Our Song of the Day [that day being August 10, 2014 – Hobbledehoy] is a beautiful unreleased improv from what would have been the second album from The A. Lords. Like their first album released in July 2011 on Rif Mountain, which sold out soon after, each track ‘was a very slow and deliberate paean to the oft maligned (and rightly so) fields of Dorset.’ This is so tranquil & serene.
By Folk Radio UK
The A. Lords was a project started by Nicholas Palmer and Michael Tanner. Nicholas is better known for making short elaborate instrumental music as Directorsound and Michael has a history of making longer, gloomier pieces as Plinth. The A. Lords peversely straddle the two, looking down at us with an expression of woe. Although their eponymous debut was released in 2011 the recordings that featured go back several years prior.
Enjoy the ethereal vocals and powerful lyrics of Lavinia Blackwall on her new single, ‘The Damage We Have Done’, a potent dose of folk-rock.
Probably best known as a member of the prolific Glaswegian psych-folk outfit Trembling Bells, Lavinia Blackwall released her debut solo album Muggington Lane End in 2020. The following year, after meeting Laura J Martin at Moseley Folk Festival and bonding over a mutual love of Robert Wyatt’s music, the duo Wyndow was born, releasing their debut that was likened on these pages to an experimental time capsule of beautiful melodies, ethereal vocal layers, and powerful lyrics.
Those ethereal vocals and powerful lyrics are still very present on Blackwall’s new solo single ‘The Damage We Have Done’, a potent dose of folk-rock, and a sign of new things to come. She tells us, ‘”The Damage We Have Done’ was inspired by Percy Shelley’s poem ‘Ozymandias’. It’s about the brevity we have on this planet, the fact that we can’t take anything with us, hoping to leave behind something meaningful and the hope that one day we’ll all meet again, the realisation that there is an environmental and spiritual consequence to the lives we choose to lead. We initially recorded the single at the barn around the time of the pandemic. I wrote it at the piano, but there’s no piano on the final edit. We went down a bit of a rabbit hole with this one, with strings, thumb piano, far too many guitar parts. I must have recorded the vocals about 60 times and was really struggling to get it right, but got there eventually”
Maybe heightened by the presence of the paisley, the chorus called to mind the cultural reawakening of the late sixties, although the message here is far more pressing. Like Shelly’s poem, it warns against the arrogance that often accompanies great wealth and power and reminds us of the transient nature of all things and that change is not desired but needed; the weight of that message is felt throughout.
The single is out tomorrow, March 29th, ahead of her UK tour, which commences on April 2nd (dates below).
Opening this week’s Folk Show is New Zealand songstresses Anna Wooles, Deanne Krieg, and Rose Blake – best known as Ida Lune whose debut album we reviewed here. Those dainty, decorative and masterful voices lead beautifully into the new offering from James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra with lead single ‘Struggle’, a tender and beautiful love song to his children, taken from their new album ‘The Wide, Wide River’.
Featuring Beth Orton, we have Sam Amidon‘s Sundown, taken from his recently released self-titled album – “A handsome and entirely seductive album” – which we reviewed here. Those that have been keeping up with our premieres this week will recognise ‘Life Lives Inside’, a song that explores life’s uncertainties and hopes, by Flo Perlin & Pilgrims’ Dream while only just premiered today, it was impossible to not include the new single from revered Scottish folk songstress Karen Matheson. ‘Cassiopeia Coming Through’ features on her new album ‘Still Time‘ (released February 2021 on Vertical Records) – a collection of contemporary and traditional-sounding songs featuring an intoxicating palette of sonic textures wrapped around that instantly recognisable voice. Featuring piano and production by Donald Shaw, this new album is a creative discovery from this summer’s unexpected lockdown.
00:00 Skipper’s Alley – The Farmer’s Curst Wife 03:40 Breabach – Proud to Play a Pipe 10:18 Mick Hanly & Mícheál O Dhomhnaill – An Bothán A Bhaigh Fionnghuala 12:12 The Bonny Men – Jenny’s Welcome To Charlie 17:06 The Deadlians – I don’t wanna ride yer aul one anymore. 19:46 The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock – Suffer the Wait 24:15 Trembling Bells – The Auld Triangle 30:05 Declan O’Rourke – Indian Meal 33:25 Ensemble Ériu – Gleann na Réimsí 39:17 Joe Heaney – Singing in Connemara (Extract) 39:43 Lisa O’Neill – As I Roved Out 44:24 Ye Vagabonds – When We Were Trees 46:35 Brìghde Chaimbeul – Mary Breenan’s / The Reeling, The Reeling 49:49 Croft No. Five – Track 1 55:07 Breda Smyth – Bachelor’s Walk 59:07 Shooglenifty – Samhla Reel / Scolpaig 01:05:19 Ross Ainslie, Ali Hutton – Action 01:09:24 Jiggy – Ócam an Phríosúin 01:13:04 Martin Low / Martyn Bennett – This Sky Thunders
Despite being a St Patrick’s Day special, there’s also a nice mix of Scottish artists included – we even start in a well known fictional pub on a Hebridean island – Summerisle.
Featuring Skipper’s Alley, Breabach, The Bonny Men, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, The Deadlians, Trembling Bells (ft. Alasdair Roberts, Ricky Ross, Dan Haywood, Mike Heron, Scott Fagan and Amy Cutler), Declan O’Rourke, Ensemble Ériu, Lisa O’Neill, Joe Heaney, Ye Vagabonds, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Jiggy, Ross Ainslie & Ali Hutton, Martyn Bennett, Shooglenifty and more.
