TIME AND TIDE (Chariot Music)
('HMV Choice' Magazine - March/April 2008)
After her 40 years in the business, you'd think it would be easy to predict what Barbara Dickson would do next. But, as this album proves once again, she's not one to rest on her laurels. Yes, she's come up with a rich mixture of traditional numbers, plus one self-penned tune (Palm Sunday) and some tried and tested favourites.
But what makes 'Time And Tide' truly special is the ethereal, quite stunning singing of the Scola Cantorum and Scola Puellarum of Ampleforth Abbey, underpinned by the wonderfully precise, yet spacious, arrangements by Dickson and her producer, Troy Donockley. Plus, of course, the spirited playing of some of their favourite musicians, like accordionist Phil Cunningham, violinist Frank Van Essen and Donockley on everything else.
From the first old Scottish number, Lowlands of Holland, through to Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece, Smile, Dickson is clearly having a ball. She's been thinking about covering the Gerry Goffin and Carole King song Goin' Back for three decades, and it's been worth the wait. Meanwhile, she gives Archie Fisher's Witch of the Westermerlands another run-out, having first recorded it when she started out. She also acknowledges he past by selecting a song, Disremember Me, by one of her old musical partners, Charlie Dore.
But it's with the traditional tunes that this album really takes flight. Rigs O' Rye, The Water Is Wide (O Waly Waly) and Lady Franklin's Lament sound simply glorious as the vocals and instruments soar and swoop around each other.
(Helen Jerome)
TIME AND TIDE (Chariot Music) ****
('Maverick' Magazine - May 2008)
Barbara Dickson remains one of the greatest British female singers ever. She started out in the Scottish folk clubs back in the late 1960s, years before she became a highly successful pop singer. For this latest album she returns to those traditional folk roots, but with the help of producer/arranger Troy Donockley brings a contemporary feel to the whole project. Alongside the traditional songs - 'Lowlands of Holland', 'Rigs o' Rye', 'Lady Franklin's Lament' - there are a handful of contemporary songs. The underrated Charlie Dore is represented with 'Disremember Me', Barbara penned the reflective 'Palm Sunday' and there's a stunning version of Carole King's 'Goin' Back'.
TIME AND TIDE (Chariot Music))
(fROOTS Magazine - May 2008)
Barbara revisits her Scottish folk roots and some pop/show standards in collaboration with Troy Donockley. That means abundantly classy settings in the creative electro-rock-folk vein, steering between sublime (Rigs O'Rye) and saccharine (Lady Franklin's Lament). Most importantly, though, Barbara's still in magnificent voice and a superb interpreter.
