The Ox and the Ax

It's the little things that count. At first, you might think there's not much to the music of this highly focused Geordie-American folk duo. But that is precisely the point: the pair have distilled their art over several albums and have, on The Ox and the Ax, ended up with a pure quintessence. Opener ‘The Two Sisters’ is perfectly balanced: Phil's steadfast acoustic guitar simply restating the tune that Cath sings, providing the earthiness to her airiness. When you’re brave enough to keep your music this pared down, any additions have greater significance; when a fiddle modestly begins to play the same melody towards the end, it's like a huge door is being opened. Likewise, the martial snare drum and trumpet that arrive unexpectedly in ‘King Henry’ provide more emotional weight than any overwrought big-production arrangement ever could. When the same lone trumpet blasts its clarion on the immensely powerful ‘Song of the Lower Classes’, ushered in by Phil's line ‘the thrust of a poor man's arm may go through the heart of the proudest king,’ all good leftie listeners will get goosebumps. Simultaneously deadpan yet breezy, dark yet light, monotone yet colourful, The Ox and the Ax is both a great British folk album and a unique synthesis of opposites.