Those who are familiar with the type of products i tend to review will see immediately why i favour Rev Hammers album, Freeborn John, so much. It combines the two things that many people associate me with, obscure musical offerings and the backwaters of history and on this occasion they have been finely crafted together. Before we get stuck in to this rare musical offering, two introductions are in order.
Rev Hammer, or Stephen Ryan to reveal his given name, started life as a busker and after combating the fear of getting up on stage, joined with like minded musician Bi Sickle to form alternative duo Hammer and Sickle. Along the way he became close friends with New Model Army front man Justin Sullivan, eventually forming Red Sky Coven with Sullivan, punk poet Joolz and bassist Brett Selby. After many years of releasing albums in a folk rock vein and touring incessantly with the likes of NMA and the Levellers, Hammer undertook his most ambitious project to date, 1997s Freeborn John, the musical biography of John Lilburne.
John Lilburne, much like Hammer was a radical and a protester and Im sure they would have been great friends had Lilburne not died some 300 years before Hammers birth. Lilburne was a pamphleteer, a political and social writer at the time of the English Civil War. During the war he naturally sided with Parliament, becoming Captain and after a heroic defence of the town of Brentford was captured by the Royalists, only to have his life saved by his loyal wife Elizabeth. Even after the success of Parliament over the king, Lilburne continued to protest about social conditions and for political changes, becoming a leading light in the radical Leveller movement and remaining a thorn in the side of Cromwell. The tail end of his life was spent in and out of prison and he remains an icon and hero to social reformers and radical protesters to this day.
The album is not your standard music album, containing a mix of songs, instrumentals, speeches and soundtracks all linking together to form a narrative and musical journey through Lilburne's life. It also contains a fantastic array of guests to play the various parts in this historical musical odyssey. Hammer himself plays the part of John Lilburne and a violin lead intro takes us to the first scene, 1637 and the Pillory of Lilburne, his crime sedition and printing lies. A mandolin and electric guitar join together to reinforce the connection between the present and the past, the music a hybrid of old and modern and the lyrics capturing the language of the time. Phil Johnstone takes the lead in the mainly vocal piece that follows, he is the Executioner in this The Whipping Song. A jazz feel and tribal drum beat sits juxtaposed with the rant from the singer. These two songs set the feel for the album, although its a seventeenth century tale, the music ranges through time and style, encompassing almost every genre you can think of and mixing up themes and sounds separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles.
The sound of battle and battle hymns provide the back ground for The Battle of Brentford. Justin Sullivan, NMAs leading light plays Nehemiah Wharton, a soldier in the pay of parliament, and here he recounts in spoken word the taking of Lilburne at this battle, his voice sounding made for the part as he forlornly reminisces on his leaders fate in Oxford Jail. Elizabeth's Great Gallop is a duet between Simon Friend, of the modern band the Levellers and Maddy Prior folk stalwart and tells of the advances of a Royalist soldier trying to woo Lilburne's wife, to no avail and a coming to rather a sticky end for the drunken soldier.
Back in London the voice of the people sing their song of freedom, the distinctive voice of Rory McLeod taking the role and Eddi Reader (Fairground Attraction) representing the women of the city and the changes to suffrage that they demand. One of the most upbeat songs on the album is the Burford Stomp, the tale of the mutiney of the unpaid parlimentary army. In a pun on names the song is actually performed by Brighton's raggle-taggle protest singers, The Levellers and the song sounds as if it could have been lifted straight from one of their albums. The final four songs sees Lilburne return from exile and eventually die a penniless and weary man.
What makes this album work is that it manages to avoid the dry approach of trying to use authentic music and brings in modern sounds to drive its ideas home. The words are both flowing enough to not detract from the song and at the same time capture the flavour of the time and provide an insight into a very interesting period in radical english history. The album could be seen as appealing to the same mind set who revealed in Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds, though I do think that this has a broader appeal, the music covers many different genres and is original in its delivery and in the way it fuses different styles together. For those into folk music there is a range of names to be found taking part on the album, but essentially the music sells itself on its own merits. It is different from most of the albums you will buy and for that reason is worth checking out if not adding to your collection. And on a personal note, history put to music by underground artists and portraying one of England leading radicals, well that's just heaven.