Jack Rutter

Before booking my tickets to see Jack Rutter at the esteemed Crail Folk Club I spotted a quote from Folk Radio UK… ‘Jack Rutter is one of the most enthralling folk singers, guitarists & musicians on the British folk scene today’. No pressure then!

Jack’s a good Yorkshire lad and his songs slant toward that less Southerly part of England - checking the map - the bit that’s beneath the Scottish Borders but above Birmingham. And how refreshing it is to hear cleverly sourced – nay, curated - English folk songs presented so beautifully was a real ear and mind-tickler.

Jack kicks off with ‘The Lancashire Liar’ taken from Harry & Lesley Boardman’s collected ‘Folk Songs & Ballads of Lancashire’. It’s an unfolding nonsense tale of preposterous fabrications…

‘In Chowbent I saw a baboon in Wigan brewing ale, In Lancaster I saw a dog dance on Leeds church steeple, In Bacup I saw a monkey in Burnley teaching school’

He accompanies himself on 12 string guitar and stompbox. That’s an electronic device, you tap your foot on it and it goes ‘boomf’ like a bass drum – when deployed with taste it adds real momentum to a tune.

Switching to 6-string guitar, ‘Earl Scarslington's Seven Daughters’ is the tale of a couple who elope to escape the disapproval of the girl's father, an arrangement of the traditional ballad ‘Erlinton’, adapted by Jack from Francis James Child's collection.

Jack was in Aberdeen the night before and on the way down to Crail he realised a long-held ambition. At age 11, he would sit with his mum watching episodes of Billy Connoly’s World Tour of Scotland on the family VHS recorder. In one episode, Billy visits Arbroath and has a Smokie. This imprints onto the young Rutter mind and, spotting a road sign for Arbroath, Jack dog-legs off and – to his great satisfaction – has a Smokie. Honestly, I swear he was still licking his lips - as were half the audience! Mmmm.

But back to the music… some more contemporary tunes, Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Swim Til You Can’t See Land’. Interestingly, Scott’s brother Grant, drummer with Frightened Rabbit is the proprietor of Aeble, the cider shop in Anster. We tragically lost Scott Hutchison in 2018, so a poignant moment.

And a nice surprise - Peter Gabriel’s ‘Solsbury Hill’ – never heard that at a folk club before!

What really impressed me about Jack is his commitment to the artform, he’s not toe-dipping in the tradition, he’s diving deep and pearls are coming up. Nothing is being watered down, diluted, he’s cleverly interpreting the folk canon yet remaining totally authentic, respectful – and completely entertaining. Nothing is desiccated and dreary, everything he presents is animated, Jack breathes life into these songs and, for that, we can only thank him.  Oh, and that quote from Folk Radio UK… aye, I think Crail would certainly concur with that!

Words by Callum MacLeod photos by Peter Salkeld.