Description
John Ralph – This Pilgrim’s Progress
CD review by Tony Smith
TN2561-87 – $20
TN163 Jun 24
The 14 tracks on this album were written over a span of some years with the recording occurring between 2017 and 2020.
While several songs arose out of John Ralph’s travels in British Columbia, the rest are products of his experiences in Western Australia, England and India.
The Canadian inspired tracks include ‘Beads and Bows and Moccasins’ (with guitar ‘drumming’ and an evocative chant), ‘Join in the Dance’, ‘The Little Tearoom on the Mountainside (An Atheist’s Hymn)’, ‘Hymn to the Morning’ and ‘Bat in the Bedroom’.
Then there is a finale, a remix of ‘The Little Tearoom on the Mountainside’.
‘Ghost Dancer Spirit Warrior’, ‘The Diet Song’, ‘The River’, ‘Circle to the Left’ and ‘I’m Glad to be a Morris Dancer’ tell of personal WA experiences.
Meanwhile ‘Walk on Water’ is about India and about how John’s love for his wife affects him.
There are several lively instrumentals including ‘The River Song’ and ‘Bat in the Bedroom’.
‘McKinnons’ teams with ‘Leaving Ely’ and both have British influences.
Ralph organises a folk club with passionate Scottish musician, Jamie McKinnon, and wrote the second tune in the 1970s when he was in the RAF and looking forward to leaving Ely for a new posting.
Ralph also does a set of traditional ‘Morris Tunes’ – Black Joke, Moll in the Wood and Oyster Girl.
Ralph learned these tunes from Steve Green when they were the East Anglia duo, Iceni.
Steve was a founder of the Kings’ Morris men in Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
I particularly enjoyed the songs about dancing.
‘Circle to the Left’ describes the enjoyment Ralph and his partner get from a Contra dance and ‘I’m Glad to be a Morris Dancer’ also expresses joy, even though Ralph has not quite made it into a side as yet.
Both of these tracks are sung at a steady pace which makes it easy to appreciate the lyrics.
In the song about Morris dancing, the pause to accommodate the imaginary cracking together of sticks is just right.
‘Hymn to the Morning’ is another song which has that easy listening pace and it deserves extra attention because Ralph mentions the fiasco over the Adani mine and asks ‘How long can we keep taking out and not putting back in?’
There is gentle humour in ‘The Diet Song’ as Ralph knows a ‘lot’ of people with special eating regimens.
Another deserving special mention is ‘Ghost Dancer Spirit Warrior’ which tells the story of Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance and draws on the book by Banjo Woorunmurra and Howard Pederson.
Jandamarra created such an impression on the white colonials that they treated him as having supernatural powers.
Ralph comments on the similar experiences of being colonised by the Indigenous peoples of both British Columbia and Australia.
Ralph plays a Gold Tone banjo tuned eadg, a Jimmy Moon mandolin (eadg), a Lowden S25 guitar (dadgad) and a McIlroy A36 guitar (ebgdae) and notes on which tracks he uses which instrument.
Would that all musicians were as diligent in supplying instrument details!
Mind you, there remain a couple of mysteries in this area, as there is the sound of a harmonica and possibly a fiddle.
This fourth solo album of about 50 minutes is indeed a musical pilgrimage.
John Ralph thanks his wife Deb for her support on the journey.
We should all thank both John and Deb for this very enjoyable album.
Ed. John currently has four albums for sale on the Trad&Now website, all of which have been uploaded to Trad&Now Live! and can be heard there from time to time.
