Jon Boden - Parlour Ballads

Parlour ballads have been long considered a second-class genre and hence labelled in ungenerous ways, probably because they were mostly popular in the middle classes. The latest release by Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings gathers some of them, bringing back to life the warm sound of a vintage piano and some hidden jewels in the parlour music repertoire.

As one could expect, the themes of these songs are not new to folk music and surely they were not at the time they were assembled, but there is something deeply poignant in the way they come to us through Boden’s voice. From the opening On One April Morning to the final London Waterman, the listener will be treated to tales of love, loss, travel, work and adventure, a kaleidoscopic picture of the human condition.

The most remarkable of the eleven tracks is arguably Boden’s rendition of Rose of Allendale, a song penned by publisher, composer and translator Charles Jefferys during the 1830s, here presented with a notable and haunting solo by Sam Sweeney’s fiddle.

Despite the rich line up of the collective, these songs are delivered with soft and well-calibrated accompaniments. Everything is centred on piano and voice, with fiddle, concertina, cor anglais and other instruments providing a gentle backdrop for these lyrics. Once again, Boden displays his renowned versatility, both in designing arrangements and in choosing material, and adds another milestone to his formidable discography.

It is time to rediscover many songs that have been neglected or even derided over the last century or so and, with Parlour Ballads, Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings take a bold step forward in putting these old classics under the spotlight.