Johnny Campbell’s appearance at Bonn Folk Club last year was a real breath of fresh air. It’s a long time since I experienced an English folk musician who truly seems to have a mission in his music to rival that of the legendary Ewan MacColl. This is music with a heart and a soul and also a home – True North.
If you’ve never been to the North of England then I recommend purchasing the disc with an extra booklet. In it, you’ll find not just the lyrics, but also discover a background that is as fascinating as the songs themselves. As an example, it’s hard to imagine Leeds as a ‘seaside Town’. For a start, it’s nowhere near the coast (in fact, although it just misses being a part of the Midlands, you can’t get much more ‘mid-land’ than Leeds). Industrialisation though wasn’t to be deterred. To get the woven textiles produced there to the market quickly a canal was built that led west to Liverpool and ultimately to the sea. Not quite a seaside town then – but Nature and Man combined to find the sea. Indeed, it’s this synergy of the two that is behind ‘True North’.
Campbell describes these as ‘Field Recordings’. Which very often, literally they are. Each track is recorded on or around a respective county high point of Northern England. Don’t expect audiophile perfection here. That’s not the aim even. Johnny describes it rather beautifully as “tapping into the psychogeography of northern England”. Traditional songs with music created in the moment and inspired by the often rugged and windswept countryside which itself got swept up in an industrial revolution that changed the people and the landscape forever.
The mood and fears of the time are captured in ‘Four Loom Weaver’, describing the catastrophic outcome that mechanization had on the workforce at the time. “I’m a four loom weaver, as everybody knows. I’ve nowt to eat, and I’ve worn out me clothes. Stockings I’ve none, nor looms to weave on. I’ve woven mesen t’ far end!”.
It’s a lot to aim for – trying to convey the spirits of people and places and history all in one go. Johnny Campbell though has done it on True North with a stunning, simple, honesty. Playing where the history itself took place. armed with just a recorder, a voice, a guitar, and a spirit of defiance. playing this disc makes the listener feel as if they are that check-shirted man on the CD cover enjoying the view with a guitar beside him, surveying the land and the history it has lived. For most people that in itself would be enough. Johnny Campell doesn’t just talk the talk though, he, literally, walks the walk too, recently announcing proudly that he would be taking part in a ‘trespass’ walk on Kinder Scout. For those who don’t know the history: On 24th April 1932, several hundred activists from Manchester, Salford and Sheffield ‘trespassed’ on Derbyshire’s highest point, Kinder Scout, to highlight how walkers have been denied access to the open countryside by wealthy landowners, often using these moorlands for the elite, ecologically damaging, and profitable ‘sport’ of grouse shooting. Things have sadly not got better, and now, in 2024, 92% of land is ‘off-limits’ to walkers.
‘True North’ is not all Industrial Revolution woes though. and visitors to Bonn Folk Club may remember Johnny giving us a shortened version of the old traditional song ‘The Derby Ram’ with its origins in the 18th Century. I wonder when the last verse here was added that refers to: “The manure from the ram sir. It made a great big mound. And now it plays on Saturday, at Derby’s football ground!”
Overall this is much more than an album showcasing old history. It is a wake-up call and reminder that these Cities are as they are because of the land and rivers that themselves decided as much as the people what could be manufactured where and how it could reach its final market. Nature is bigger than any of us, and not a commodity that should be locked away by a privileged few.
A shout out also to Katie Gabriel Allen for creating a stunning artwork cover for the disc. A perfect poster in itself, showing our check-shirted troubador on a hill overlooking many of the famous sights of the area. It all looks so wonderfully tempting to hike through in its chocolate-box romantic splendour. Not a single ‘No Entry’ or ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’ sign in sight. The real ‘True North’ is to be found in the songs here, the sweat of labour and the clank of machines. Also, in the struggle to maintain entry to the land for the sons and daughters of those who sweated and starved. Obviously, a labour of love for Johnny Campbell, this disc and booklet would make great learning material in schools. Music, history and education – all with just a couple of instruments, a voice, and a breathtaking backdrop. What’s not to like?!