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35 f The Late Arrivals


With their fifth album comprised, for the first time, of entirely self-penned material, a new baby, a new place to live and bubbling enthusiasm for the music all around them, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan think they’re getting somewhere. Colin Irwin takes notes.


B


aby Hamish gurgling happily in his arms, James Fagan gazes out across the tranquil Devon countryside and says “This feels like an arrival…”


It’s summer time (remember that?) in the dying embers of Sidmouth FolkWeek and Fagan and Nancy Kerr are enjoying themselves. Hugely. With a new album marking a significant landmark in their careers, they’ve been playing here, there and everywhere in a variety of guises, including a blossoming trio outlet with concertina wizard Rob Harbron, while Fagan has also been acting as musical director at the now legendary In Search Of Nic Jones concert before donning a jaunty hat to join Spiers & Boden on stage at the Bulverton Marquee for a frenzied shift at the raucous late night ceilidh.


He’s still full of beans next morning, still on a high, reflecting with infectious wonder at the radical turn of events that has overtaken his and Nancy’s lives over the last year or so. There have been two births – Hamish and new album Twice Reflected Sun; a move to terra firma in the new folk capital of Sheffield after 11 years on a narrow boat in Bath; an eventful sojourn in Australia; and an extraordinary purple patch of creativity that has seen them reposition themselves from inter- preters of traditional music to buoyant creators of original song.


Twice Reflected Sun is their fifth


album and it’s their first that’s been com- pletely self-written – songs by Nancy, arrangements and a couple of tunes by James, vocals shared. “When Nancy first presented so many songs to me in one hit I was surprised,” says James. “I know I’m biased but it’s not like she’d written a cou- ple of good songs and eight fillers. They all seem to sit as part of a suite without any one of them dominating and of all our records this is the most consistent. Without sounding like a cliché, it feels that after years of journeying geographically and musically, the album is an arrival. The con- densation of years of travel.”


The journey has been a topsy-turvy one from James and Nancy’s respective backgrounds in Australia and England. Even before they met there were parallels, despite the continents between them. Both were immersed in folk music from birth; both are from highly respected music families performing from a young age –


James in Sydney with his mum and dad, Bob and Margaret, and sister Kate in The Fagans, while Nancy’s the daughter of the outstanding singer and writer Sandra Kerr and Northumbrian piper Ron Elliott. As a youngster James became adept on guitar and bouzouki while Nancy was playing fid- dle by the time she was five. They were both appearing on stage from a tender age – James with his family and Nancy making her recording debut in a duet with Eliza Carthy. Yet both subsequently qualified in


other fields – James is a doctor and Nancy is a music therapist. Both also teach, though the lure of performance was always going to dominate their future paths.


“No I don’t regret leaving medicine,” says James. “People ask me if I miss help- ing people in a real sense, but the way I see it, we have a potentially therapeutic job as singers. It’s just as important for a healthy community and I’m a calmer and better slept person, even with Hamish, than as a doctor.”


Photo: Lizzy Doe


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