Class And Gender In British Labour History
Liz Payne hails a rigorous overview of women in the labour movement
Juke Box Love Songs
The Phil Langran Band (Folkwit Records)
Sunday 22 January 2012
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Although they hail from Nottingham, The Phil Langran Band's new album has its origins in Harlem, New York City, the neighbourhood of the African-American poet Langston Hughes who was a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance in the early 20th century.
By combining Hughes's celebrated words with his band's gentle bluesy folk, Langran has created something both musically astute and lyrically absorbing.
But though Hughes led a politically engaged life, the record is very much a stroll through the more romantic side of his work. The liltingly beautiful opener Juke Box Love Song sets the tone with the affecting lyric: "I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you."
Slightly more up-tempo, Lament Over Love comes close to the old time vision Bob Dylan mined so brilliantly on 2001's Love and Theft.
A warm, intelligent set of songs for folkies.
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