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All music genres have to move with the times; there is no point living in the past. But people often seem too rushed to try to evolve things against their will and go against the natural pace of such developments by forcing genres and ideas together in ways that are far from comfortable. The resulting sonic Frankeinstein’s monsters are generally short-lived and often far from palatable. This is never more true than in the folk world.
So when I listen to Different Flowers, the debut album from Peter Beatty, what I hear is a revelation. But it is a revelation not because it is trying to be overly ahead of the curve or to sonically engineer new hybrid folk forms but because of precisely the opposite. This is the sound of folk music being allowed to evolve at its own pace. The sound of timeless folk traditions and well-loved sounds being given the grace to find their perfect form in the modern world. It sits at the cutting edge of where folk is today – on the end of a straight line that runs back through modern folk-pop, nineties folk revivalist scenes, 70’s London folk club gigs and Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters and back to the 60’s pioneers who defined what contemporary folk music could be about.
There are moments ranging from seductive understatement, such as “I’m An Island Forming On My Own” and the restrained, modern folk-pop ballad of “Go Gently,” to more upbeat moments, such as the sparse groove of “Tell Me Where To Go” and the staccato waltz that is “Her.”
_Different Flowers” is the sound of where folk has been and where it is today but it also indicates where it is going, especially when it is left to its own devices, unburdened by the fickle whims of fads or fashion. Buy it now!
