Across the Water

Having won himself a degree of UK folk-scene success with his group The Teacups, an a capella quartet who have recorded two albums, singer and squeezebox player Alex Cumming has set sail for Atlantic shores. Hence the preponderance of watery themes on this recording of his partnership with fiddler Nicola Beazley: his UK folk activities now involve crossing a considerable pond. The opener, ‘Bonny Ship the Diamond’ is a rousing whaling song with a spirited, post-Bellowhead feel to the arrangement. Indeed, the whole album would sound right at home on the Radio 2 Folk Show: an assured, carefully arranged, yet rather conservative package. Nicola Beazley’s violin sounds oddly muted, even when it’s to the fore; this isn’t a question of the mix, it’s more that both players sound as if they are operating well within their comfort zones. There is little that is distinctive here, and too much of a slotting into today’s cosmopolitan folk template. On ‘Streets of Forbes’, however, a more individual voice cuts through, thanks to some abrasive vocal harmonies and a more melancholic atmosphere.