Shake the Chains
Author: Nathaniel Handy
View album and artist detailsAlbum and Artist Details
Artist/band: |
VARIOUS ARTISTS |
Label: |
Quercus Records |
Magazine Review Date: |
November/2017 |
The Shake the Chains protest-song project (featured in #125) was conceived by English folk singer Greg Russell after his university degree. Wishing to apply practicality to his passion for songs of social and political justice, he assembled a cast of four top British folk musicians to join him on a national tour. They are singers Nancy Kerr, Hannah Martin and Findlay Napier, and double bassist Tim Yates.
This is a live album that gives a great taste of what the tour had to offer. It was the result of a residential workshop in which each musician brought their own perspectives on the theme from their part of the country. These include rousing Scottish folk anthems from Napier, Kerr's reflections on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Russell's own witty observations on Nigel Farage and co. Much of the politics takes the form of a paean to multiculturalism. On the finest tracks – such as Martin's arresting ‘Yarl’s Wood' about the Bedfordshire immigration removal centre, and the simple and elegant ‘Side by Side’ from Yates – it all works with great subtlety. The mood of dignified composure – far from the ranting of so many recent populists – is drawn together at the close by an a capella rendering of the secular standard, ‘We Shall Overcome’.
This is a live album that gives a great taste of what the tour had to offer. It was the result of a residential workshop in which each musician brought their own perspectives on the theme from their part of the country. These include rousing Scottish folk anthems from Napier, Kerr's reflections on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Russell's own witty observations on Nigel Farage and co. Much of the politics takes the form of a paean to multiculturalism. On the finest tracks – such as Martin's arresting ‘Yarl’s Wood' about the Bedfordshire immigration removal centre, and the simple and elegant ‘Side by Side’ from Yates – it all works with great subtlety. The mood of dignified composure – far from the ranting of so many recent populists – is drawn together at the close by an a capella rendering of the secular standard, ‘We Shall Overcome’.
