Album Reviews

Semer Water

This, Deb's second solo release, although undeniably still a vehicle for her amazing voice, is in many ways very different from her first (My Prayer). It's an album that celebrates and explores the theme of the supernatural in song, through some exceptional and beguilingly atmospheric arrangements of songs both familiar and unfamiliar.

In creating these new arrangements, Deb is demonstrating her developing maturity as both musician/arranger and singer, aided considerably too by the supporting presence of performers of the calibre of multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (her regular touring partner of late - and what a scintillating combination!), pianist Simon Thomas, Ralph Sandland and Martin Green on guitars, Miranda Sykes on double-bass and (on one track) Garth Turner's melodeon. Not to mention a veritable female choir of six (multitracked up to 30) on the final song Will You Meet Me Tonight?… but I'm getting ahead of myself!

In spite of the common theme, the material Deb's chosen is extremely varied in nature, from eerie ballads such as the title track (which recounts the tale of a cursed, now drowned village in North Yorkshire), the classic Cruel Sister and a supreme treatment of Goethe's Erl King that's every bit as worthy a setting as the celebrated Schubert Lied (and it even comes complete with an insistent string quartet backing that's comprised of multitracked Phil Beers!).

Another highlight is Deb's sparse and sensitive version of Lal Waterson's haunting Scarecrow, and I also loved Deb's freshly considered take on Phil's [ (sic) it isn't , it is a Steve Knightley written song] Don't Look Now (oh so different from the Show Of Hands version on Cold Frontier, but if anything speaking even more closely to the listener) and her acapella masterpiece Get Thee To The Drowning (which sounds authentically traditional but is in fact a joint composition by Deb and Liz Atkins).

In contrast, two rather more obviously foot-tapping moments are provided with The Dancers Of Stanton Drew and that perennial Beer/Sandland live favourite Long Black Veil. Deb's vocals throughout are absolutely breathtaking (pun intended!) - I wonder anew each time I play the CD, at Deb's inventiveness in both expression and phrasing. This is a tremendous album, and Deb's a tremendous talent. Still scary, yes, but in the nicest possible way. Get this CD, and you'll be haunted forever by its magic.

David Kidman

REVIEW: Deb Sandland: "Semer Water"
Released 2004 on Hairy Dog Records, cat. no. DEB002.

With the release of her latest album, "Semer Water", Deb Sandland has set herself a truly difficult task - how will she follow it? This album shows that the early promise from this truly original voice has come to fruition - and how.

There's too much "safe" material being released in the name of "folk music" these days and we need people like Deb to remind us there's a pure mother lode, with a rich untapped vein of great material out there, just waiting to be mined and polished.

"Deb Sandland: discuss" . Think of a mixture of Nick Cave, Nico and Nic Jones, and you won't be far out - there's a lot of "Nick's" in there and "Semer Water" is without a doubt an album of supernatural songs, so let's not forget old Nick, too. But when you sing with the voice of an angel you have nothing to fear, so let's take a dip into"Semer Water" track by track....

Semer Water, is, I suspect, based on the poem "The Ballad of Semerwater", (sic.) by Sir William Watson, (1858-1935) who was born in the Yorkshire dales, near the mysterious Semer Water, (simply Old English for "the lake pool"). The legend is that an angel, disguised as a beggar, took on earthly appearance and visited Semerdale village, asking for food and drink from the villagers. Only one old couple took pity on the beggar, so to punish the villagers the angel then flooded the whole of Semerdale village, leaving it fathoms below what's now Semer Water. The only people the angel spared were the old couple, whose ruined house can till be seen at one end of Semer Water, Yorkshire's only natural lake. Deb's version is underpinned by Phil Beer on fiddle, Ralph Sandland on guitar, and some fine piano by Simon Thomas.

The Dancers of Stanton Drew is based on the legend around a wedding celebration
at Stanton Drew, Somerset .which reputedly took place on a day when Midsummer's Eve fell on a Saturday. When midnight struck, the fiddler refused to continue the music into the Sabbath. The bride said she'd dance until dawn and take her chance with hell, and at that moment, another fiddler came by, and played until the wedding party were exhausted. The mysterious fiddler refused to stop playing, and the wedding party found themselves unable to stop dancing. In the morning, the priest found no sign of the wedding party - in their place were groups of strange stones which stand to this day. I've heard a version of this song by The Yetties, but it's nothing like this! The song boasts a beautiful mandolin line by Ralph Sandland and a Phil Beer fiddle accompaniment that makes you want to dance until.... well, you know.....

The words to "Mary's Dream" are from a poem written by John Lowe, (1750-1798), from Galloway, Scotland. The melody is traditional. Whilst teaching in the family of a gentleman named McGhie, Lowe became engaged to McGhie's daughter, whose sister Mary was, in turn, engaged to a surgeon named Alexander Miller. In 1772 tragedy struck, and Miller was lost at sea, which inspired Lowe to write "Mary's Dream". Like most of his poems, Lowe composed "Mary's Dream" at the top of a cliff on the banks of the River Ken, in a district of Galloway called The Glenkens. The place is still known as Lowe's Seat". John Lowe later migrated to America where he became a tutor for the family of George Washington's brother, and, having previously studied theology at Edinburgh University, became an Anglican minister. After an unhappy marraige Lowe died in Culpepper County, Virginia, after a taking a self administered overdose of laudanum. Like the title track of this album, the pairing of Simon Thomas' piano and Ralph Sandland's guitar shine through, whilst Phil Beer is this time featured on recorders.

I was sure that the basically unaccompanied "Get Thee To The Drowning" must be a traditional song. However, try as I might my research drew a blank. To my surprise, I later found that it was a Deb Sandland composition, co-written by Liz Atkins. There's a sparse drum accompaniment which sneaks in towards the end of the song, which reminds me of "The Fiddle and The Drum" from one of Joni Mitchell's early albums, "Clouds". Praise indeed.

The Erl-King is based on a supernatural poem by the German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832). The Erl King, a spirit, seen only by his victims, tries to entice a young boy into going with him, but once The Erl King sees the boy doesn't want to leave his father, he becomes angry. The boy repeatedly warns his father that the Erl King is trying to take him away, but the father thinks that the child is merely imagining things and dismisses what his son says. The child dies as a result. The moral is.. yep, you got it. I've heard Deb sing this song live on a couple of occasions, and although it's always been an excellent song, this recorded version is simply a stunning tour de force, featuring Miranda Sykes' double bass and Phil Beer on fiddle. There's also a fine guitar line and some excellent percussion. The track's been overlaid to include double tracking on not just the instruments but also Deb's exquisite vocals

I've always loved Mike & Lal Waterson's classic "Bright Phoebus" album. Released in 1972, for some inexplicable reason this masterpiece has been out of print for years. "The Scarecrow" is to my mind the greatest song from the album. When (in 2002) "Shining Bright", a starstudded collection of re-recordings of the songs on"Bright Phoebus" was released, Dick Gaughan recorded his version of "The Scarecrow" for inclusion. It's a very fine version. However - dare I say it - if Deb Sandland's version had been recorded at that time, it could well have been "move over, Mr. Gaughan"..... Deb's version is accompanied by Martin Green on guitar, and is heartbreaking in its simplicity. You just have to hear it once and you're hooked.

Although I've been familiar with "The Cruel Sister" for many years, initially through
Pentangle's version, on their album of the same name. I first heard Deb's version when she appeared at South Parade Pier, Southsea with Phil Beer back in 2003. However, on the "Semer Water" album it's different again with Gareth Turner's masterful melodeon accompaniment, Simon Thomas on piano, and Phil Beer on guitar.

Although this sounds like a traditional song, "The Long Black Veil" was written in
the late 1950's. There's a fascinating story behind it. The great country singer Lefty
Frizell was at a recording session, stuck for a song to record. Marijon Wilkin was in the studio kitchen making coffee when Danny Dill came in with some lyrics he'd
written, and mentioned he was desperate for a tune to go with them. As Marijon
waited for the kettle to boil, she perused the words and came up with the melody
almost immediately. Reportedly, Lefty recorded the song even before he drank his
coffee... Lefty Frizell re-recorded the song a few times over the years, and although the late great Johnny Cash also brought it to the public's ear in 1964, it was The Band - the epitome of Americana - that brought this classic composition by Danny Dill and Marijon Wilkin to a wider public arena on their "Music From Big Pink" album. It was no surprise to me to hear The Phil Beer Band cover this fine song, knowing Phil's predilection for the genre. Phil takes joint vocals with Deb on this recorded version, with a bare bones but tasty mandolin accompaniment. Robbie Robertson would love this arrangement - so would The Man In Black.

I've long been familiar with the song "Don't Look Now" from Show of Hands "Cold Frontier" album, but this piano based version, featuring a gorgeous double bass, courtesy again of Miranda Sykes, is very different from the "Cold Frontier" version.

"My Kind And Gentle Man" is a song co-written by Deb with Simon Thomas. The
recording features Simon on piano and Phil Beer on bass fiddle. It sound traditional
in much the same way as many of Richard Thompson's songs sound like they were
written in a diifferent age. Another beautiful vocal - and I'm running short of superlatives.

"Will You Meet Me Tonight (On The Shore)" is also known as "The Gay Spanish
Maid", and is better known in Nova Scotia than anywhere else, but probably made
the transition from Ireland in the famine years around "black '47". Apart from hearing a wonderful old chap singing this song unaccompanied in a East Galway pub, the only other version of this traditional song I'd previously heard was by the Irish harper. Maire Chathasaigh, on her album "Out of Court". Deb's album version of "Will You Meet Me Tonight..." is a stunning vocal harmony piece, which as well as Deb also features co-arranger Julie Thurman (from Deb's early band The Aqua Sisters) Laura McCormick, Sam Jones, Michelle Evans, and Nancy Sandland, Deb's sister. The song is in equal parts slow, stately, rich and swirling and with just has to be the last song on the album. It's nothing short of breathtaking, and there's no way Deb could follow it.

"Semer Water" is a superb album, and will no doubt- if there's any justice in this world, propel Deb Sandland to her rightful position as one of the most important voices in the tradition - whatever that means - today. The famous landscape painter Turner painted Semer Water as "Simmer Water". His painting can be seen hanging in the Tate Gallery. It's almost as much of a masterpiece as Deb's album.

John Roberts

My Prayer

Mike Davies for netrhythms writes:-

Spawn of a musical family (dad played jazz bass, one brother's a multi-instrumentalist, the other musical director for the RSC), Tamworth born Sandland has steered her inclinations in a folk direction, initially working with Julie Thurman as unaccompanied duo The Aqua Sisters before expanding to a more fulsome five piece. That having run its course, she moved back to duo work again, this time with Phil Beer, eventually joining his band and recording a couple of ltd edition albums and contributing to the two Heart of England compilations before finally taking the solo plunge (albeit helped out by the band) with this album.

It's an interestingly mixed collection that ranges from the trad flavours of John Tams' Hold Back The Tide, and the a capella Ivy is Good and the evergreen Wind That Shakes The Barley to the Christine Collister flavours of the acoustic guitar accompanied The Thing You Love (which sounds at times like Killing Me Softly) by way of laid back smoky folksy covers of Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years and The Stereophonics' I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio. Elsewhere she tackles Nick Cave's arrangement of Henry Lee and Mike Scott's When Ye Go Away with assured strength.

She's got a soft, breathy autumnal evening and raindrops voice of deceptive depth that is brimful of assured poise and the confidence of experience but can, as with Don't Leave For The City and the closing My Prayer, still sound beguilingly innocent and wearily vulnerable. Falling between the trad and contemporary stools may make her hard to pigeonhole for audiences who like to know whether they're getting Kate Rusby or Thea Gilmore, but approach with open ears rather than closed labels and you'll realise she can hold her own with either and both.Deb Sandland - Semer Water (Hairy Dog Records) .

Live reviews  

Deb Sandland, Phil Beer and friends

Lawrence Sheriff School - Rugby

Review by David Wardle for Traditional Music Maker magazine

So just what are the essential ingredients for a successful gig? Sometimes, whatever the ingredients used, the dish just doesn’t emerge like the picture in the recipe book. Well on this occasion, the recipe worked and we were all treated to a veritable feast of delicious music. First, we took one girl with a gorgeous voice, blended with one virtuoso guitar and mandolin player, then placed in an old school hall with high vaulted ceiling and lots of character, in front of a packed appreciative audience for about two hours. Add some extra ingredients during the cooking and the dish was done to perfection!

So what was the occasion for this feast? Deb Sandland and Phil Beer have been touring to promote Deb’s superb debut album ‘My Prayer’, which was reviewed in February’s TMM. The venue, the Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby, is used by the ex-Folk on the Fosse team now operating under the banner "Longdogs Promotions", and is an ideal setting.

The gig itself comprised several songs from ‘My Prayer’ alongside other numbers from Deb, allowing a showcase for her lovely rich voice – fuelled it seems by copious mugs of tea - which she wields with maximum effect but with little apparent effort. (Her voice that is, not the tea!) Phil Beer, who appears to be a master at just about every stringed instrument invented, restricted himself to guitar and mandolin tonight. Despite that, he managed to generate a wide range of moods and textures, providing a fitting complement to Deb’s voice.

Songs featured from My Prayer included a lovely version of Paul Simon’s ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’, and a haunting duet with Phil for Henry Lee, a traditional American song about retribution and death. In fact, death was a major feature of the gig, Phil even setting a contest to calculate the body count featured within the songs. I came to something like ten million and nine, but it could have been more!

Throughout the evening, various guest musicians, who played on Deb’s album, made cameo appearances, giving a bit of additional variety to the proceedings. Nigel Grist played guitar on My Prayer and on The Cruel Sister - a very atmospheric song that told the sad story of a girl who was killed by her sister, and then turned into a harp by some minstrels. The fun started when they played at the sister’s wedding! Martin Green – who also plays with the Andy Guttridge Band - played some lovely guitar on The Old Man’s Song – written by Bill Caddick and John Tams - which was also taken from the cd. Deb was also joined on stage by guitarist Steve Maloney, who used to accompany her in the now defunct Aqua Sisters. Although Phil Beer is her main partner tonight, it is Steve who is currently playing with Deb on her tour.

There were some opportunities for Deb to sing unaccompanied and to show how she can hold an audience spellbound with her captivating voice – one was a song called The Three Fishers that told a story of more death, this time out at sea – and a beautifully sorrowful song that was written by Deb’s landlady, Liz Atkins, called Get Thee to the Drowning.

Phil Beer also displayed his own wizardry with a couple of solo instrumentals on guitar and mandolin, including a tune called The Gloucester Hornpipe, which gave a bit of extra variety to the gig and gave Deb the opportunity to drink another pint of tea!

I’ve heard Deb sing Lal Waterson’s atmospheric song The Scarecrow before, and I was delighted that she included this on tonight’s set list. Another highlight was the old Big Bill Broonzy song, Leaving Blues – one of Phil’s formative songs it appears.

But, as in all good gigs, the best is saved until last. Called back on stage, Phil and Deb played us out with a stunning unaccompanied version of Jackson Browne’s Lady of the Well, their voices melting together to give a wonderfully warm finale to the evening. An absolutely superb ending to a fine gig.

I understand that some recordings have been made from the tour and that a live album will emerge in the near future. On the strength of tonight’s offering, this will certainly be one to look out for.

And Richard Hamilton said of the Rugby gig.........

... Deb was sensational. Aside from the beautiful voice, she has a wonderful stage-presence. Her interaction with the audience was endearing... and it seemed effortless, nerveless. She told the stories as fluently as she sang the songs to which they relate. She has everything needed to hit the big time. Phil was tremendous (as per!), and their harmonies together were exquisite.

Deb Sandland & Phil Beer

Dartford Folk Club

February 25, 2003

Speed-counting is obviously a skill picked up by Phil Beer when tallying up gig attendances to work out how much he should expect from the promoter.  At Dartford Folk Club, however, he put his gift to work to assess, in four seconds flat, it would be a 100-voice choir singing along for what was possibly one of the evening's least expected songs, a reworking of Stereophonics' "I wouldn't believe your wireless radio". The Welsh popsters' chart hit wound up the first half of an evening's entertainment in which Beer, with flame-haired chanteuse Deb Sandland - a veteran of The Phil Beer Band - held a crowded room completely spellbound. It was a little strange hearing a song that's so well known in its original form sung by a different singer. While Sandland and writer Kelly Jones have voices at the, shall we say, hoarser end of the scale, Sandland's is a lot less coarse and is possessed of  smoother edges and rounder corners, making for a more enjoyable experience. Similarly, hearing Sandland singing Show of Hands' "White tribes" was a little disconcerting and, I have to admit, I do prefer writer Steve Knightley's take. Sandland's voice, so full of emotion and warmth, is perfectly complemented by the virtuoso playing of Beer. Leaving his fiddle at home for this tour, he is limiting himself to a couple of guitars and a mandolin.  That said, 'limiting' really isn't the correct word to apply to Beer. Quite simply, the man's a master of anything with strings and his playing with Sandland is vibrant, sensitive, lively, subdued and just what any particular song demands of it. Both had opportunities to shine individually; the audience sat entranced as Sandland's smoky voice filled the room on unaccompanied ballads and Beer got to show off some fancy fretboard noodlings on a couple of dance tunes as his partner left the stage to put the kettle on - honestly! "The Ballad of Henry Lee", like several during the set featured on Sandland's recent "My Prayer" album, was introduced by Beer as being a tale of sex, death, retribution and guilt and, I'm glad to say, it lived up to the billing. Other album tracks to enjoy a live outing were John Tams' "Hold back the tide" and "Still crazy (after all these years)" by Paul Simon, preceded by a tale of a late-night session round the Sandland kitchen table trying to work out Mr Simon's chords. In addition to sharing similar tastes in music, the pair also have the same wacky sense of humour, both finding fun in the simplest of things. A favourite pastime, as they travel from gig to gig, is spotting amusingly named villages and shops. One tale of discovering a shop, in Otley, called Brian Pickles Lawnmowers spiralled off into a Beer monologue taking in such surreal topics as the difficulty these days in finding jars big enough to take the preserved grass-cutters. He was laughing,  the audience was laughing and Sandland, who must have heard the story at least once before, was laughing with what appeared genuine mirth. A sure example of the fun they're having on this tour. Over the course of their 90 minutes on stage, the pair tackled different genres, including Morris tunes, traditional folk songs, several slabs of Americana and the blues, the last represented by an old favourite of Beer's, a rollicking version of Big Bill Broonzy's "The leaving blues" that had many a foot keeping time. A fine set was rounded off with a moving "Broken arrow", by Robbie Robertson, before they were brought back on for an a capella version of Jackson Browne's "Lady of the well".

Fred Hall