If you have liking for good honest folk music, recorded ‘live’ or in its natural form, then this is an album for you.
Michael William Harrison grew up in Detroit, and after drifting in and out of country rock bands, in 1998 he decided to follow his heart and return to folk music as a solo performer. His great-grandmother came from County Galway, and the trickle of Irish and English blood flowing in his veins came to the surface. So he followed the spirit, singing Irish, Scottish, American and Canadian folk songs. Now living in Texas, he has more recently steered his music in two new directions — historical and nautical. He shared the stage with Jed Marum on Into the West, a look at the trail connecting Celtic folk songs to Texas. Also, as a U.S. Navy veteran, he has taken his music back to the sea, performing at the 2003 Texas Maritime Museum’s “Songs of the Sea” festival.
On this album Michael presents his songs, for the most part, as just one man — voice and guitar. However, on one or two of the tracks that benefit from a bit of ‘filling out’, he has enlisted the help of guest musicians: Gordon McLeod (bass, fiddle and mandolin), Ernie Tafft on fiddle and Jed Marum on banjo; Jed Marum, with Gina Glidewell and Christy and Gordon McLeod, also adds harmony vocals.
All but one of the recordings were made as a live situation, but in the studio. That is to say, the rhythm guitar and lead vocal vocals were recorded simultaneously. This means that, should you go to see Michael perform live, he is going to sound very much the same as he does on the CD. I like this attitude to recorded work: it’s more honest, and shows what the artist can really do.
The album starts with a nice version of ‘Roseville Fair’, a Bill Staines song. This is followed by a traditional song, ‘Rising of the Moon’, which most people will be familiar with. These warm the album nicely for the next song, ‘One More Ride’. This one is written by Michael, and is a bright song about following your heart and your dreams and giving it all you’ve got — giving it one more try. There’s a change of tempo and mood next, with a really delicate rendition of ‘The Dutchman’, learnt from the song writer Michael Smith. ‘Neds Chanty’, another song from Michael Smith, co-written with Roger Harrison, is a powerful seafaring song with a whaler/sailor bemoaning his lot.
A few well known traditional songs, ‘Old Carrion Crow’, ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ and ‘John Riley’, grace the album well. However, I am not sure if ‘John Riley’ is a traditional song — the tune surely is, but I’m not convinced about the words! I seem to remember the words being credited to B. Gibson & R. Neff, country and western singers. Not that it matters that much, as it turned out to be my favourite track. The album ends with ‘M.T.A.’, an old Kingston Trio song from the ’60s. This song was introduced to Harrison in the 6th grade at school, by teacher Frank Strunk — truly a fun teacher with vision!
In conclusion, I have to say I enjoyed the album, and I think you will, too. Michael sings and performs well. The album is very well recorded, and considering the live performance, you will be hard put to detect the difference between this and some multi-session studio recordings. Michael says, ‘This album is pretty much a taste of what I do.’ For my money, if Michael can cut the mustard as well as this in concert, he will be well worth going to see.
(Boston Road Records, 2000)
