The Fagans -
'Milk And Honey Land'

CD from Australia - NSW

$A25.00 (plus packing & postage)
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Milk and Honey Land is the stellar fourth album from The Fagans, one of Australia's pre-eminent folk family bands. Revival pioneers Bob & Margaret Fagan reunite with their children, roots songwriter Kate Fagan and leading UK duo Nancy Kerr & James Fagan. The album is superbly played and recorded. It features crisp arrangements, driving harmonies and a smart choice of repertoire, including a rework of the Woody Guthrie classic 'Pastures of Plenty' and originals by Kate Fagan and Nancy Kerr.

MARGARET FAGAN vocals BOB FAGAN vocals, acoustic guitars NANCY KERR vocals, fiddle, viola
JAMES FAGAN vocals, guitar bouzouki, acoustic guitar, low whistle KATE FAGAN vocals, acoustic guitars, piano, piano accordion, Hammond organ, keys

1. PASTURES OF PLENTY (WOODY GUTHRIE)
This is the last of Woody Guthrie's unequalled Dust Bowl songs. It was written in 1941 to honour the many thousands from south-western American states, especially Oklahoma, who were made itinerant in years of drought and depression. They often met prejudice on the road. This version is Kate's adaptation.
2. BATTLER'S BALLAD
Jack Wright look to the 'wallaby track' in the 1930s along with countless battlers who became swags during the Australian Depression. Like Woody Guthrie, Wright was born in 1912. He wrote this spirited song around 1935 while in north Queensland looking for work just a year before Guthrie left the American Dust Bowl to join the migration west.
3. THE RIGS OF RYE (TRAD.)
We learned this beautiful traditional Scottish ballad from the singing of Robin Dransfield when we lived in England in 1981.
4. LONG RUN (JOHN SCHUMANN)
This classic Redgum song endures as a call to end complacency in the face of global adversities.
5. PILGRIMAGE (JESS ARROWSMITH)
This new anti-war song was written by English singer and fiddler Jess Arrowsmith. She tells us: 'The tune is traditional Flemish and called De Pelgrimstocht, and the words were partly inspired by those ads for the armed forces that make it look like an adventure holiday.'
6. THE SILVER SHORE (KATE FAGAN)
W.H.Auden wrote in memory of fellow poet William Butler Yeats: 'In the deserts of the heart/ Let the healing fountain start,/ In the prison of his days/Teach the free man how to praise.'
7. THE SHADES OF GLORIA (GERRY O'BEIRNE)
This inspired song by Gerry O'Beirne pays homage to both his native County Clare and renowned Clare whistle player Miko Russell.
8. WINDING GEAR (JOHN WARNER & KIM POOLE)
John Warner opens his song cycle 'Pithead in the Fern' with these evocative images of the abandoned Coal Creek mine in South Gippsland.
9. OUR MILK AND HONEY LAND (TREVOR DAY)
This gem by Australian country singer Trevor Day was taught to us by our musical comrade Richie Howitt, and we sing his adaptation of the last line.
10. GREENSWELL (NANCY KERR)
Traditional ballads like The Lover's Ghost and The Bay of Biscay fell of departed spirits who cross the sea to return to their lovers for one final night. Greenswell is a re-telling of this old story.
11. PULLING DOWN SONG (JOHN TAMS)
At the end of festivals we often think of John Tams's song about travelling fairs. The tilt is a tarpaulin and the Ark a popular ride; sets are portable generators, and according to John the chat is whatever you're pointing at.
12. PROSPECT PROVIDENCE (KEITH MARSDEN)
The woollen mills of Yorkshire have all but disappeared. Keith Marsden wrote about a friend whose longed-for retirement from years of hard, dusty labour was cut short by emphysema. The chorus names six mills of Morley in West Yorkshire.

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