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mandolin accompaniment. The song gently sweeps you away with the travellers in the tale. By contrast, Raise That Lion written with Bryony Moore would not sound too out of place on a Clash album, both in sentiment and musically as would the following track Johnny Reggae. Caledonia Rain is a return to what i think Hammer does best and a Pogues style acoustic ballad carries the listener into the stark landscapes of the Scottish highlands. Less frantic than the Pogues, this lilts along until it hits a very celtic violin middle eight which flavours the song nicely before returning back to the song proper, the rain falls from a tumbling sky, you can smell the heather and taste the malt whiskey. Shutting The Old Dirt Down, is one of the few songs to feature an electric guitar and the most rocky of all the numbers, heavily flavoured by the familiar style of the backing band, nonetheless this is a Rev Hammer rant about the demise of industry. The final song is a laid back dark tale of social stations and the class system that Jimmy Flanagan is born into, mournful harmonica adds a new dimension to the music, and poignant lyrics are again on parade.

Hammer has the ability to write songs about ordinary people and ordinary places and make the story somehow romantic or wistful, windswept or heroic. From back street sweat to the cool rains of the Scottish uplands, from the urban tenements to a Welsh waterfall, the stories cover a vast range of backgrounds, but are always about you and me and the people like us. No generals, kings or rock stars populate his world, just the rough and tumble of society that he has rubbed shoulders with all his life. The music is for the most part straight forward, allowing the words to take centre stage, but when required The Levellers, in the guise of backing band, add just enough to enhance the songs. All in all a fantastic debut album and the sound track from a nomadic lifestyle.

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