A Pilgrim's Tale

This year sees the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower setting sail with 102 passengers, mostly religious refugees, for a new life in the New World. Lakeman lives near Plymouth's Mayflower Steps and fished from the quay the ship cast off from. But the inspiration for A Pilgrim's Tale came from the Mayflower's point of arrival, not departure. While touring with Robert Plant he visited the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts and met Wampanoag people, descendants of those living there when the ‘Pilgrims’ arrived. In the first track of this cycle of 12 songs, a Wampanoag girl has a premonition that the coming of the ‘island with tall trees’ bodes ill for them. She was right.

There follow songs, fruit of careful research, marking events of the voyage – the repair of a vital timber in ‘The Great Iron Screw’; discord between the religious group, the Separatists, and other passengers in ‘Saints and Strangers’; the tilling of the land after the bitter first winter in ‘The Digging Song’; and, finally, the joyful ‘Mayflower Waltz’. Between the songs the actor Paul McGann reads a useful linking narration, written by Nick Stimson, associate director of the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. Lakeman sings and plays fiddle and guitar with characteristic gutsiness, but can also be gentle and almost wistful. There is fine bouzouki and bass work from old friends Benji Kirkpatrick and Ben Nicholls and this is something of a family affair with sister-in-law Cara Dillon and dad Geoff adding colour and depth to the singing.