What A Beautiful Place by Catherine Howe.

I had intended going for a long walk today but due to the inclement weather I remained indoors. The rain was quite fortuitous as it turned out because it gave me a chance to have a good listen to my new CD. It is called What A Beautiful Place by Catherine Howe. I discovered this album quite by chance during a conversation with a friend about great singers from the past who deserved more recognition than they received. He said I should check out this album, so I ordered it and I’m glad I did because this album should be celebrated as a lost treasure rediscovered.

Catherine was born in Halifax, Yorkshire in 1950. She moved to London and went to drama school and had TV roles in such programmes as Doctor Who and Z-Cars. The family moved to Swanage in Dorset where the beautiful coastline inspired many of her songs. She headed to London again with a bunch of her songs and landed a recording deal with the small Reflections Records label. They hired American producer Bobby Scott to work on the album. He is best remembered for writing He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother and also won a Grammy for A Taste Of Honey. No expense was spared, top session musicians were hired as well as The London Symphony Orchestra to play on Bobby Scott’s arrangements. I must say they all did a wonderful job.

I don’t think the album was originally conceived as a ‘concept’ album, but Bobby Scott persuaded Catherine to have a spoken word prologue, interlude and epilogue, speaking her own words. It does have the effect of binding the album together as a whole and she has a lovely speaking voice. After Prologue the first song is Up North which I guess is a homage to her hometown of Halifax. It is very evocative of the gritty grimy landscape of satanic mills and dirty rainy streets. It reminds me in a way of the song Life In A Northern Town by Dream Academy and Kate St John’s cor anglais. On A Misty Morning displays Catherine’s shimmering vocal to full effect. I was reminded momentarily of Linda Perhac’s album Parallelograms. Bobby Scott has to be commended for the lush sophisticated arrangements. Nothing More Than Strangers is one of my favourite songs on the album, a short, simple, sad, wistful reflective song and one of the folkier tracks (See video below). My Child is also an ethereal atmospheric song which seems to fit perfectly with a rainy dark day such as today.

After the spoken Interlude the next song is It’s Not Likely which has a very dramatic arrangement behind Catherine’s restrained singing. I like the woodwind instruments on this album. Words Through A Locked Door is as haunting and mysterious as a Bronte novel. It immediately reminded me of The Pond And The Stream by Fotheringay. Not because it sounds familiar but because of the emotion that it evokes. The title track What A Beautiful Place by contrast is much more vibrant, upbeat and jazzier. I looked on youtube for this song and found a nice video of Catherine singing it live quite recently and I must say she is still in great voice. The lyrics suggest that this song was inspired by her Dorset home.  The Innocence Of A Child has a timeless quality that all great music has. It has the feel of a jazz standard but is a Catherine Howe original. It Comes With The Breezes is another fabulous song in which the shimmering orchestral accompaniment brilliantly evokes the sea and the wind. It is incredible to think that this album was recorded nearly half a century ago because it sounds so fresh. The spoken Epilogue is next, followed by the bonus track In The Hot Summer which is just as wonderful as the rest of the album.

On it’s original release in 1971 the album was only available for a few short weeks because the record label went bankrupt. Catherine did make other albums, none of which sold in large numbers and she gradually retired from the music business. She raised a daughter and gained a first-class honours degree and has published books. I’m pleased to see that she still performs occasionally, sometimes with Ric Sanders who I have seen quite often in recent years with Fairport Convention. I highly recommend this album. I’m not surprised that The Guardian described her as ‘Kate Bush before her time’. I think if you like music by Nick Drake, Bridget St John, Sandy Denny and people like that then you will love this album.