Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Dick Gaughan: Handful Of Earth

Some time ago I luckily bumped into an used book, some old italian guide to UK folk spanning from the folk revival of the 60's till the late 90's and I slowly started digging and looking for some of this old (but new for me) stuff. I obviously was aware (and in fact was a great fan) of some of the most known names: the whole Fairport Convention family. and the Watersons.. But now I also know the lots and lots of remarkable artists whose career is worth much more than some mp3's in my hard disk. Some names: John Martyn, Nic Jones...at least there are those I'm starting to know. So, I'm not pretending to know a whole lot about Dick Gaughan, but I do know this one, "Handful Of Earth" is supposed to be his best album (and up until now I have no reason whatsoever to doubt this notion) and it contains some songs that I just can't get out of my head (first of all the trad The snows they melt the soonest). So what can I tell you:I love the nasal sound of his voice, his simple (as simple as a talented top class folk guitarist can be) guitar playing.
I'm thinking of uploading some more stuff like the already mentioned John Martyn and Nic Jones (though I know Time has told me had some troubling after having uploaded Jones)..., so let me know what you think of this one and then I'll consider the others. (Or maybe Lal Waterson's "A Bed Of Roses"...)

Here's a diy Youtube video with Gaughan's Song for Ireland:



Handful Of Earth

6 comments:

Subcomandante Marcos said...

Sounds interesting, and a step away from your 'Go-Betweens' comfort zone ;)

Happy New Year Misha!

Dearg Doom said...

I feel that Dick's overtly socialist leanings around the mid 80's may have stymied his career as a folk singer.

Anonymous said...

Great post...This album was my introduction to Mr. Gaughan, and still my favourite!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a ton for this and for the mediafire link! I've had only bootlegs and his first album for far too long.

Long days and pleasant nights!

Jimi said...

Thanks very much for this album.
I only know some of his songs by the covers Mary Black made of them. When I saw him on the Trans Atlantic Sessions, doing ''Both Sides the Tweed'', I became interested in Dick Gaughan. Can't wait to hear the album.

zappahead said...

Absolutley beautiful album....thanks for sharing it and your other stuff to...a really nice blog to visit....cheers.