This is one of several CDs released on the
Revels
label with the purpose of bringing
John Langstaff
's classic
folk
recordings from the 1950s and 1960s back to market. On
Nottamun Town
, which was originally recorded and released on the
EMI
label in 1964,
Langstaff
divides his time between powerful
a cappella
renditions of songs like
"False Knight Upon the Road"
and
"St. James Hospital"
and others, equally fine, on which he is accompanied by guitarist
Martin Best
. In a couple of cases -- notably the wonderful
"Seventeen Come Sunday"
--
Best
's elegant fingerpicking almost upstages
's powerful baritone voice, but in general this is
's show. Or, as he might insist, it's the songs' show: as rich and cultivated as his
classically
trained voice is, he delivers these songs without any particular showboating or self-aggrandizing fanfare, instead showcasing each one as if it were a rare jewel. Which, particularly in the case of
"Golden Vanity"
"She Moved Through the Fair,"
is exactly what they are. Highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson