0106
Dick Gaughan –
Handful of Earth
(UK, 1981, Scottish folk)
Apparently this is the first album Gaughan made after taking a couple years away from music to deal with his mental illness. This is very Scottish in content, accent, and the phrasing of the flutes and fiddles. Drawing on traditional English ballads and his own adaptations of poetry, Gaughan, like Johnny Cash, is a storyteller, and he makes you believe him by the effortless power of his simple voice. "The dispossessed come to claim what's theirs...to create a common treasury" sets the political tone of this album as Gaughan uses past injustices to highlight modern ones, namely the oppression of the poor in the UK.