39 f London Songwright
Ralph McTell’s first new studio album in a decade shows that he’s lost none of his creative powers. Colin Irwin accuses him of being undervalued.
R
alph McTell is 66. I know this because he keeps telling me as much. He’s proud of it too and why the hell not? Here is a man comfortable in his own skin, bounding into a public house in Putney wielding the enthusiasm of someone a third of his age and – break- ing the world record for use of the word ‘poetry’ in one afternoon – animatedly delivering opinion, theory and recollec- tions with the appetite of an artist in the first flush of creativity.
We talk of his beloved Fulham, his grandchildren, his admiration for Sam Carter and his curiosity about psych folk. He’s rather thrilled to discover the Incredi- ble String Band are regarded as honorary godfathers of psych folk. “I was driving up from Cornwall and the words of October Song came flooding in my mind. I loved those first three Incredibles albums and Robin’s strange poetry.”
His thoughts quickly turn to other great contemporaries… Roy Harper, John Martyn, John Renbourn and, especially, Bert Jansch. “I love John Martyn’s bravado and I love Roy’s anger and John Renbourn’s guitar expertise, but Bert had the lot. His first two or three albums still work on me. The poetry and guitar playing and the melting pot of musicali-
ty of this confident young man full of balls and energy. I don’t think the world properly recognises Bert’s massive contri- bution and I wonder if we will ever hear anything quite like that again. He had it all in spades. Hats off to Bert…”
Hats off, too, to Ralph McTell, a semi- nal figure from the 1960s London folk scene; not merely a survivor, but an enduring creative force, back among us in some style with his first new stu- dio album for a decade, Somewhere Down The
Road. At times in the dim and distant past he’s cut a nervous, uncertain, even insecure figure, taciturn in interviews and awkward on stage. But now, in his 45th year as a professional musician, those days are clearly behind him and for once he admits complete satisfaction with his work.
“I’m very pleased with it. Not smug. I’m never smug. But with this I got some- where close to what my third album should have sounded like. I had the confi- dence to try some new songs and not whis- per them. For the first time since my very first album I had the chance to work a few of the songs up first from performance. I’m a terrible prevaricator – I like to think for the right reasons. I’m really concerned with my guitar accompaniments. Some of my songs almost start with accompani- ments to songs which haven’t been writ- ten and then I fit the words in. I have a lot of criteria which have to be ticked before I pursue an idea and I’m very susceptible to criticism in the early stages. But I’m very happy with the way this turned out.”
Talk of Bert Jansch is apposite given that one of the key tracks, A Kiss In The Rain, pays tribute to Jansch’s famous gui- tar arrangement of Blackwaterside, mythologising the occasion
another of his great contempo- raries Anne Briggs first taught Bert the song. On the album McTell also pays
homage to two blues
heroes, Robert Johnson (The Ghost Of Robert Johnson) and Reverend Gary Davis (Reverend Thunder).
“I grew up not hav- ing a dad and I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have a male fig- ure in my life but I took to people who’ve taken the randomness of life and made something of it. I see learning to play guitar as an act of poetry. Writing a song is an act of poetry. Joining a
Photo: Dave Peabody
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