Gwilym Davies of Folkwrite

reviews Beneath Our Changing Sky by Test Valley Community Choirs

Being a Hampshire Hog by birth, this CD had an immediate resonance with
me. Roger Watson, under the auspices of TAPS, has put together choirs
from Broughton and Andover to perform unaccompanied arrangements of
various folksongs, some well known, others less so. The result is a
pleasant record for listening, performed with obvious enthusiasm on the
part of the singers. There is more than a touch of West Gallery about
the sound and one of the most successful tracks is a local WG hymn
Awake, Behold. Home, lads, Home, with its mention of Hampshire villages,
is particularly good, as is Roger Watsons Nativity song around the
theme of John Barleycorn. There are a few niggles - some of the
arrangements are over-fugued and lose the tune, and the enunciation
smacks of the church choir rather than folksong. However, these are
minor quibbles. The CD represents 45 minutes of good listening and a
good model for other community choirs.