Ewan D Rodgers is a young man trapped inside an old man. Ewan D. Rodgers is an interpreter of songs, another revivalist, one more keeper of that traditional folk flame, the one that has been passed down the line in recent years from Martin Carthy and the Watersons to Ian King and Kate Rusby like an Olympian torch. Ewan D. Rodgers sings and plays guitar, banjo, accordion and even the occasional kazoo. Ewan D. Rodgers covers other people’s material but he also writes his own songs too. Ewan D. Rodgers has a residency at a couple of folk clubs in Stoke Newington on alternate Sunday nights. Whether this has any bearing on the title of this Ewan D. Rodgers second album is not known.
Ewan D. Rodgers’ voice is quintessentially English and the influences of Messrs Jones, Renbourn and Graham continue to course through his bloodstream no more so than on the folk-blues Come Back Babe and Blue From The Cold. But alive to the probability of being labelled as just another home-grown copyist, Ewan D. Rodgers extends his repertoire to embrace Italian waltzes (Il Valzer Dei Disertori), Russian love songs (Tumbalalaika), American bluegrass (East Virginia Blues) and Irish ballads (I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen). With the latter Ewan D. Rodgers is breathing rarefied air, as Crosby, Cash and Presley have also covered this song and whilst I doubt he will ever end up being mentioned in their very same breath he still has the confidence to try.
Ewan D. Rodgers is operating in an overcrowded market, one that is populated by other similar men and women who also regularly play in folk clubs up and down this green and pleasant land making sure that a particular strand of our musical heritage continues to stay very much alive. An initially a limited run of 300 physical copies of the CD perhaps points towards this saturation and the likely wider appeal of Ewan D. Rodgers and his music. But for all of this Ewan D. Rodgers does have a talent and a wider musical compass than most of his contemporaries. This is very much reflected in Tomorrow Might Be Monday and for this we should remember his name.
[Rating:3.5]
