Calum MacColl

Calum MacColl is a part of the MacColl/Seeger dynasty; son of Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl, half brother to Kirsty MacColl, nephew of Pete Seeger – sort of inevitable he would find his career in music. For over 35 years he has working as a producer, songwriter, musical director and session guitarist but this is his first solo album and he wrote every track on it with either with Neill MacColl & Tim May or purely by his own hand.

The quality of the songs and the standard of the playing is remarkable. He has an insistent rather than striking voice but it is more than pleasant to listen to. He also has a superb bunch of musicians backing him up – Mikey Rowe on keyboards, Martyn Barker on drums, Leroy Lendor on bass & Liz Lawrence on backing vocals - all with a pedigree that could win Crufts!

The songs themselves are very personal to MacColl and he writes a nice little paragraph for each one in the booklet that comes with the CD. His subjects vary, a lot about depression and its impact on him and those close to him, others cover more esoteric topics such as two young American soldiers buried in a US Cemetery in France and pondering over their thoughts and actions but the music is rarely depressing or sad – rather it is deeply heartfelt and there is a sense of wonderment throughout. A couple of tracks have the comic feel of a Caravan number, but every track is unique and plays very differently to its neighbours.

I have listened to the album five or six times, and every time another track has grabbed my attention, either for the lyrics or the playing. Very rare for an album to grab the ear in such a manner.