Sharon Whitbread And Fred – Spice Of Life
I’ve long been fascinated by RA Records ever since I stumbled onto
Peter Rice’s web page on the label a few years back. RA were housed in Paignton (near Torquay) in Devon and even though it’s less than 100 miles from where I’m sat I rarely see anything RA shaped in my travels. So finally landing something in a local record shop which is actually a great record and not that dreadful Sid Gately record I keep finding (well, twice) is a joy.
Sharon Whitbread (who’s possibly responsible for one other record released in 1976 on Pye – will investigate) provides the albums vocals whilst ‘Fred’ (who’s real name is apparently Tony Heart) provides guitar. Sharon who was just 15/16 years old when she recorded this LP with ‘Fred’ (then aged 17) was clearly a big Buffy Sainte-Marie fan as she borrow Buffy’s wobbly vocal inflections and also covers Sainte-Marie’s ‘Must I Go Bound’.
The two standout tracks for me are ‘Lazeras’, a traditional American work song (usually know as ‘Po Lazarus’) that was also covered by Buffy Sainte-Marie. This is a similar take to Buffy’s with an added laidback funky bass guitar and backing vocals from RA’s Faraway Folk. The second is a version of British folk singer (and father to Kirsty) Ewan MacColl’s ‘Gypsy Song’ which adds bass, drums and a horn section into the mix and like ‘Lazeras’ it wanders into what I shall lazily label as ‘folk funk territory’.
