The Outlander

On his first album, Sweet England, Jim Moray included ‘The Seeds of Love’, the first folk song Cecil Sharp collected. Sharp arranged it for piano; Moray for drum'n'bass. He has carried on in the same vein, applying punk, grime and electronica to old songs, not to update them but in their service, revealing their nature.

The Outlander is indeed outlandish in that it is foreign to Moray's previous method. He sings ten traditional songs, most well-known – ‘John Barleycorn’ and, to end the album, ‘The Leaving of Liverpool’ – with typical folk instrumentation and spare arrangements. Moray plays many instruments, is a master of studio technology and known for doing everything himself. Here Sam Sweeney's violin features prominently, Moray sings with Josienne Clarke and Nick Hart plays melodeon. Yes, Moray plays his 1949 Epiphone Triumph guitar; it's electric but, importantly for the sound, pre-rock'n'roll.

‘Lord Ellenwater’ ends with a beheading; ‘Bold Lovell’ with a hanging. Tere's murder in ‘The Bramble Briar’. ‘When This Old Hat Was New’ harks back to a golden age of England ‘when Bess ruled.’ The plangent concertina expresses this nostalgia perfectly and such simplicity captures the tone of the other songs. Hand-clapping is the nearest he gets to percussion. The folk wunderkind, now in his late 30s, his sweet voice a tad gruff these days, has discovered that it is good to cooperate and that, yes, less can be more.