LET me start by declaring an interest – I’m a David Hughes fan. I’ve been a David Hughes fan since 1998 when he was Fairport Convention’s special guest on that year’s winter tour.At that time, not only had I not heard him, I’d not heard of him, but an hour in his company had me hooked. He could play the guitar dazzlingly well. He could sing (in a David Hughes half-talking kind of a way). He could make me think. And he could make me laugh. Always a good thing, that last quality.

At that point, he’d just released his third album and, since then, he’s released a further two and an EP – remember EPs? They were like over-stocked singles. “Recognised” is a compilation of (some of) the best bits of those albums, with the title track lifted from the EP.       

When I first heard about the plans to put together an album showcasing his work up to the present, I was a little uneasy, fearing the sophisticated production and multi-instrumentation of his latter work, particularly his last album, “This Other Eden”, would not sit comfortably beside his earlier, simpler work. Happily, I was wrong. The album’s a triumph, the track sequencing inspired and it’s a collection that’s going to make anybody hearing it feel the need to go out and investigate more deeply the man’s albums.        “Recognised” has two instances where the juxtaposition of sophisticated and simple are particularly marked – yet they mesh brilliantly.        

“50 yards” sees Hughes, alone on stage with his guitar, lyrically listing a string of faults in his “old house” that would see any sane person selling up, pronto. However, on the plus side, it is only 50 yards from the guitar shop, the local, the newsagent and it’s the best house he’s ever known. His nimble fingerwork picks out a sympathetic and wonderfully understated melody to echo the ebb and flow of his voice and the whole song just sucks the listener in.       

That slice of life is followed by another, rather more frustrating, common scenario in the collection’s title track. But, unlike “50 yards”, “Recognised” has production – lots of it. Kicked into life by two mighty echo-laden wallops on the tom-toms from Gerry Conway and the ethereal backing vocals of Chris While and Julie Matthews. The song’s protagonist reveals his hurt at being told by the disembodied voice on the phone that the number given to him last week by a girl that might change his life has “not been recognised”. Weaving sinuously in, out and around the production is the oh-so dirty bottleneck guitar of PJ Wright, pushing the song into the territory called marvellous.       

The second example closes the album when “This other Eden” – with Hughes’ world-weary view of “what some people like to call this scepter’d isle” and another studio-heavy production by Mark Tucker – is followed by “Being a poet” which, again, finds Hughes alone on stage holding his audience completely spellbound with some breakneck rhythmic guitar picking and the affirmation that he “used to be a poet but I’m not any more.”In both instances the transition is glaringly obvious but, somehow, right.       

“Recognised” is full of gems that deserve to be heard by more people. “Hold your horses woman” is a fantastic tango on which Hughes is backed by renowned Argentinian band Los Fairportades Conventionides; “Watching Brazil” is, quite simply, the best song about football ever written; and “An ordinary life” drips pathos as a middle-aged man – and everybody knows him – laments “I’m standing at the crossroads of an ordinary life, not the one I had in mind” and one which just keeps becoming more difficult to understand.       

Word is, that another album of new songs is planned but, until that’s available, “Recognised” will more than fill the gap. If you don’t know his work, this will help get you up to speed. If you do, buy it for somebody who doesn’t – they’ll thank you for it. 

Fred Hall