Borrowed Songs

It is rare to hear an album that confronts you with such a powerful sense of who a person is and what they're about. Throughout this acute, politically engaged work of protest folk, Ewan McLennan's voice rings out loud and clear. Although McLennan is only in his early 30s, the London-born Scot has now been a standard bearer for traditional song and the songwriting inspired by it across several albums. His approach is similar to that spearheaded by Ewan MacColl and developed by singers such as Roy Bailey. Songs move seamlessly from familiar trad numbers to his own perceptive songs without a jolt, aided by his fluent acoustic guitar and propulsive banjo. The latter imbues the songs such as ‘Blacking the Engines’ with some of the flinty lyricism of old-time American music.

McLennan's art is impressive enough to well deserve comparisons to Dick Gaughan or Leon Rosselson. But it impresses almost a little too easily. Both Stick in the Wheel and Lankum have recently shown how an acid wit can sharpen the edges of political folk music into a jagged weapon. Some of their energising vitriol wouldn't go amiss in scouring a little more urgency into McLennan's music. Nevertheless, there's a powerful sense of purpose here, a palpable commitment to speaking of and for people.