Song Of The Shimmering Way

Tom’s third album, originally released by Satril Records in 1977, sounds at once a throwback to early-70s adventurousness and a glance-forward to 80s alt-folk. Its writing continues to explore Tom’s preoccupations and life concerns while instancing (notably in the final pair of tracks) the interest in Celtic culture, stories, traditions and mythology that he had begun to embrace in the years since Love Comes Well Armed; Tom’s interest in character-painting resurfaces on Johnny Mars The Knocker, a song of old-fashioned folky charm. The LP’s instrumental arrangements are more consciously lavish and “formulated” than the simpler endorsements of the previous record, but they’re carried out with commendable sensitivity for their era, and only on the rather forced show-time ambience of To Be In A Movie With You does there feel to be a degree of overkill and cringe-factor. The mood of genial insouciance is better caught on the lightly-orchestrated Sunset On Fair Isle, perhaps. However, the dreamlike minstrelsy of A Twelve Month Carol gets the balance just right, and this would be a standout track to grace any contemporaneous album release; Life Ahead is another real success, one whose percipience and philosophy strongly recalls the writing of Paul Metsers (and contains some lovely, deft lute and guitar interplay as a bonus).The title track, a seven-minute epic narrative, comes complete with rippling Celtic harp and has much of the feel of The Merry Band; confidently delivered, and with a musical kinship to the traditional Lay The Bent To The Bonny Broom, this is full of promise for a direction Tom might usefully have pursued further. It needs to be remembered that the record came out at an awkward time for singer-songwriters, where there was little room for any “softer”, more considered talent that doggedly inhabited the cracks between mainstream and proto-punk. Thus, Song Of The Shimmering Way may not, even with hindsight, be able to be considered a true classic, but its sometimes elusive beauties are still well worth revisiting. For, uneven though its invention may be, it’s a rather likeable set nonetheless.