JIM CAUSLEY
The Georgic

Overall, a hugely good-natured love song to Devon, it’s places, history and it’s people, apparently fuelled by cider, and backed on many occasions with what appears to be a joyful rabble.

There is many a wassail, and while Jim’s rich and widely celebrated voice and sparkling accordion are well to the fore, there is room for the voices and characters of other Devonian natives. Several of the tracks are the result of projects that involve or reflect the community in which he is fully grounded and will form the basis of his touring on the tour named for the album.

Amongst the celebration there is however time and place for comment on the changes affecting the county, be this a highly lyrical account of the effect of property development on the nature of the towns and villages, but also a deeply humorous view of the incomers and the habits and nature delivered live to laughter from the assembled throng.

As any visitor to Devon will tell, there is also history and mystery to the landscape, both reflected in further self-penned numbers within the album and offering a further depth to both he subject matter on offer and the overall emotional feel of the album, with pride, concern, love of people and place are all well expressed.

Indeed, much of the album is recorded live, the wassails and variants thereof reappear through the album, as do spoken words that introduce a further sense of place through their accents.

20 years on from his best newcomer Folk Award nomination and his twelfth studio offering, well deeply rooted in Devonshire it is, though not so parochial that it cannot be enjoyed by listening elsewhere.

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