MERRY HELL
Let the Music Speak for Itself

When I listen to a CD that is a pull together of tracks I’ve listened to before on other recordings, it’s not something I particularly look forward to but when it involves Merry Hell, it seems that you’re listening to something fresh and new and not a regurgitation.

Online polling of friends of the band determined 23 of the 28 tracks with the five songwriters in the band adding an extra track apiece.

I could talk about each track individually but that would take far too long, so here is just a flavour of this superb CD.

You could say “Bury Me Naked” was the song that brought collective recognition to Merry Hell and still gives a real tingle down the spine today.

A thousand words can, it has been said, be condensed into just a handful but as the title says when it comes to songs, “Let the Music Speak for Itself”!

Visually when the band are on stage, Virginia and Andrew have performed their ‘dance’ to the iconic “Baker’s Daughter”. In these days of global uncertainty with wars and famine there’s certainly no time like the present to shout “We Need Each Other Now”.

Bob wrote “Come on England”, for me, it should be adopted as the new National Anthem, it is so joyful and so very singable.

“There’s a Ghost in Our House” will send a chill down your spine?

Written and performed by Virginia, “Violet” by its’ title could be mistaken for a shrinking flower, but I warn you, don’t be fooled.

“When We Meet Again” needs no introduction from me, again, “Let the Music Speak for Itself”.

The facts and figures that make up this remarkable bands career to date are 6 albums, 100’s of live gigs, many 1000’s of fans who flock to venues and festivals wherever they play. The eight members of the band are as effervescent at the start of the night as they are at the end, which is a good barometer as to a bands enjoyment of what they do.

All in all this is a real feelgood CD, as well as charting the twelve years since Merry Hell first hit the consciousness of music lovers. Folk rock is viewed in different ways by many people but if you listen to this album, like me, you will come to the conclusion that it only enhances this branch of the folk genre.

CD and download available from Bamdcamp, www.merryhell.co.uk, or Amazon