The Sunday Listen: 'Newcastle' by Lankum
This weekend, I became a willing prisoner of a single song. Sometimes, a song doesn't just play for you; it absorbs you completely, it wraps around your senses, pulls you into its ancient heart, and refuses to let go. This past weekend, that song for me has been Lankum's 'Newcastle'.
Lankum, an acclaimed Dublin drone folk fourpiece, often draw from traditional sources, collecting songs from tradition bearers at source and through painstaking transmission person to person, taking them back to the studio and reimagining them with a dark, modern twist.
‘Newcastle’ is no exception, collected originally in the English Dancing Master, but probably as old as a broadside ballad published in 1620 originally titled The contented Couckould, Or a pleasant new Songe of a New-Castle man whose wife being gon from him, shewing how he came to London to her, & when he found her carried her backe againe to New-Castle Towne.
The brilliance of Lankum’s interpretation lies in what they don't do. The singing is unembellished and heartfelt, and the simplicity gives ample room for the song to speak for itself. The surrounding arrangement is simple yet richly atmospheric, constituting mostly of a single guitar (or possibly bouzouki), sumptuous vocal harmonies and some delicate atmospheric textures – Lankum’s trademark hum, a living, breathing presence throughout all their songs, the persistent thrum of human existence, buzzing with the uneasy weight of centuries of struggle, joy, and sorrow.
'Newcastle' isn't just a song; it's a conversation across time. It’s a powerful reminder of folk music's enduring, universal magic. That a sentiment – a cry, a resignation, a truth – can travel four hundred years and land in your ears feeling as fresh, as relevant, as if it were penned yesterday, is truly remarkable. It makes you feel part of something immeasurably larger than yourself, a continuous thread of humanity woven through melody and word. It's a profound, almost sublime shift in perspective — a rare experience in our fragmented, isolated modern world. It's not just about you experiencing the song; it's about the song experiencing you, safe inside the song.
Enjoy your Sundays.