, from MOR (Foster And Allen, The Furies) to punk (The Pogues). This five-piece sit between these limits but are certainly closer to the Furies and this manifestation of 'folk' is a million miles from, for example, the Levellers. There are two vocalists taking the lead, Mick Hipkiss whose traditional styling accounts for much of the furie-esque sound and the slightly more contemporary Mike Stanley.   Instrumentally, there are attractive whistle and mandolin from Pete Bcphan and Jo Murphy's fiddle and viola are decorative and tuneful. A producer and a good studio would add tie finesse and polish which is currently lacking

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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