The appeal of folk music never seems to wane and David Hershaw & Sandie Forbes must be hoping that is true to therefore guarantee the success of their album “Here Comes Tomorrow”. The genre has, of course, has its rules so will this duo subvert or simply submit to its distinctly draconian requirements?
Both Mr Hershaw and Ms Forbes have the advantage of sounding natural so that’s one point in their favour straightaway. However, Mr Hershaw seems to have an undeclared love of Americana that threatens to paint too many of the songs in shades of mediocrity yet, by the end of this album, I came to suspect that this was merely a ploy to hide the fact that he can actually write an intelligent lyric with “Turn It on a Sixpence” providing evidence of that very desirable trait. It is also a fact that Ms Forbes’s appealing accent and sympathetic fiddling succeeds in adding the local colour that will take them closer to the hearts of folk purists.
“Here Comes Tomorrow” will never push the boundaries and I doubt it was ever supposed to but it is equally hard to deny the strength of the words that hidden beneath the musical conventionality of David Hershaw & Sandie Forbes and, yes, the irony of calling an album so firmly rooted in the styles of the past “Here Comes Tomorrow” was not lost on me.