JIM MORAY - Gallants

With the release of “Beflean: An Alternative History 2002-2023”, Jim Moray had ideally brought full circle a twenty-year career, reworking his own catalogue in acoustic form. That project felt like the definitive summary of a journey that began with the dazzling debut of “Sweet England” and continued over the years with an output uneven in pace but studded with gems of real value.
Today, the wait for his return is over. The new album “Gallants” fills a creative silence that lasted a full seven years – a long absence even by the standards of an artist who has never been especially prolific. With this new work, the British multi-instrumentalist marks a clear return to the classic structures of folk-rock. The new compositions move deliberately along the path traced by historic acts like Fairport Convention and by masters of modern songwriting like Martyn Joseph, reconnecting Moray with the genre's deepest roots.

“Gallants” is a mature and unusually bold record, in which tradition and innovation coexist with striking naturalness. Made up of a single new song and eight archival tracks, the project unfolds along unexpected lines. Against the well-known sea ballad “Nightingale” – enriched by a refined flute solo and an unusual tenderness – Jim Moray sets the surreal and lesser-known “When I Was A Little Boy”, reinvented through a jazz horn section and a driving rhythm section. With equal daring, he finally tackles the classic “Spencer The Rover”, turning it into a chamber-folk carousel of endless shades.

That everything described so far falls within the bounds of a certain kind of auteur folk-rock is plain enough, but “Gallants” is a record that makes a mockery of the divide between tradition and innovation: the nearly eight minutes of “Omie Wise” are exemplary in this respect. Its protagonist (Omie Wise) is a young woman from North Carolina who fell victim to a brutal murder, a story from the early nineteenth century that, in the musician's hands, becomes an epic and poignant ballad, graced by a fine string arrangement and brimming with pathos.
Moray, however, chooses to rewrite the ending, turning the period account into a bitter contemporary reflection: gender violence, then as now, continues to claim victims. Omie's tragedy thus becomes the symbol of a wound that has never healed, denounced in the closing lines: “Now thousands more like her still suffer the same way, with different faces and names whose lives were ended just as they were beginning, killed by the rage and violence of men”.

“Gallants” is a record that cements the growth of an artist who, from his early, thrilling lo-fi beginnings, has gone on to develop an increasingly cultured musicality, moving from traditional instruments to crossovers with rock and electronic music with a consistent creative approach. In doing so, he has arrived at a personal expressive voice in which the songs and the stories they tell take centre stage, fully honouring the term folk while remaining modern and current: the only track written by Moray, “Three Gallants”, is a ballad that seems to belong to another era.
Jim Moray's is an immersive album, perhaps a niche listen for those unfamiliar with this sound world, but one of rare elegance. Tracks like “Train On The Island” enchant with a sonic narrative that layers piano, mellotron, dulcimer and guitars, while “American Stranger” dazzles with a guitar scrape that electrifies a noir madrigal atmosphere. The emotional peak comes with the closing track: the choice to cover “Fortune Turns The Wheel” by transgender folk songwriter Louisa Jo Killen, backed by Maddie Morris and the Trans Choir. With this gesture, Moray roots himself deeply in the folk tradition while still claiming a stimulating intellectual heterodoxy, proving that the true essence of this genre lies precisely in its capacity to embrace and depart from the rules.

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15/07/2026