Four albums in four years, with three different line-ups. I’m not talking about The Fall. You would be forgiven though, for thinking that Pat McGarvey shared Mark E. Smith’s extreme work ethic. Happily for the Southern Tenant Folk Union, though, the similarities run out of steam once we get past the substantial throughput of musicians.

The extreme turnover in his band members is down to the more prosaic realities of keeping a band afloat. Pat McGarvey, who is the only constant member of the line-up, plays banjo, sings (on occasion – he’s more than happy to leave that to his companions) and writes a considerable slice of the material. He is Belfast-born and raised and has the trim, focussed, workmanlike demeanour that we northerners pride ourselves on. He looks like the kind of man who gets the job done while others conceptualise and dream – and that is pretty much the measure of it. Without him the band would cease to exist. It’s not that he conjures it into being – more that he wills it to continue. The press release insists that the band’s name derives from a ‘ground breaking multi-racial union of sharecroppers and non-landowning tenant farmers founded in Arkansas in the 1930s’. I get a kick out of the fact that the acronym – STFU – can also be parsed as ‘shut the fuck up’. From day one, line-up one, the band has exhibited a definite ‘shut up and play’ attitude.
Persuaded to take up the banjo in the late ‘90s while he was playing bass with The Coal Porters, by 2006 he was looking for other players and vocalists. The idea for the Southern Tenant Folk Union started to coalesce. Although he continued to play in both bands for a short period it became increasingly obvious that that first incarnation of the new band had something very special and he left The Coal Porters. Initially the nucleus of the band was Pat, Pete Gow, Eamonn Flynn and Oliver Talkes and vocally they produced some spine-tingling harmonies. The first, self-titled, album has a decidedly bluegrass flavour, in contrast to the alt. country bent of The Coal Porters. That is due in no small part to the backgrounds of the players involved. With their second album Revivals, Rituals And Union Songs coming out a bare year after the debut record the band cemented its reputation. While the bulk of the material on the earlier LP had been songs that Pat McGarvey had written prior to the line-up coming together, the second album gathered songs from his co-conspirators and reflected their different personalities. Even the band photos tell a story. On the debut album players are stiffly arranged in a formal portrait, instruments held tight. Whereas on Revivals... they are ranged across a rolling hill as they fix the camera with a resolute stare. Apart, that is, from Eamonn Flynn, who perhaps prophetically gazes at his watch.
Between this and the band’s third album a whirlwind of change buffetted the band which is captured in a state of flux. Again the band picture tells a story. Although five band members are listed on the sleeve, six are present in the photo. The artwork can’t keep up with the band’s rapid evolution. I remember, sometime after Revivals... was released, getting an email in which Pat outlined his decision to move from London to Edinburgh.
At that stage it wasn’t clear whether his bandmates would also make the move. In the event none of them did and as a result Pat was left to soldier on alone. Released in 2010, The New Farming Scene is a revelation. Almost a concept piece, at the very least a proper song cycle, the bluegrass and alt. country tinges that were brushed across the folk of the two preceding albums are swept away in favour of an austere sound bathed in the traditional music of Scotland, all the more surprising as once again the bulk of the writing falls to Pat McGarvey. It is a sonically breathtaking album, played live and perfectly captured by Tim Matthews. The vocals lean into each other, creak together, breathe in unison and the instruments don’t fall below that same high standard. Like the cover it is a dark, subtle album that repays a close listen.
After another metamorphosis in personnel this year the band return with Pencaitland, where the writing credits are spread amongst several members and the music eases out from the austerity of its predecessor. Where The New Farming Scene was almost a meditation on the rigours of a life lived on the land, Pencaitland presents itself as a call to arms for the working man. The arrangements are richer, brighter, more complex. As the album finds its natural level it shows itself to be as deeply satisfying as its predecessor. It tackles timeless themes in, yes, a timeless way. The songs are ageless, the performances defy any attempt at pigeonholing. Again the band photo tells a story. Pat McGarvey, again pushed to the edge of the shot looks down quizzically at the camera. He is dressed in the same navy suit and black shirt he has worn since... since when? The first album? The beginning of time? He has created something that defies its own chronology and I’m guessing by the time the next album appears, he will have changed not
a jot.

The Southern Tenant Folk Union tour Ireland later this year appearing at the Playhouse, Derry (November 4); Mermaid Theatre, Bray (5); Spirit Store, Dundalk (6); The Red Room, Cookstown (7); Island Arts Centre, Lisburn (9); Wexford Arts Centre (10) and Courthouse Arts Centre,
Tinahely (11).