Jackie Leven and The Celtic Soulmen – The Haunted Year: Spring CD review

Elly Roberts reviews The Haunted Year – Spring: Man Bleeds in Glasgow / Greetings from Milford – Live (Cooking Vinyl, May 2009) for DVDfever.co.uk. The two live CDs get a commercial release for the first time; they come from the fan club Leven had set up around the quarterly magazine The Haunted Valley, which also issued limited live albums to members. Roberts rates the first disc 8/10 and the second 6/10.

The first CD, recorded in 1998 at the Water Rats Theatre in London, has Leven with Michael Cosgrave and Steafan Hannigan, the Celtic Soulmen, and is by far the better. Its set list is mostly drawn from Night Lilies (1998), arguably one of his best solo albums for Cooking Vinyl, but it goes back further too, to “Call Mother A Lonely Field”. There are rustic ballads such as “Farm Boy”, the love ballad “Looking For Love”, the whopping Celtic sound of “Glenarm” with stirring Uilleann pipework by Hannigan, and the country-blues-tinged “Man Bleeds in Glasgow”. The jewel in the crown is the divine ballad “Poor Toun”, his best vocal by a long stretch, enough to bring tears to the eyes; the haunting “Deep Choking Wooded Death Fix” with stylish acoustic picking comes a close second. The set closes with one of his most popular songs, “Call Mother A Lonely Field”, where his soulful voice is at its thrusting best, and all of it is mixed with sharp wit and playful banter between band and audience.

The second disc was recorded at the 1999 Haunted Valley Christmas party at the British Legion club in Milford, Derbyshire, with Kevin Hewick, Dan Britton and Lee Allatson as The Stornoway Girls. Here are covers of Van Morrison (“Madame George”), Lou Reed (“I’m Waiting For The Man”, “Pale Blue Eyes”) and Bill Withers (“Who Is He And What Is He To You?”) along with originals such as “Walking In Argyll” and “Listening To Crows Pray”. “Pale Blue Eyes” follows Reed’s laid-back template, though Leven’s vocals sharpen things up considerably. “I’m Waiting For The Man” keeps the original’s rough-and-ready swagger, but his vocal attack does not catch Reed’s 60s rock pulse; on “Who Is He…” his voice does not match Withers’s soulful angst, though the wah-wah riffs are superb. The verdict: “Very good collection”.