Dan Haywood is not a city man. Dapple is described as "a love letter to rural England". It is the follow up to New Hawks, a 32 part love song cycle inspired by the Scottish Highlands.
So immersed is he in the great outdoors that all but the final track (Made For The May) were recorded in the heart of the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire.
Sessions had to be very early or late or set up in remote locations where stray sounds like those of tractors or a gamekeeper's Land Rover could not intrude.
Dan Haywood likes birds. The happy effect of recording in a forest is that real birds become background vocalists and are listed as such on the album sleeve in order of appearance. The record's centrepiece, Suspicious Farms has references to rooks, jays and "verminous magpies".
Dan Haywood is not a fan of new technology. He and his small band of backing musicians play unplugged. He is delighted that New Hawks bandmate Paddy Steer knows how to use a portable, mono 'Nagra' tape recorder dating from the 1970s; the type of equipment used in film and radio.
The back to basics and back to nature aspects of this record highlight its poetic content. For me, these qualities also evoked a strangeness and sensuality like Paul Giovanni's folk tunes for The Wicker Man. This is most evident on Apple Tree where the ripeness of nature takes on distinctly sexual flavour.
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Dan Haywood's dour Northern accent gives his tunes a down to earth, yet slightly forlorn aspect. His songs are mainly brief, impressionistic vignettes with no catchy hooks or hum along melodies.
Notable tracks like A Trout, based on Schubert's Die Forelle, a gorgeous instrumental entitled A Floral Dance reveal Haywood to be a man of fluctuating emotions.
Even though the total playing time is just under 25 minutes, there is no prevailing mood to tap into. You could describe it both as melancholy and heart warming and be right on both counts.
The impalpable appeal of Dan Haywood's music derives from the fact that he inhabits a time and space of his own design and is blissfully untroubled by popular tastes or trends.
Dapple is a curious and intriguing record that is rooted in traditional folk yet defies categorization.
Dan Haywood's website
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