(Folk Police/Proper)
Jim Causley is one of the finest, most easy-going singers in the British folk revival. His distant relative, Charles Causley, who died in 2003, was one of the most popular British poets of the late 20th century, celebrated for his children's poems and stories of the supernatural or his native Cornwall, with a style partly influenced by his love of folk songs. Now Jim has set some of Charles's poems to music, in an album mostly recorded in the poet's study at Cyprus Well, his former home in Launceston, with Jim playing the poet's old piano and backed by a small band. The songs range from a jaunty, bluesy setting for one of his best-loved poems, Timothy Winters, through to a sturdy treatment of Angel Hill and a spoken, harp-backed Sibard's Well. A thoughtful, gently effective tribute.
