That’s the thing most people like about folk music. Sentimentality. As musical genres go, none go further than folk into the history, or perhaps romanticised pseudo history, in search of the stories that will touch the listener’s heart yet, even with such content for inspiration, it is still necessary to find a voice of purity that can make these words borne of the many ghosts of the past resonate with the ears of today. So, can Holly Clarke make such a thing happen with her album “Wild Feral Fierce”?
“Wild Feral Fierce” is indeed filled with mostly traditional songs delivered traditionally with Holly Clarke’s most sonorous voice delivering the kind of performance that would surely win the hearts and wallets of a John Barleycorn attending any roots type festival that might be encountered during the summer on this sceptred isle. On her own compositions, and indeed co-compositions, she takes a more individual posture and, with no small amount of fire in her belly, she successfully mixes more modern sentiments into a framework that, whilst still made of yesterday’s wood, provides a solid platform for her artistic intentions.
“Wild Feral Fierce”, perhaps of commercial necessity, steers a sentimental, and respectful, course along the river of modern day folk music yet it is undeniable that Holly Clarke has a notable strength to her voice and that, I would suspect, will prove appealing to both the many and the few whose musical tastes have led them to worship in this particular genre. It’s a resonance thing after all.