Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas which, when executed with precision, reap the most rewards. Such is Positively Folk Street, where Steve Knightley, once one half of U.K. folk and acoustic standard bearers Show of Hands, looks back to those initial influences, the ones that sparked up his dedication and desire to pursue a career in their footsteps.
As a callow youth, picking up a guitar in his teens, Knightley was of the right age to latch right onto the acoustic charm of early Dylan, principally The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. As he says, “I had no idea Dylan had drawn so deeply from our own folk tradition to shape many of his songs,” That point was hammered home as he then encountered Martin Carthy, at Sidmouth’s famous folk festival, hearing earlier “versions” of those self same songs. (Carthy was name-checked on the cover of Dylan’s breakthrough album, if not formally credited with any the songs or their arrangements, but the two of them have subsequently made up and remain friends.) On Positively Folk Street, Knightley celebrates both, with a selection of songs made famous by either.
Dylan gets first shout, with “Girl from the North Country,” possibly the most contentious and widely written about of Dylan’s borrows. It is accepted that the tune is the same as Carthy’s arrangement of “Scarborough Fair,” but also, broadly, is the theme, itself derived from the earlier still “The Elfin Knight,” dating from the late 1600’s. Nonetheless, there is a world of difference between the vocal resonance of each singer, with Knightley falling somewhere between the two, with the graininess of Dylan meeting the stark clarity of Carthy. The burst of harmonica is undoubtedly all Dylan, that aspect of Dylan still anathema to the diehards of the UK traditional folk clubs. It’s a good version, if adding little than the strength of Knightley’s voice, awash with mournful cadences.
This gets followed by a song from Carthy’s repertoire, “Broomfield Hill,” with a clever sense of continuity instilled from the start, with “the North Country” referenced within the first line. Carthy, like Dylan, has a voice that can alienates the sensitive, so anyone put off by either vocalist will find the delivery here much easier on the ear. Knightley’s able playing of his favored mandocello should also be of appeal, and is anything other than basic, giving even Beer a run for his money.
“Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)” is a song that has been in Knightley’s sets for a while, a later Dylan song that offers little linkage to English tradition. Be that as it may, it is rendered with the same emotive lilt that has made itself already apparent. In a rare use of the studio, the occasional echo in the vocal is effective and adds further luster. A song I am not so keen on, in its original format, here is buffs up as one of his best. The traditional “Bruton Town” carries a vestige of similarity in mood and melody, but I suspect serendipity more than slippery fingers. Indeed, it isn’t a stretch to imagine it sung by a younger Dylan.
I’ll be honest, “Forever Young” does not quite cut it. Yes, it is beautifully sung and played, but errs too far on the saccharine for my bitter taste. Some may know “Just as the Tide Was Flowin'” from 10,000 Maniacs or the version on the Albion Country Band eponymous release. I couldn’t find any reference to Carthy ever recording this song, but his daughter Eliza certainly has, suggesting he has likely performed it, with or without her. It is a relatively straight version, the singer now on guitar. He sounds every inch his 70 years on this, the song all the better for it.
You’ll by now be getting the pattern Positively Folk Street follows: Dylan, Carthy, Dylan, Carthy etc. By and large the sequencing feels to have been chosen to maximize similarities in, if not melody or lyric, the mood. So “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” picks up on the plangency of the song before it. It’s a song that has been covered so many times as to be almost too ubiquitous to contain anything new. But Knightley actually does find something, just a little, so as to stand out. The fingerpicked guitar, the harmonica, even the voice stray little from the 1962 original, but there is a slight slowing in the speed, allied to a slight sway in the way he sings it, both giving it a charm that warrants the inclusion.
“Polly on the Shore” is utterly gorgeous. Knightley is widely seen as the foremost, even finest, singer within the UK folk and acoustic canon. Here you can understand that entirely, as good an example of his rusty tenor as you can find anywhere. Oddly, that timbre doesn’t work so well for “Positively 4th Street,” where he comes across as trying to better the original, yet fails due to his following too close to Dylan’s own performance. To be fair, it is still a tremendous song, even with the nasty harshness of the kickoff given in the final stanza, which still causes a physical punch in the gut, however many times heard.
A change of mood for “Lord Franklin,” which comes bedecked with a lonely concertina to garnish Knightley’s voice. The squeezebox may take away any immediate attention from the Bobnoscenti, who might otherwise note the tune is one and the same as in “Bob Dylan’s Dream,” which may be the purpose of inclusion. Nonetheless, as a fully paid up folkie and trad.arr. junkie, I think it’s a pleasingly gaunt arrangement, the instrumentation making for a change in overall flavor.
“Boots of Spanish Leather” has always been a song that has been of attraction to the folk singers of Old Albion, possibly as it bears a distinct relation to the traditional “Blackjack Davey.” Indeed, when Dylan made his album of traditional covers, 1992’s Good as I Been to You, he included that song, with the reference it contains to “Spanish leather.” However, harmonically, it may also have some investment in any parent of “Girl From the North Country,” which Knightley doesn’t swerve from. It is a decent version, for all that, as is the closing track, another folkie familiar, “Seven Yellow Gypsies,” aka “Raggle Taggle Gypsies.” This too is a song with linkage, and alternate wordage, to “Blackjack Davy.” This is a song Carthy still sings, still performing at age 83 (three days older than Dylan). This is the one song here where Knightley fully channels Carthy’s own resonance, I having to check I hadn’t played the wrong version, as in one by Carthy. I think this deliberate, as a mark of respect, the same respect as to Dylan in the opening track, which is where he applies most Bob.
Positively Folk Street is a good record. I am a little uncertain as to whom it is aimed for, given that Knightley, however popular, still occupies a fairly niche position. Dylanologists may be drawn thereto, hopefully finding merit in the undoubted love Knightley shows his subject(s), and likewise those who are interested in the history of traditional songs and ballads. I am uncertain if any U.S. release is planned at this stage; maybe this can help drum up a little custom.
Positively Folk Street tracklisting:
Girl from the North Country (Bob Dylan cover)
Broomfield Hill (Traditional)
Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) (Bob Dylan cover)
Bruton Town (Traditional)
Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover)
Just as the Tide Was Flowing (Traditional)
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan cover)
Polly on the Shore (Traditional)
Positively 4th Street (Bob Dylan cover)
Lord Franklin (Traditional)
Boots of Spanish Leather (Bob Dylan cover)
Seven Yellow Gypsies (Traditional)
I wouldn’t describe “Senor” in any way as a “later” song, true, the other Dylan songs here were recorded earlier, between late 1962 and late1973, but at the time of writing, is still almost 50 years old.