I'm A Workin' Chap is a trip back in musical time. A contemporary of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Kent was born in Scotland, and in much earlier days played in the revival folk bands, The Reivers and The Exiles. He later moved to Canada and has performed at festivals and, according to his biography, many times at the Fiddler's Green Coffee House in Toronto. I'm A Working Chap is an album of mostly a traditional song, but some are originals set to a traditional or new tune and a few are odd amalgams. Some tracks are a capella; others have minimal accompaniment. I like to think that Kent doesn't believe in the word "arrangement."
It is surely Kent's interpretation of the songs that is on display here. In his sixties, his voice is like crystallized honey, still sweet but with grit in it. It would be interesting to think of him in duet with Penny Lang. He sings in Scots dialect and when he says "r", its a wonder his tongue doesn't roll right out of his head! I'm A Workin' Chap is performed in traditional style, and would be as at home in the '60s as today. Kent has been performing so long that you'd hardly think of him worrying about how he's singing the songs. He sings so easily that the album is almost a very well produced field recording.
Old friends from earlier LPs are here. Ears prick up and listen again to the romantic stories of "Floor Of Northumberland" and "Laird O' The Dinty Doon." Kent changes these songs if he feels the need, so often there is a little lyrical surprise. The title track is actually traditional. Kent mentions that he has never heard anyone else sing it, and it is a composite of lyrics from a book he has set to the tune of "The Parting Glass" because he did not like the original. Some of Kent's original compositions are influenced by his years in Canada and interaction with musicicans like as Garnet Rogers, who recorded his song "The Farm Auction," here sung by Kent himself. This is more recognizable as contemporary folk, and gently tells of the invasive horror of having absolutely everything suddenly taken by bank foreclosure, even worse than our western fire evacuations this summer:
"And there's coffee pots never used,
Silver frames a little bruised
Around the portraits that amused us
In the parlour and the hall."
Kent also marries a tune Rogers wrote for his wife with a poem written for his own wife. Another interesting track is "Tales Of A Favourite Lass," a mixture of the tune for Gerry Hallom's "The Outside Track," a partial chorus from the Australian poet Henry Lawson, and original verses. Here old men sit and drink and tell bawdy tales of women, never mentioning their own pain in relationships.
The album has 15 tracks, all pleasant, some more interesting than others. The booklet conveniently gives all the lyrics and a little explanation of the song as well. Traditional and Celtic music enthusiasts will especially welcome I'm A Workin' Chap.
Find out more about Enoch Kent's music here.
