Music

Seth Lakeman talks Poor Man's Heaven (audio interview)

25th June 2008

After months of waiting, we can at last get our hands on a copy of Seth Lakeman’s eagerly-anticipated fourth album - Poor Man’s Heaven - when it hits the stores on Monday, June 30.

The follow-up to the gold-selling Freedom Fields, the Mercury- nominated Kitty Jay and Seth’s acclaimed debut The Punch Bowl, this is an even beefier, rockier offering than ever before.

Powered by an urgent, pounding drum beat, which kick-starts the album right from the word go, it’s hard to believe that you’re listening to acoustic instruments, so full, fat and fabulous is the sound.

“It’s really quite bold and rhythm-driven, but it was quite natural for us to record an album like this,” says Seth, “because we’ve worked so hard with constant touring and have played nine or 10 songs off the album live so many times. By the time we got into the studio we had so much more confidence to make these songs hard-hitting.

“Track one, The Hurlers, comes in with these absolutely mad, almost tribal drums; it’s pretty surprising to hear it first off the speakers.”

It spins a great yarn, steeped in local folklore.

“I read about this group of young men from Bodmin who used to partake in the ancient Celtic game of hurling. When the local priest found out that they had been playing hurling instead of going to church he invited them to ‘Come on, boys, make your choice’. Basically, if they chose the game over church he cursed them and turned them to stone.”

As with his previous offerings, all the songs are underpinned with emotive, locally-inspired lyrics, but not all are fictitious.

The idea for the coastal theme which permeates this collection came from the real-life story of the Solomon Browne, the Penlee lifeboat that went down in 1981 while attempting to salvage the Union Star coaster, with the loss of 16 lives.

A passionate, heartfelt tribute to the courage of all concerned, it is the perfect reminder of the importance of the great folk tradition as a way of preserving for posterity the memory of the actions of ordinary people.

Another true story, this time from more than 100 years ago, Crimson Dawn is the only romantic, happily-ever-after track on the album, which bears Seth’s trademark musically dark vibe.

“I was reading about the SS Mohegan that went down in 1898, and it inspired me to write this song. A woman was caught by her red hair in the rigging of the ship and this guy launched out to save her and had to cut her free. They ended up spending the rest of their lives together. It’s definitely the most polite, romantic song on the album!”

Unlike Feather In The Storm: “I’m really proud of this one,” continues Seth. “It pans well lyrically and has this cool slide guitar – a real Led Zeppelin sound. It’s about the pirate Coppinger (a fearsome legendary figure in Cornish folklore), a wrecker, who used to stand at the edge of the cliff with false beacons luring ships on to the rocks so he could plunder the cargo: pretty horrible, really…”

I’ll Haunt You is another sinister ditty, “about an angry mariner away for six months at sea who finds out via a letter that his girlfriend has found someone else. I wrote this with Steve Knightley of Show of Hands – it’s vindictive and quite aggressive.”

Set-closer for recent gigs and the most up-tempo, jigtastic track on the album has been Race To Be King, which is about whaling ships: “It was inspired by something I read about how the guys felt on these ships – the thing I love on this is the Jew’s harp. The song has a real live feel to it and is now always our encore, our Dartmoor hoedown.”

Click below to listen to Seth talking to Clare Robinson about some of the stories behind the album tracks.

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