Richard Masters: Press

Funny and dark, light and serious

...dig out the cloudy scrumpy , dig up the mandrake root . Empty the room of all soft furnishings. Inform all close friends that you have taken a sudden, unexpected leave of absence. .Close all the curtains , turn off the lights. Slump blindfolded and drunk into a hard wooden chair , turn up the stereo and listen.

"Escape Artist" is an album of songs written in a traditional style. It's light hearted and dark. "The Wheels Are Broken" includes the problems of being in a pantomime cow and being a jester for children. Life moves on and somehow something that used to sparkle now becomes sad and almost sinister. Who would leave their kids with a bearded man with a jangly hat? Richard Masters has a style that seems more at home in club, not a problem, Martin Carthy MBE is more at home in a club. The important thing is that Richard puts a good set of songs together and he has.

Richard Masters took to the stage first with a set of songs reminiscent of such folk troubadors as Martin Carthy, Jacques Brel and Jake Thackray. Witty, satirical and darkly fascinating, possessed of a charismatic but good humoured stage presence - Masters is several cuts above and to the left of most purveyors (and pretenders) of the genre. In short - a natural.