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THE OUTLANDISH KNIGHT MATS024 Pete Castle with Lucy Castle, fiddle; Bing Lyle, accordion; Lorin Halsall, string bass; Rob Barber, drums. Green Brooms The Dark Eyed Gypsy The Outlandish Knight Be Polite be Kind (story) Banks of Sweet Primroses As I Roved Out Basket of Eggs/Rambling Sailor Death & the Lady Maramures Funeral Song 3 Men Went a-Hunting The 3 Sillies (story) 3 Maidens a-Milking Did Go Listen to Sample Price including P & P £12

“This is a pair of CDs which reflect the two sides of Pete Castle’s performance. 'The Outlandish Knight subtitled 'mainly songs', provides a yin to the yang of 'Tapping at the Blind', which carries the message, 'mainly stories'. It might be worth pointing out at this stage that the second of these carries the unusual notice, 'not suitable for young children'. So here we have a 'Certificate 18' folk CD That alone must make it worth the price?
The former album carries a series of creditable and workman-like performances of narrative songs which Pete delivers in a strong steady voice with accompaniments by daughter Lucy with Bing Lyle, Lorin Halsall and Rob Barber. The style is mostly simple and straightforward but the hypnotic driving quality of the title track owes a great deal to Pete and Lucy's earlier exploration of Eastern European music in the band 'Popeluc'. The token story on this track Be Polite, Be Kind is followed by the sparse unaccompanied rendering of Banks of Sweet Primroses. This is a juxtaposition which allows the listener to compare the storyteller and the singer. The story is melodic and the song has a wonderfully intimate spoken quality.
In the second CD Pete tells a series of stories which carry morals and warnings. This is often stuff which makes the message on a cigarette packet seem like a casual comment. There are real health warnings among Pete's stories, some of which are from classic collections like the famous, 'Household Tales' of the Grimm brothers. It's strange how in a ballad with a melody to carry the story the unpleasant can be glossed over and accepted but the Story of the Armless Maiden is horrendous in the extreme and sadly not as fictitious as one might wish. The tales on this album are lacking in political correctness but are bold and daring. The whole package of two CDs is worth every penny… and it is unlikely that you’ll find stuff like this very often.”
Paul Davenport in EDS

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