A strong message is the beating heart of these songs that feel like a rallying battle cry to the apathetic left.
Formed in 2019 in the South-West of England, The Jamestown Brothers’ music feels like it could fit under many of the sub-genres of folk and Americana, but by far the most interesting and unique of those might be punk-folk and honestly, it feels the truest to what they do. “Built to Last” finds them covering a range of subjects like reclaiming the Union Flag from the far right, the exclusion of the elderly by our society, and, on the other end of the scale, the false gods looked up to by the youth of today. Make no mistake, these songs are a call to arms.
‘Bring Down This Flag’, the aforementioned song about taking back the Union Flag, is a spiky, rabble rousing opener as lead vocalist Colin Batchelor declares definitively that “you won’t bring down this flag, this country will unite” against a thrumming, anthemic beat. ‘Lie Lie Lie’, jaunty as the beat is, looks at the Irish potato famine and how it drove starving families out of their hometowns, while ‘Brighten My Day’ with its fiddle and horns, is much more light-hearted as Batchelor is just looking for someone to love: “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna get old / Without someone to love, without someone to hold.”
A good old fashioned murder ballad, ‘Silas John’ is the story of a man killing both his “wife of 23” and the “labourer” she ran off with when he discovered the betrayal; he flees, but the redcoats try to track him down as Batchelor wonders if Silas can “feel the death on the hangman’s breath” as he’s in hiding. “To the Pioneers and Engineers of Iron and of Steel / Cutters from the coal face, the stokers of the steam / The riveters and shipbuilders who saw their labours sink / Everybody take a drink!” Batchelor sings joyously on ‘Everybody Take a Drink’, a rousing cry of appreciation to the oft overlooked “union man” that has helped to build this country: “Massey’s cannon high on hamp fairfax in the wings / Horses and artillery we stood no bloody chance / Tried to surrender they threw our muskets down / Cannon opened up and cut us down.”
“Were you called up for war, did you fight for a cause / Did you challenge the balance of power?” asks Batchelor on ‘Body of Bones’, a track which makes us think more deeply about the richness of the lives the ignored or taken for granted elderly around us may have lived, just as ‘Something to Someone’ reminds us that youth is fleeting (“It won’t be long till her beauty is all gone […] Till they put her in a box and she’s gone”). Rousing, traditional folk is the backbone of ‘The Siege’, where we’re transported to 1645 with “roundheads on the march” during the English civil war.
In a world that feels increasingly like left-wing opinions are watered down to be made more palatable, The Jamestown Brothers are thankfully unafraid to say it how they see it. It may not be all that polished, but “Built to Last” stands out, not just with its musicianship, but also with its message and bravery. Let’s hope the band echoes the name of the album and their important voice sticks around for many years to come.
