Songs of the Summer Realm

In 1960, Lerner and Loewe brought Camelot to the Broadway stage. In 1975, Rick Wakeman gave King Arthur the prog-rock treatment. Now, singer and harpist Jessica Victoria tackles Arthurian legend, using her classical training to synthesize elements of the Celtic tradition with rock, jazz and early music. She cites Pentangle and Steeleye Span as influences but nothing here sounds remotely like English folk-rock. Instead, she ranges across a bewildering hotchpotch of musical styles. The mock-medieval-sounding ‘Christmas at Camelot’ and ‘The Queen Remembers’ could almost have been outtakes from the musical. With ‘A Little Bestiary’ we find ourselves not far from ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’ territory while, in ‘The Myth of Arthur’, a jazz-swing backing gives Victoria a chance to try out scat singing, though why is hard to explain. All of this is a shame because she is obviously talented, and opener ‘To Find the Melodies’, is rather good.