A popular fixture on the festival stages this summer, Lakeman is among the poster boys of the new folk revival. Having established his reputation for singing of the yore and gore of the old west (country), Hearts And Minds moves him into more populist territory.
With some passing, and alarming, similarities to Runrig and latter-day Levellers, this risks being too folky for the mainstream but too chock-full of choruses to win friends in the traditional fraternity. See Them Dance, for example, works better in the fields of Somerset than on record. Thanks to his gutsy way of attacking ballads and furious strumming this is lively stuff, and certainly very listenable.
For the uninitiated, start with the opening track and Tender Traveller, which show off Lakeman’s abilities to best effect. This is an artist in transition, but even a partly successful album still whets the appetite to see the man in concert.
• Seth Lakeman plays Pocklington Arts Centre’s tenth anniversary music festival on August 8.
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