Sex and death. This is what folk songs are all about. So Kathryn Roberts tells us before she and her husband Sean Lakeman launch into ‘Lusty Smith’. Taken from the couple’s 2012 debut album Hidden People, the tune’s salacious sentiments may deal with only one of the genre’s apparently primary preoccupations, but having just spent 75 minutes in the company of one of folk music’s most celebrated duos I can confirm that there is far much more to their material than mere copulation and killing.
Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman tonight open with Warren Zevon’s ‘For My Next Trick I’ll Need A Volunteer’, accurately conveying all of the hurt and pathos contained in the original. Later on in the set they cover another contemporary artist with their sublime interpretation of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Matamoros Banks’. The song written about the plight of an illegal immigrant crossing the Rio Grande into America is given even greater immediacy and emotional impact in the light of Donald Trump’s frightening plans to erect a border wall between the two countries.
The social influence of music – perhaps of folk music in particular – and its power within political struggle can be traced back down through the years to artists such as Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. And Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman continue in that great tradition. ‘Tomorrow Will Follow Today’ – the title track of their second album, released early last year to great critical acclaim – is a protest song. Inspired by Terry Pratchett’s novel Feet of Clay, the song rails with righteous indignation at the abuse of power. In its reflection and expression of surely all right-minded people, these words have as much relevance today as did those of the earlier folk music movement with its emphasis upon civil rights.
Yet for all of their music’s more serious message, Roberts and Lakeman are just as adept at capturing moments of wonderful levity and tenderness. ‘Darling Isabella’ – borne of Lakeman’s misguided idea to buy his wife Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management for Christmas – and ’52 Hertz’ – about the mating travails of a whale – are imbued with frivolity, sensitivity and insight.
It says much of the couple’s artistic skill that they can balance such irreverence with gravity and import. They achieve this equilibrium through what is a nigh on perfect musical union, one built upon a true understanding of, and empathy towards each other. Kathryn Roberts possesses an incredibly powerful and versatile voice and when it is harnessed to the fluidity, force and dexterity of her husband’s guitar playing it positively soars. At times they can bring to mind those stunning collaborations between Sandy Denny and Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin IV – it should comes as no surprise to find that Roberts was last year asked to join the reformed 70’s folk rock band Fotheringay, taking the doomed folk star’s place in that celebrated outfit – whilst at others they move way beyond the spheres of simple comparison into another time and place.
It therefore seems strangely fitting that Kathryn Roberts and Seth Lakeman should appear tonight in an old Victorian music hall that has recently been brought back to its former life and purpose – the premises are now occupied by a local community music and education charity, More Music – for together they produce a sound that forges tangible links between the past and present. Just like the sex and death about which they so cheerfully sing, they are constants through the ages.
Photo credit: Simon Godley
