As you will gather from my previous reviews, I admire SimG not only for the quality of their releases, but also for the diverse nature of the material. Their latest release fills both of these criteria again, in bucket loads.

Van Winkle - A Folk Musical is a new musical retelling of the classic American tale of Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, with music & lyrics by Caroline Wigmore, arrangements & orchestrations by Jen Green, and featuring an international cast including; Daniel Greco and Rachel Kurtz, with Noel Harron, Jennifer Hepburn, Joel Hutchings, Adam Leonard-Burns, David Mckechnie, and Claire Sharpe.

Listening to it, and trying to be objective, you have to remember it's only a concept album, not a cast album. It's clear there is some way to go until this is a fully fledged musical production. The songs are a mixed bunch, as you expect from a project in it's early stages. Some I loved, and could easily fit into a musical tomorrow. 'Watching The Door' is a beautiful ballad (reminding me much of some of the numbers in Frank Wildhorn's The Civil War), and well delivered. 'Take A Drink, Van Winkle' was also to my liking, invoking a great atmosphere and progressing the story. 'The Dinner Blessing' is also a well constructed number, interweaving previous themes, and closing off the recording.

I have to admit the genre of American Folk is not to my liking, and much of this CD is very much routed in this genre, with almost no 'nod' to fitting into the theatre genre. That said, it's a well recorded release (as always from SimG), and extremely well orchestrated. The accompanying booklet is very informative, which is great to see, and necessary for a concept album. If this ever makes it onto stage is doubtful in it's current format, but stranger things have happened.

6

Ian Gude