As well as listening to music I have always enjoyed reading about musicians, so when I recently saw an article about an incredible folk musician who had been poorly treated by record labels and the industry, I knew I had to find out more. His career spanned from 1969 to 2016, mostly solo but also in multiple bands, but for various reasons, only one of Gaughan’s albums is currently available, 1981’s ‘Handful of Earth’, where one of the songs he recorded was “The World Turned Upside Down” which Billy Bragg loved so much that he also recorded it and still plays to this day.
Next year there will be a specially curated box set featuring music from 1969 to 1983, but until then it is possible to get the above album digitally through Talking Elephant. Colin Harper, the person behind the forthcoming set, says “It felt to me as if the world had forgotten about the Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley of folk, or a singular figure in the mould of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash or Richard Thompson.” I totally understand where he is coming from as this is a remarkable set of 10 songs recorded during his many sessions for the BBC. I find it incredibly hard to realise that a folk singer and guitarist of this stature has totally passed me by – I mean, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at BBC Radio Two’s annual Folk Awards ceremony all the way back in 2010 so many people know of his music, but he has never received the true rewards that he should have.
Using a combination of flat picking and finger picking in a variety of tunings he is a master of the acoustic guitar, and while these songs are in English, he often performed in Scots and sometimes in Gaelic. His versions of traditional music are true to the originals, taking us way back in time, an example being his rendition of “Willie o’ Winsbury” being so different to the more well-known takes by Pentangle and John Renbourn as to be an almost totally different song altogether. His presence at the microphone and the command of his environment is remarkable, as when listening to this on headphones I find I am being taken back in time, not just to the 1970’s, but much earlier.
Next year’s Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival is going to feature a tribute to Gaughan, while we also have the boxed set to look forward to, and there is always the possibility that the renewed interest will gain record company support to reissue his old albums, we can but hope. This is a truly remarkable folk album by a musician who is unknown to many, but this release is of significant importance to anyone who enjoys the genre and is truly essential.
Rating: 10/10
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Track list:
1. Floo’ers o’ the Forest
2. Rigs o’ Rye
3. Farewell to Whisky
4. Freedom Come All Ye
5. My Donald
6. Rashy Moor
7. Raglan Road
8. Fair Flower o’ Northumberland
9. Willie o’ Winsbury
10. MacCrimmon’s Lament
Links:
https://dickgaughan.com/
http://www.talkingelephant.co.uk/