Thanks - I did find it, but was disappointed to discover that it was only a download.
I guess these might find their way to a CD eventually? But I download FLAC, save to a memory stick then play on my MUSO. Once downloaded you can stream locally if you have more sophisticated equipment.
For his previous lockdown release (Bloody Noses) he said he might print CDs for sale at gigs. I guess the same here, and I’m fairly sure all the gig-sale CDs have also been available in his website in recent years.
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Jolie Holland, ex-Be Good Tanyas, sings ‘Mad Tom of Bedlam’ on Escondida. As with many folk songs, the words written by the great poet and songwriter Anon, exist in many different forms and the tunes in several versions. Roud V16366 ‘Boys of Bedlam’/ ‘Tom of Bedlam’ was printed in ’ Thomas d’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, published 1720, where it had the title Mad Maudlin’s Search for Her Tom of Bedlam . It was in the repertoire of The Halliard at the end of the 1960’s with a tune that was “mostly the work of the Halliard’s Dave Moran with some small input from Nic Jones” (according to Julia Jones)[Mainly Norfolk] There are many recorded versions: Steeleye Span, Maddy Prior, Martin and Jessica Simpson, Old Blind Dogs, Heidi Talbot, Stick in the Wheel… The words may well be older than 1720 as Shakespeare refers to Tom 'o Bedlam in King Lear. It remains a powerful and imaginative song.
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Posted in what are you listening…
Interesting to hear “straight” versions tunes and songs as they were collected. The inclusion of Lord of the Dance sounds almost pop music.
By comparison the versions of Creeping Jane on The Full English and Jack Orion on Fay Hield’s Old Adam sound very powerful.
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Would like to recommend these three:
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I find Chris Wood’s albums variable, but his voice is ever seductive.
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I agree about his albums. He’s very good live, both as a solo artist and when we saw him with Imagined Village.
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I also recommend Ruth Notman. Her second album ‘The Life of Lily’ is equally good and well worth a listen.
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Yep, got that one as well. This is worth a listen as well…
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Time for some Trembling Bells. They split in 2018 and the front woman, Lavinia Blackwall has subsequently made a solo album Muggington Lane End ( Bandcamp). Trembling Bells has a shimmering folk-rock sound recalling Incredible String Band, Fairport, Gram Parsons with bells and drones. Carbeth, the title of their first album meant nothing to me, but I subsequently read the history of the hut community established in Stirling by returning soldiers.
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The other half of Trembling Bells is Alex Neilson with his new band Alex Rex - saw them in Whitstable just before lockdown. Alex’s favourite place in the UK is Dungeness.
The Lavinia Blackwell album Mugginton Lane End is a beauty.
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Stewart Lee in conversation with Alex Neilson. I’ve only seen Dungeness from a distance, but will look at the Derek Jarman garden some time. It is an amazing landscape with extraordinary light.
Last Trembling Bells album called Dungeness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKklKZaEt_s
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Luckily only a few miles down the coast from me. Trembling Bells album Dungeness is quite amazing - must give that a spin.
The number of album covers shot at Dungeness is unbelievable even little Aled Jones got in on the act.
I went to find this one the other day.
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Oisín Mac Diarmada, Sligo fiddle player. CD ‘Ar an bhFidil’/ 'On the Fiddle - Green Linnet. On Qobuz.
His new recording with Samantha Harvey on piano. The Green Branch / An Géagán Glas is on Bandcamp. Here’s a taste of them both on YouTube:
He also is part of a group Téada (which I have not heard yet.)
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Shirley and Dolly Collins, Anthems in Eden. Harvest 1969. Christopher Hogwood on harpsichord, David Munrow on crumhorns, rackett, sordun, treble recorder. Plus Roy Wood, Steve Ashley and others. My first acquaintance with this was Amaranth 1976 which included Anthems in Eden on side B. A legend.
A taster via YouTube.
Available too on Qobuz, included in Shirley and Dolly Collins, The Harvest Years. (Parlophone, 2008)
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A happenstance purchase. Charity shop, unknown artists. Track list starts “Bellringing”. Daughter, son in law and aunt are all ringers, better try this…
A beautiful song where the chiming of bells is followed in the melody.
In fact the whole album is enjoyable.
Later, I was told that it is more than likely my aunt has rung in all the towers mentioned.
The Teacups - Of Labour And Love
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Davy (Davey) Graham, Anji, his evocative guitar solo I first heard on The Electric Muse box set (1975), since then I’ve heard many versions including Bert Jansch who called it Angie. Davy Graham was a virtuoso, using different tunings and learning exotic instruments like the Sarod. Maajun is one of my favourites on Folk, Blues and Beyond. To my mind, he’s an instrumentalist rather than a singer. Robin Denselow wrote an appreciative obituary in The Guardian Graham the son on a gaelic teacher from Skye and a mother from what is now Guyana was a wild man, unpredictable and prone to disappear. He became a drug user and would sometimes support himself by busking. But his dedication to his instrument was constant. Shirley Collins tells some good stories of touring with Graham when they had recorded Folk Roots, New Routes. (1964) Anji here on YouTube from Fire in the Soul, but was recorded on tape in 1961. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXhWgbmc9yU
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