The new acoustic album from the multi-award winning folk-rock band. All their joy and energy distilled into a selection of live favourites and a couple of new inclusions - done in the style of the slimmed-down 6-piece that plays the folk clubs and arts centres.
Anthems To The Wind is the fifth album from Merry Hell and its title is both a big reveal and a red herring. For this is not a song selection thematically based on hurricanes and siroccos despite there being a gentle breeze sweeping through every song.
On first listening, Anthems To The Wind sounded like an instant corker. Several plays later, a more considered opinion confirms that it is, indeed, destined to be one of the releases of the year.
Anthems To The Wind finds the band in unplugged mode – one they’re very familiar with to be frank – but no less passionate nor vibrant. The Kettle led band have added Neil McCartney’s fiddle to the mix since many of these songs were recorded and it’s that added potency and energy that is celebrated here. Inspired, if that’s the right word, by what they call “the atmospheric hush” of the folk clubs the arrangements have been stripped back, yet recording much of the album with the band playing live makes sure that their zeal and ardour shines through.