Paul Kamm & Eleanore MacDonald are neo-impressionist folk singers, and I believe they have been performing for 19 years now, releasing 6 albums including the two reviewed here. So what is neo-impressionist folk? Lets say you have been on all the 'ban-the-bomb' and 'anti-Vietnam war' rallies back in the 70's and you are a big fan of the 'beautiful-peoples-West-coast-America' folk music. Or you had been left in suspended animation for about 35 years and just come out. Well you will just love these albums, they are what I call a throw back in time to the late 70/80's when the world was a much nicer, simpler, gentler place to live in, and folk music reflected this era. You might say this is folk music to relax with, kind of like aromatherapy. Very similar to the singing of Simon and Garfunkel, it is a gentle style and very profound.

Paul Kamm & Eleanore MacDonald do it very well. The vocals are nicely sung and when Eleanore sings in unison they sound good together and very well rehearsed. Of the two albums I like Calling on Love best. This is mainly because with this type of folk music it benefits from a fuller band sound. The Live album is very good but it is a souvenir album that may be most tempting for concert goers. Nearly all the tracks on Live were recorded at Nevada Theatre, Nevada City; California in 1999, about the time Calling on Love was released. Many of the songs on Live appear on previous albums. This might put all but the most dedicated fans off buying it if they already own previous albums.

Most of the songs on both these albums are written by Paul Kamm; unfortunately they all tend to sound very similar and failed to hold my attention for the whole of the album. I can't understand why Eleanore did not take the lead vocal on one or two songs to break up the monotony.

There are 9 songs on Calling on Love and 12 tracks on Live but you only get 9 songs. This because the first track on Live is applause! And track 6 is Eleanore introducing track 7, which is Eleanore reading an excerpt from the book 'Gates of the Wind' which in turn is the introduction to song 'Gates of the Wind' at track 8. However the best songs on the two albums are 'Lost in America' and 'Toxic Dumpsite' and are to be found on both albums. These two songs alone might make it well worth buying Live for fans that do not already have other albums from the duo.

To sum up: these are two beautifully recorded and produced albums. All music is subjectively loved, hated or ignored, and this duo certainly have a lot of fans, and I am sure a lot of folkies liked this melancholy sound. If you live on this side of the pond, and have never heard of Paul Kamm & Eleanore MacDonald, well these two albums might be a good introduction, with Live being the best representation of their career to date.

[Peter Massey] 

I would recommend you visit their Web site, where you can hear sample tracks before buying.