Well, if you’re into late-19th-century English music hall songs, set to poems from Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads, you’ll enjoy baritone Michael Halliwell’s confident, personable renditions. He sings with a clear, firm tone, careful diction, and lots of expressive power. The texts primarily have to do with soldiering and soldierly concerns, and include such well-known favorites as Gunga Din, Danny Deever, and On the Road to Mandalay. Most of the music dates from the same period as the poems. The majority of it was written by Gerard F. Cobb and J.P. McCall, although there also are contributions from Walter Damrosch (Deever) and Percy Grainger (Soldier, Soldier). Of course, there’s loads of “Glorious British Empire” sentiment running through these 21 songs, stuff that today seems quaint at best and racist at worst. As Halliwell explains: “Some of the words . . . are offensive to our ears today, but censorship of this aspect of Kipling’s work detracts from his intentions and, therefore, I have run the risk of political incorrectness by retaining these passages.”
Yes, that was a different time but you’ll have to make up your own mind whether you, as Halliwell further suggests, are “far enough removed from the period to be able to view it from an objective, historical perspective . . . rather than be distracted by the political baggage that still surrounds Kipling.” That may be easier without words to remind us of Kipling’s point of view–and certainly much of the writing here is non-controversial, picturesque, adroitly written, often humorous observations of everyday life. (“An’ if your ‘eels are blistered an’ they feels to ‘urt like ‘ell/You drop some tallow in your socks an’ that will make ’em well.”) But when it comes down to it, these are nothing more than rather basic if sometimes cleverly written and pleasingly tuneful parlor songs whose principal interest today may in fact be as historical artifacts. Nevertheless, Halliwell and his very able accompanist David Miller obviously had fun making this, and they get clear, natural sound from their venue–Australia’s Sydney Opera House concert hall.
