Virtuoso is an overused word, glibly littered around as a description of ability. But when attributed to Lancashire-born, Devon-based musician Phillip Henry it’s spot on.
Henry has made his name as a spellbinding exponent of the slide guitar augmented with show-stopping beatbox harmonica.
His celebrated partnership with singer-songwriter, fiddle and banjo player.
Hannah Martin, has been rich and fruitful, through five acclaimed studio and live albums and an unparalleled innovation that saw them clinch the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards’ Best Duo’ title in 2014.
A much sought-after musician, in 2012 he was approached by BBC-TV to compose and perform music for the prime time show Operation Grand Canyon, presented by Dan Snow and recreating one of the Wild West’s great voyages of discovery. It featured nine men setting out in antique wooden rowing boats to emulate the 1869 first ever exploration of the mighty, rapids-strewn Colorado River as it runs through the Grand Canyon and Henry’s American roots compositions captured it perfectly.
Proof of the regard in which he is held, Henry has continued to dazzle on record and in live performances at festivals and gigs on five continents.
Now renamed Edgelarks, Henry and Martin plan to release a new duo album in 2019.
But now it is Henry’s turn to stand centre-stage with a long–awaited solo album which marks a decade of travels to all points of the compass - with a guitar (or two!) in tow and a rare chance to hear him sing.
True North is an eclectic collection highlighting the stand-out skills of this refreshingly modest musician – 11 tracks bridging blues, folk, country, Indian classical music and Americana – all edged with wafts of wanderlust borne out of global gigging.
It’s a potent combination -from music written while kangaroo spotting in Australia, to tunes learned from a Canadian folk maestro on a First Nations reservation, songs of the road and pieces written by musician friends from Kent to Kolkata. Something akin to a heavily stamped musical passport.
A mix of original compositions and covers, this is a wholly immersive release, variously showcasing the dobro, National & Weissenborn guitars and the exotic, sitar-like 22-string chaturangui which Henry learnt in India from the country’s premier slide guitarist.
It was that learning curve sojourn near Kolkata ten years ago that spawned True North as Phil explains:
Ten years ago I set off on a solo journey to Kolkata. I was going to study under the slide guitar master Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya. Prior to this I had moved out to the Devon countryside, living in a variety of tents and caravans, dedicating myself to exploring the real essence of slide guitar.
I have always been interested in the slide guitar as a solo instrument. These arrangements aim to highlight the special ability of the slide guitar to sing to the soul; its vocal quality combined with the guitar’s depth of range and chordal nature lend its sound to unaccompanied settings of both instrumentals and songs. I have used the pieces on this record to explore the many facets of the instrument and the range of its capabilities.
The tracks are recorded live in the studio, though I get a little assistance in realising some of the arrangements from a foot powered shruti box, foot percussion, and on Reverence, a hand fan with feathers attached to create a drone on the sympathetic strings.
I returned from my Indian travels with the Chaturangui - a remarkable 22 string instrument designed by my teacher Debashish. This marked the beginning of a decade of travels with slide guitars - from Japan to South Africa, the USA to Australia, Canada to the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium. Not to mention thousands of miles rambling the roads of the British Isles. Many miles, many friends and a lot of music. True North is made to commemorate this anniversary, using the idea of one person with one instrument to bring together influences and pieces from these ten years on the road.
Unlike many ‘solo’ albums that in reality feature myriad guests this is a true solo album – the only ‘extras’ being instruments. It opens gently with Henry picking up the dobro for his take on Tim Edey’s composition, Little Bird, purportedly written for Irish musician Sharon Shannon. Recalling Phil and Hannah’s regular visits to the Kent coast’s Broadstairs Festival where Edey is patron, it starts simply, gradually becoming more strident, layered and complex.
The Road to Tofino set was prompted by Henry’s trip to the remote west coast of Vancouver Island for MusicFest. There he met Canadian musician Daniel Lapp from whom he learnt the tunes She’s Like a Swallow and Sweet Reunion, bound together here by some additional mesmerising wizardry from Henry.
The magnetic title track sees the compass arm swinging north in a gorgeous bluesy self-composition, the first of the perhaps unexpected songs. It contrasts the ‘paradise’ of the Southern Hemisphere, notably Tasmania, with his home county of Lancashire and is delivered with a heartfelt, laid-back vocal.
Jutland, a poignant slow air by Tommy O’Sullivan that Henry heard played at a Yorkshire festival by Scottish piper Ross Ainslie seems to translate effortlessly to the dobro, fused together with his own more upbeat tune Domino Road which dips and dives and takes listeners on a ride down a dirt track in the Australian bush and then dances its way to a magical fishing spot. The rhythm captures a rush of excitement and perhaps mimics the hopping of the kangaroos he saw when making this journey!
An old college friend, Steven Lyons, penned the laconic and dreamy song Keep Saying Hello, which Henry says he has carried with him since he was a teenager, before the unmistakable sound of the harp-like chaturangui is first heard on the album in the haunting O’Carolan’s Welcome written by the blind, itinerant Irish harpist Turlough O’Carolan.
Henry tackles a classic in the traditional gospel blues song I Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes which he learnt from the playing of Blind Willie Johnson with some exquisite slide guitar merging into Nineties dance track Not Over Yet which he says has always sounded like a blues number in his book.
The Attingham Waltz/December tune fusion celebrates two places close to Henry’s heart and is played with kid glove sensitivity. A Devon summer is conjured up in his delightful and delicate playing of Devon fiddler Helen Torpy’s Attingham Waltz while December is a Henry original which audiences may have heard at gigs –inspired by his annual trips up the M5 to his native Lancashire for the festive season.
The mellow resonance of the Weissenborn guitar decorates Henry’s take on U.S. country and bluegrass musician Tim O’Brien’s composition Brother Wind – his calming vocal telling the restless story of what he sees as an American version of Spencer the Rover.
Haunting and hypnotic, the closing and complementary two tracks are reworkings of instrumentals Henry wrote before leaving for India a decade ago. Played on the chaturangui, he describes them as “tunes of thankfulness”. Reverence Revisited is inspired by Raga Yaman, a sacred piece of Indian classical music, while Kalyan Variations is an enigmatic, meditative and graceful closer also in the Northern Indian classical tradition – a sound that seems to capture the shimmering Asian heat.
Produced by Mark Tucker at The Green Room in Devon this is beguiling, hypnotic music with the ability to draws the listener into another world – a masterclass in virtuosity that is unhurried and almost spiritual.
Henry said he set out to demonstrate the slide guitar’s ‘infinite ability to sing to the soul’ – and with this beautifully measured and versatile album he has surely succeeded.
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