Billy Bragg and the Blokes' new album, England Half English, is due on March 5th. Bragg's first record of all new material since 1996's William Bloke follows the folk singer's Mermaid Avenue recordings, two albums that supplemented the lyrics of Woody Guthrie with music and perfomances by Bragg and Wilco.

Produced by frequent Bragg collaborator Grant Showbiz, England Half English features pro-worker songs such as "N.P.W.A." [No Power Without Accountability], the shuffling boogie of "Another Kind of Judy," and the sleepy drone of "He'll Go Down." Much of the album was recorded at Monnow Valley studio in Wales, a recording hot spot recently used by the Charlatans U.K., the Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers and Black Sabbath.

Serving as Bragg's Blokes are keyboardist Ian McLagan, drummer Martyn Barker, bassist Simon Edwards and string players Ben Mandelson and Lu Edmonds. In addition to the usual tools, Bragg accented the new LP with a long string of off-kilter instrumentation including, but not limited to, bouzouki, barizouki, goats' toenails, reco reco, sintir, darabouka, udu, resozouki, bendir, kraksh, quira, shekere, tarbush, cumbush and cabasa.

Billy Bragg and the Blokes will launch a U.S. tour in April.

England Half English track listing:

St. Monday
Jane Allen
Distant Shore
England Half English
N.P.W.A.
Somedays I See the Point
Baby Farouk
Take Down the Union Jack
Another Kind of Judy
He'll Go Down
Dreadbelly
Tears of My Tracks

COLIN DEVENISH
(January 25, 2002)