*** June Tabor

A QUIET EYE

(Green Linnet)

Although June Tabor is not as well known as her friend Sandy Denny, she's been at the forefront of England's folk scene since the mid '70s. Silly Sisters, a duet album with Steeleye Span's Maddy Prior, introduced her to an international audience, and though subsequent releases made her one of England's best-known singers, they did little to further her international reputation. Tabor has a husky, soulful contralto and a dramatically understated delivery that's well suited to the downbeat material she favors, mostly lesser-known British folk tunes that she's rescued from undeserved obscurity. A Quiet Eye is a slight departure; Tabor and long-time pianist and arranger Huw Warren have collaborated with London's Creative Jazz Orchestra to produce charts that mix jazz, blues, and British-music-hall pop into a lushly melancholic package. Subliminal washes of brass and woodwind are perfect complements to Tabor's distressed vocals on "The Gardener," a bitter tale of unrequited love, and the band's Arabic groove adds a dimension of jaunty grace to "Pharaoh," an anti-capitalist romp from the pen of Richard Thompson. Tabor closes with Ewan MacColl's "First Time" and the folk chestnut "The Water Is Wide," both given stark, almost a cappella readings that showcase the singer's subtle power.

-- J. Poet