Eighteenth Day Of May CD

When it comes to British folk-rock, Fairport Convention's 1969 classic Liege & Lief occupies the same influential trophy case as the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, and Nirvana's Nevermind. London folk revivalists Eighteenth Day of May have studied that record well, alternating between male and female lead vocals, bending traditional pieces into pastoral folk-rock hymns and utilizing an arsenal of traditional instruments without ever sacrificing the cool strains of an electric guitar through a vintage amplifier. Like fellow new traditionalists Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, EDM evoke the countryside in all of its sunlight splendor and rainy gloom, peppering their eponymous debut with descending autoharps, bells, dulcimers, and the occasional flute solo, and for the first few songs they sound like clipper ship full of wind. The lush "Eighteen Days," "Sir Casey Jones" with its Volunteers-era Jefferson Airplane harmonies, and the rolling "Highest Tree" are mini road trips set to music, but by the time a plodding cover of Bert Jansch's "Deed I Do" appears, the record begins a slow descent into a midtempo sinkhole filled with lush but forgettable folk-pop. The members of this talented collective have obviously done their homework, and their reverence is admirable, but there is so little danger on this excruciatingly safe debut that it ultimately renders itself invisible. ~ James Christopher Monger

The Eighteenth Day Of May formed a couple years ago, appropriately on a sunny evening in the month of May. Allison Brice (a New Orleans native with a beautifully mellifluous voice), Richard Olson (a Swedish-born singer and guitarist) and Ben Phillipson (a gifted guitarist and mandolin player who has been playing folk music since his childhood in Oxford) were high on a rooftop above east London. Instead of the inward looking urban sounds of most contemporary groups they decided, there and then, to form an acoustic three-piece with a much more bucolic outlook.

Recording information: Concrete Island.

Photographer: Brian Stevens.

The Eighteenth Day of May: Allison Brice, Ben Phillipson, Richard Olsen , Karl Sabino, Alison Cotton, Mark Nicholas.

Personnel: Richard Olsen (vocals, guitar, sitar, harmonica); Allison Brice (vocals, dulcimer, flute, harmonium, background vocals); Ben Phillipson (guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Mark Nicholas (guitar, background vocals); Karl Sabino (autoharp, glockenspiel, drums, percussion, background vocals); Alison Cotton (viola); Pete Erchick (Fender Rhodes piano, background vocals); Andy Dragazis (bells); Bill Dross (background vocals).

Entertainment Weekly (p.80) - "[The bands] beguiling jaunts will nonetheless make you want to book a vacation in the English countryside." -- Grade: B+
Dirty Linen (p.44) - "[I]t's dense, textured and moody, yet has an inner energy that is mostly compelling."