Faerie Fire Dances

Marc Block has been on the folk scene since the mid-1980s, a self-described ‘rootsy Radical Faerie singer of original and traditional songs in the folk idiom’ and the songs here are by turns epic, pop-tinged pieces with a New Age positivity, and a magickal and queer slant to their songwriting. Guitars, bouzouki and accordions mix with synthesizers and multilayered harmonies, a trad feel rubbing alongside touches of prog and synth pop, with guest players including Nancy Kerr, James Fagan and Martin Simpson.

The New Age touch does feel portentously weighty on the likes of ‘Solstice in Avalon’, with its spoken word and heavenly choirs, but the best songs, such as ‘We Tend Our Gardens’ or the opener ‘Faerie Fire’, rise up from firmer ground. The latter sets out the album’s stall succinctly in the opening verses, mixing pagan, faerie and queer lore set to the tune of an Appalachian hymn. Block’s strong, husky voice is emotive and exhorting, and you can all but feel yourself carried off to some campfire gathering of otherwordly spirits with Block as head wizard – his stage make-up is cannily similar to the great Roy Wood of 70s band Wizzard. That’s a pretty good lineage.