The Willows - Through the Wild

The Guardian 80

(Elk Records)

If North America can fall for the faux folk of Mumford and Sons, why not the artful folk-rock of the Willows? The Mumfords are now lost amid the plains of US indie, their folk pretensions abandoned, while Cambridge-based Willows offer a polished update of Anglo-folk shot through with a streak of Americana. A mixed-gender six-piece full of multi-instrumentalists, fronted by the graceful vocals of Jade Rhiannon (husband Cliff Ward leads the band), they owe a clear debt to Fairport Convention (who doesn’t?), but their newgrass leanings make Alison Krauss’s Union Station as good a comparison.

They are in full flow on this third album, almost all of it original songs, moving from the electrified opener, Coda, where they come across as a plaid-shirt Fleetwood Mac, to simple acoustic pieces such as Honest Man, with its banjo and bluegrass harmonies. There’s a nod to tradition on the antique True Lover Ferry, but the group would rather explore the past through songs like Perfect Crime, a first world war tale, Out Of Our Hands, a tribute to Jean-Henri Dunant’s 1862 exposé of war’s brutality, and False Light, which evokes fenland will-o’-the-wisps. An impressive showcase to match their on-stage prowess.