Tim Van Eyken / Stiffs Lovers Holymen Theives

Tim Van Eyken is one of the outstanding members of the new generation who have taken the folk tradition as inspiration. A member of the English band, Waterson:Carthy, he has also made his name in solo and duo projects in the last few years.

"A former Young Folk Award winner (in 1998), Van Eyken has already earned his spurs in Dr Faustus and Waterson:Carthy and perhaps gave notice that he was capable of an album as remarkable with his show-stopping 21 Years On Dartmoor on the last W:C album Fishes & Fine Yellow Sand. The subtly progressive arrangements surrounding a vocal performance of relaxed clarity and unusual distinction deliver on that promise rather more impressively than most of us could have imagined. I didn't think I could bear yet another version of John Barleycorn, but from Jim Causley to Chris Wood, brilliant new interpretations keep appearing and with an arrangement of mounting tension, Van Eyken's version ranks with the best. He follows it with a gorgeous, heart-rending Australia, effortlessly putting his own stamp on a song that had seemed off the radar for most singers since Peter Bellamy's earth-moving version. There's a touch of the Jim Morays about the weirdly ethereal backdrop to Fisherman, while a five star duet with Nancy Kerr on the hauntingly lovely Gypsy Maid suggests the corpse of old school folk-rock is still capable of kicking up the odd spark.

"It's an album full of thought, variety and surprises - Fair Ellen Of Ratcliffe in particular sounds born of the electro dance age with some truly astonishing percussion work by Pete Flood, while Babes In The Wood has never sounded more chilling, complete with a musical saw solo - but a real sense of history and tradition is its essential heartbeat. The celebratory arrangement of the wonderful closing track, 12 Joys Of Mary, with brass arrangement and everything, leaves you on an appropriate high." - Colin Irwin, fRoots

"...quietly radical ... van Eyken - at his best - encourages the songs to speak for themselves, and finds that they still have plenty to say". redstarredstarredstarredstar CD of the Week Sunday Times

Press from the record label:
Collecting together a band of like-minded musicians in Nancy Kerr, Oliver Knight, Pete Flood and Colin Fletcher, Tim has produced an astonishingly impressive debut album from the band - Van Eyken.

It's a band album in the best sense, with remarkable, imaginative and contemporary arrangements of electric and acoustic guitars, fiddles, accordion, bass and drums that still maintain the essential integrity and gritty reality of the traditional songs and tunes, pacing it firmly in the future, firmly from the past and ... firmly of today. This is the first Topic album by this exceptionally assured singer and musician. The production by Tim and Oliver Knight sets new standards for the presentation of contemporary/traditional folk music in England.

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