Urban Folk music reviews

Dudley Saunders, a multi-talented musician, filmmaker, composer, etc. has the pleasure of creating sonically lovely and lyrically haunting melodies with Billy White Acre at the controls on this collection of 5 ear-pleasing folk tunes, and 1 rare gem pulled from the waste bin after over 15 years!

The music on the BWA Sessions is reminiscent of the folk sounds Bruce Springsteen and America were making in their 70s heyday, with that sense of pain covered by stories of drugs and death that could make you swoon while making you flinch.

The opener, "The Undoing (Everyday)" starts us off with a light epileptic guitar that takes us into an adventure of righting our wrongs with a pleasantly smooth melody and instrumentation.

The rest of the ep continues the power of strong dark lyrics with smooth guitar work and haunting production. This is the feel of walking through a haunted house with ghosts hiding behind the doors, except the ghosts are more like skeletons oozing out of the proverbial closets.

Even the 80s track Disgrace carries well with the theme of the BWA sessions, and reminds me of the best from Solitude Standing-era Suzanne Vega.

EPs like these are not to be taken lightly, it's not party music, and it's not your typical album from an out Gay artist, but comprises the best sentimental elements from the New York Anti-folk scene, as well as life inside the gay community.

Remove yourself from your reality for 20 minutes or so and pop in this ultra-pleasing CD for a spectacular highlight of the www.outmusic.com community

Fantastic to see this being reissued. Yes, some of the politics seem rather obvious now that I'm 37 and not 15, but what always made this album special in the first place wasn't the politics, but the mixture of impressively-observed detail in the plaintive love songs (The Saturday Boy, St Swinthin's Day, A Lover Sings) and lo-fi amphetamine thrill, not to mention occasional downright silliness (Strange Things Happen, From a Vauxhall Velox). It's deliberately raw and unadulterated, but every song is immediate and easily remembered after 23 years. While I'm not averse to his later 90s work, the bare but vibrant years of 83-85 were Billy Bragg's peak for me. If you're British, male and of a similar age or older, try listening to The Saturday Boy without a memory of unrequited love in your school days, and then wonder how you were ever so besotted with a 'girl not old enough to shave her legs', as Mr Bragg observes it. Minus a star for the more overtly political songs which although musically as good as anything else here, haven't aged so well. Otherwise this is a treat and a half...