Post Description

Folk, singer-songwriter.

Where Do You Come From, is Glen Peters second album. With the opening lyric to the opening track, ‘My Face Don’t Fit’, the album grabs immediate attention:

“Went for a job to the depot downtown
The gaffer said, ‘No you’re the wrong shade of brown’
Too loud, too bold, your voice too strange”

The melody and arrangement owe more to the ability of ska and calypso to make a point genially than to the anger of punk or protest folk that you might expect from reading the lyric cold on a page.

The second song is ‘Patel’s Corner Shop’ and a skim through the track list shows the titles, ‘Khan of the Wire’ and ‘Sepoy’s Lament’. Research into Peters’ biography confirms that the influences are India (he was born there in 1950 and educated on the outskirts of Calcutta), London (his family arrived there in 1967, the same week Enoch Powell delivered his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech) and Wales. After a successful career in which he became a partner in one of the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms, Peters moved to Wales in 2010 where he: founded an arts centre; developed a solar farm; became an advocate for green energy; and designed solar-powered eco-housing for affordable living (for which he recently received an MBE).

Artistic creativity seems often to be inspired by those whose perspectives spring from being on the borders of things. Peters’ life has enabled him to see from many perspectives and he describes his album thus, “British folk music has always spoken of working lives, wanderers, protest, and pride. But the Britain I’ve known – the one shaped by migration, mingling, and resilience – has not always been fully sung. This project is my small attempt to add those voices to the tradition. These songs are for anyone who’s ever straddled worlds, crossed borders, or wondered where they belong – and found an answer, however imperfect, in music”.

The songs, then. Peters discovered folk music in London, played, ran a folk club and I suspect that folk music remained something core to his being even when the demands of a career took him away from it. Wales restored music to Peters’ life, both playing and writing. Boo Hewerdine passed on confidence (no doubt along with much else) and Peters released Just For The Record in 2022.

Where Do You Come From? is, then, a culmination of many influences, crossed borders and straddled worlds. After the opening track, the main ‘feel’ of the album is a mixture of folk music – both contemporary and traditional – and the joyful influences of musical revue. It’s worth also noting that Peters describes hearing the Watersons for the first time and being struck by harmonies “reminiscent of Romani and North Indian ornamentation” and by a suspicion that “cultural connections ran deeper than we often admit”.

‘Mrs. Patel’, the second track, is a jaunty celebration of corner shops and the families who run them. ‘Home Is’ has a reflective lyric and tune and is, “the answer to the question, ‘But where is your real home?’ ”

‘Railway Dreams’ is a song of “journeys taken and journeys imagined, of separation and reunion, of work, change and yearning” and has a gentle arrangement that blends folk music with the odd distant echo of Cash and other American writers.

Folk music has long helped make memorable those who would otherwise be even more unknown than MacDonnell on the Queenston Heights. ‘Kahn Of The Wire’ is such a song. It celebrates the life of Noor Inayat Khan a pacifist who joined the Special Operations Executive and went to France as a wireless operator. She became the first Muslim woman to be awarded the George Cross, “A British spy. An Indian daughter. A universal hero.”

‘Oh To Be An Aries’ follows – music hall piano and chorus to a song about Peters himself, born in India in 1950 and full of fiery Aries characteristics … until later in life when anomalies are recognised and his birth date and time means he must be reassigned as a Pisces. (I reckon that also means he was born around the border-crossing Spring Equinox?)

‘Sepoys Lament’ is an imagined reflection on the thoughts of an Indian soldier compelled to fire in the 1919 massacre in Amritsar. It’s a complex lyric which does justice to the lack of simplicity for someone in the position of carrying out the orders of his commanding officer.

‘When You’re Sixteen’ captures the thoughts of a sixteen-year-old beautifully. “Sixteen doesn’t last. But it leaves a mark. It’s the springboard. The sketch. The moment before the ink dries.” The lyric portrays the 16-year-old’s nervousness, with the added complexity of moving to a new country, “Will new friends laugh or welcome me / My accent alien, my history?” The tune is best described as doo-wop folk (which I suspect is a new genre).

Where Do You Come From? is, then, not just an enjoyable album, but also an important one, hence the length of this review. There’s a fusion of musical genres, inter-cultural themes, and humanity. The songs trend, always and strongly, back to the acoustic guitar folk that Peters came across in his first UK years. Its songs are thoughtful even when dealing with matters of culture, life, death and all the more powerful for it (“Your gentleness shall force / More than your force move us to gentleness” – AYLI)

The album title, Where Do You Come From?, has a question mark. I opened the review with the opening lines of the opening track; I’ll close with the closing line, from the closing track.

“One race, the human race. That’s where we all come from.”

Tracks:
01 My Face Don't Fit
02 Patel's Corner Shop
03 Home Is
04 Railway Dreams
05 Kahn Of The Wire
06 Oh To Be An Aries
07 Sepoy's Lament
08 When You're Sixteen
09 Where Do You Come From_

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-5t2Mt8rN8