I have never been to Devonshire and I did not know what a Georgic is. I have no immediate plans to visit Devonshire in the near future, but I did look up the meaning of Georgic:
A poem or book dealing with agriculture or rural topics, which commonly glorifies outdoor labor and simple country life. Often takes the form of a didactic or instructive poem intended to give instructions related to a skill or art. (thepoetryfoundation.org)
When I learned that, it all clicked. Jim Causley’s latest work, The Georgic, is indeed a Georgic, only in music and quite extensive for an album, with a duration of 80 minutes and 19 tracks, including a Wassail tune that keeps showing up several times during the course of the album.
Not surprisingly for this artist, The Georgic plays like a Devonshire rhapsody, taking us to different locations and times and settings, always eventually returning to the apples and orchards. It’s a rare kind of release in the folk genre: a lengthy theme album that on vinyl would be a double LP. As a concept, this is like progressive rock ca. 1973, but the music is pure Causley: earthy, immediate, not polished to a studio shine, performed by a small group of musicians; music very much here, if you catch my drift.
This album is so unique in its deep plunge into a region’s character that I must give the floor the artist himself:
The new album is made up of songs about the trials and tribulations contemporary rural life told through a folk idiom. From the hardship of farming in the 20th century, the loss of native species to the housing crisis, gentrification and the social displacement of rural working class people. Some are inspired by traditional songs and some are completely original. (https://www.jimcausley.co.uk/news/)
If that sounds a bit bleak, fear not: there are many songs here about nature, about rural life, about… apples. And cider. And more apples! Some tunes will want to make you dance, others will make you listen to the story in the song. There are a couple tunes with a darker side but, on the whole, Jim Causley’s Devonshire seems pretty vibrant in this musical journey.
What makes The Georgic even more interesting is the presence of locals: some singing with Jim, others talking in their Devon dialect, many wassailing with Jim in the Halstow Farm (the Halstow Wassail makes three different appearances on the album, all recorded live in the moment). At times, starting with the opening Old Cider, the album resembles more an anthropological field recording than a folk music album. And indeed, it can be said to be both, an ambitious and successful undertaking with more than just musical value.
My favorite songs here are the absolutely beautiful The Hidden Source; the nicely cinematic Annie Appleseed (Causley actually mentions having aimed for a Wicker Man-ish vibe with this, and I’m a huge WM fanatic); the almost hymn-like This Darkened Land; the scathing lament The Imagined Village that attacks the destruction of the traditional environment; his bouncy personal childhood reminiscence, Devon ’87. But there are 19 songs in all so go find your picks 😊
FolkNotes 