Handful of Earth

Apparently this is the first album Gaughan made after taking a couple years away from music to deal with his mental illness. This is very Scottish in content, accent, and the phrasing of the flutes and fiddles. Drawing on traditional English ballads and his own adaptations of poetry, Gaughan, like Johnny Cash, is a storyteller, and he makes you believe him by the effortless power of his simple voice.

"The dispossessed come to claim what's theirs...to create a common treasury" sets the political tone of this album as Gaughan uses past injustices to highlight modern ones, namely the oppression of the poor in the UK.

Rarely has a voice resonated with me so deeply. Gaughan's natural instrument is a manly expression of pathos and fearless honesty, and he sings of love painted with pastoral poetry as well as he calls to task the powerful, greedy oppressors of the world. This is album is the very definition of "beauty in sorrow".

Finally, I must say something about "Now Westlin Winds", and specifically this rendition: it is the perfect idyllic song. It is what life can be, and few are those who experience it. And for that, my heart doubly breaks: first for the beauty of it, and then for its un-attainability.