Shirley Collins. Classic. Dud is not an option here, I'm afraid.

I don't know what may have primed me for Shirley Collins, perhaps some slight study into Child ballads and a lifelong affection for Jean Ritchie--whose two volumes of British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains (on Folkways, sadly out of print) are extraordinary. Unaccompanied ballad singing so perhaps an acquired taste. I would also recommend Harry Cox and Texas Gladden *and* it's useful to pay attention to the folk motifs in RV Williams and Britten (Williams and Cox and Gladden are some of Shirley's heroes). Ii think these artists are more proximate to Shirley's aesthetic as any of the britfolk artists who are routinely namechecked here.

For As Many As Will is the last album the Collins sisters recorded. I think Shirley had actually announced her retirement prior to making the album, but something (temporarily) postponed that decision. I recognize that Anthems in Eden and The Power of the True Love Knot may be more important albums, but I treasure this one perhaps above the others for reasons I couldn't begin to explain. This is the only album on which Shirley sings a contemporary song, "Never Again" by R. Thompson. But that's not necessarily a highlight. "The Blacksmith Courted Me" and "The Moon Shines Bright" are remarkable, I like the unabashed "recital" quality of Shirley's singing here. "Gilderoy" is I think one of the sisters' major achievements.

I found the article in the Wire fascinating to learn of Shirley's roots in the CP's people's song movement, I could have guessed I suppose.

msphinx: Shirley's version of "Lord Gregory" is on Folk Roots, New Routes.

Then there is the Folkways LP of nothing but versions of The Unfortunate Rake/The Streets of Laredo/One Morning in May/When I was a Cowboy. You really don't need to hear folklorists sing, but the liner notes are ace.

Dolly's sea shanties project, "We Have Fed Our Seas," was a collaboration with Peter Bellamy of the Young Tradition. It hasn't been recorded yet to my knowledge. An earlier collaboration, "The Transports," is available on CD but I haven't heard it. I agree that Dolly's voice is charming; there's something ecstatic about the moment when Shirley takes over, their voices seem in such close accord.

One more thing: Anyone interested in Shirley and Dolly's music should try out the Voice of the People series on Topic Records. This was the major field recording/compiling projects of the English folk revival and made available something close to the full spectrum of folk music from the British Isles--somewhat akin to Alan Lomax's Southern Journey project. All of VotP has been reissued on CD. A wonderful English web site called Musical Traditions features very informed (you might say partisan) reviews of this sort of thing. They have a part of their site devoted to VotP with lots of information.

Shirley is I think my favorite singer and performer of all time. A better scholar than I should really take up the task of assessing her life's work. One fascinating thing about it is the way she combines an intense respect for and understanding of sundry traditional styles (ballad singing, "early music," art song) but combines these styles in such a way that is absolutely sui generis. It is a very selfconscious appropriation and mixture of different aspects of British musical heritage, but it works beautifully through the force of Shirley's taste and talent and that of her collaborators -- foremost among them Dolly Collins, but also including David Munrow (R.I.P.) and the London Early Music Consort, whose own records (there are many) are worth seeking out (=gross understatement).

I might have mentioned this above but one of Dolly's common arrangement techniques--setting a rich polyharmonic arrangment in counterpoint to an almost perversely uninflected ballad reading by Shirley--reminds me of some of Britten's folksong settings, including my favorite, "O Waly, Waly," where the piano part is basically continually unfolding variations on being several beats behind the very foursquare vocal line, resolving into a standard meter only after the singer has finished. it's devastating (i hope I described it OK, obviously it's not technically correct as I am musically illiterate but perhaps it conveys some sense of the music).

i always picture shirley standing stock-still, hands folded into one another, as if in a formal recital, framed against a wall with a rich cover of green vines, undulating in continually shifting patterns of shadow and reflected light. like shirley is maintaining a sort of tableau-like rigidity and dignity amidst an effusion of intense emotion. it's like all this history and heartbreak and tragedy (personal and political and both at once) is suggested but cannot quite be contained by the strictures of a great tradition.

ok i need to go to bed now.

*for a good example--and I do actually mean "good" as in worth hearing--of the sort of folksong presentation both were running from, see the records of Richard Dyer-Bennett.

One hates to be dreary and pedantic about these things but I neither liked nor disliked Shirley Collins straightaway. As it is, I love her albums but I find it difficult to listen to her voice over an entire album - I think it's the fact that she sings slightly out of tune all the time.

i think i've come around to thinking that the first side of "anthems in eden" is her best work overall. though there are things on "power of the true love knot," "adieu to old england" (this is the one that no one ever seems to mention), and "for as many as will" (and several others, though not the first two 59/60 lps) that are magnificent.

A heart-rending emotional journey into the cultural roots of traditional American Music with legendary archivist Alan Lomax. Highly respected English folk singer Shirley Collins describes her year long stint as Lomax's assistant and their diligent work uncovering the traditional music of America's heartland. They covered Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia - along the way encountering Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters and many others.

i wish she'd write about her own music and her relationship to traditional english music and its various revivals. that interests me as much if not more (if only because the america stuff has been covered so well by so many).

ok i have a noisy cat begging for my attention...be back later.

"dada is correct abt "rise up like the sun". "poor old horse" is probably worth the price of the album on its own.

did i say that? i dunno.

i don't like shirley with drums really. i don't like "amaranth" much, largely because of the echoey production.

i like shirley with dolly's arrangements, basically.

Amaranth is probably the worst (read least great) shirley collins music I have. I like the folk-rock arrangements on "no roses" tons, but I think it's probably enough of shirley w/that type of sound. Have you got the "etchingham steam band" cd amateurist? That's kind of...interesting, but not great.

you know i'm sort of suspicious of english folk-rock (i've really lost the taste for fairport/sandy denny/et al) in part because it's admirers don't seem to be critical at all; i've hardly read a bad review of a british folk-rock album. it doesn't seem like a world that encourages really serious musical experimentation, as opposed to kitschy "ambitious" stabs (like peter bellamy's "transports," arr. dolly collins, which i'm really NOT getting into).

all this to say that "no roses" sounds like a failure to me, in fact it almost pains me to listen to. but damned if i can find a single negative review of it.

i really don't think shirley has the audience she deserves.

Have you read the (rather lengthy) interview she did Johan @ perfect sound forever? real interesting read. i want to hear more of her albums. we had a copy of anthems in eden at the store and it was great. the only one i own is power of the true love knot. greaaat stuff. i wanna read her book, also.

ha, try criticizing Steely Dan or Tusk on here and let the hate roll down on you. Also, post thompson/denny Fairport gets lots of criticism, especially from the 80s on (and most of it is deserved)
I think part of the reason it gets a free pass to the extent that it does is because it's so small & insular a scene, I mean I don't care for polka, but I'm not going to spray hate on amazon reviews and such. If Brit folk-rock had ever broken in a big way, non-believers would go out of their way to take it down. This music really just appeals to a small section of the public, those who get it love it, those who don't pay it little mind.

it doesn't seem like a world that encourages really serious musical experimentation, as opposed to kitschy "ambitious" stabs (like peter bellamy's "transports," arr. dolly collins, which i'm really NOT getting into).

well it is FOLK music, to an extent, the "bold" experimentation was to deviate from the acoustic norm and dip into the "tainted" rock scene. Trad based things are rarely open to too much tinkering, part of the weakness, also part of the charm.

all this to say that "no roses" sounds like a failure to me, in fact it almost pains me to listen to. but damned if i can find a single negative review of it.

Well the Murder of Maria Marten is anything but a failure, it is just a MONSTER track. The rest doesn't quite excite as much, but it is certainly above average folk-rock.

Sounds like it's not that you're "suspicious" of English folk rock so much as you just don't like it!

you know i'm sort of suspicious of english folk-rock in part because it's admirers don't seem to be critical at all

I think a lot of people who discovered it (esp. outside the UK) and were just extremely enthusiastic about it and some of their critical faculties may have gone out the window temporarily

had never heard her, but picked up the new Harvest Years comp as an introduction...have to admit, took a little while to "adjust" my ears (some of this stuff is so archaic as to make Fairport Convention sound like dubstep..I know, I know: what did I expect?), but now that I'm into it, I'm into it!...(she was quite the looker, too)...

Yeah I don't know how that comp is sequenced (or what exactly is on it) but I could see some of her stuff being a bit "unadorned" for ears trained by folk rock. I have almost every album (not the boxed set though.) Love, Death & The Lady is my favorite, probably.

Happy birthday Shirley! 75 today.

Happy birthday Shirley!

Tomorrow is Shirley's birthday!!

Jul 5th * �7.00 * SHIRLEY COLLINS' BIRTHDAY PARTY

Now here is something really special!
In the first half, Shirley will be presenting a shortened version of her latest multi-media show, You Never Heard So Sweet.
In the second half she will introducing performances by friends including some of the best known names on the folk scene:-
THE COPPER FAMILY
MARTYN WYNDHAM-READ & IRIS BISHOP
RATTLE ON THE STOVEPIPE
NAOMI BEDFORD & PAUL SIMMONDS
IAN KEAREY & DAN QUINN (of DUCK SOUP)

Happy happy happy happy birthday, Shirley!

Oh shit, that's my friend Ian. Whereabouts is this thing happening?

Happy Birthday!!

This just snuck up on me at the end of a tough week and god alive it's extraordinary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaJw-ryhBB0

I think the album with Dolly (Anthems in Eden) is my favourite single record she's involved with.

Always scared of reviving this thread, for fear of giving people palpitations, but Lodestar is killing me this evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIptsu_pFhI

Lodestar really is great.
Recently came across this, which is also great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNO836enS-8

I had another delightful time introducing my students to her music and I always play the Death & the Lady from Lodestar. One student declared it “heavy”. I also kept my audience captive for the short version of my Maria Marten spiel and we listened to the song at the end of class one day. 💕

That session is lovely, Tyler!

She is so funny -- right now she is "furious" and posting on facebook because the BBC isn't airing Paddington 2

Paddington 2 is the perfect antidote for this current situation. I really felt that I needed it.

I have never seen Paddington 2 but now I want to watch it because if Shirley loves it, it's gotta be good right?

It is.

I've not bought Lodestar because I worry her voice isn't up to it.

New album:

.@shirleyeCollins announces new album, Heart’s Ease – watch a video for the song, "Wondrous Love"https://t.co/rZSOIr0i9o

— Uncut Magazine (@uncutmagazine) May 27, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwLrUuGT288

Not wild about the video but lovely to hear her in fine fettle.

Yes, she sounds great! Looking forward to hearing her sing Canadee-i-o

love it — i think her voice sounds great now. obviously lower range, but it's still unmistakably Shirley.

So there's at least one song on the new album about Paddington then?

i thought this was fantastic, apparently written in the 60s by her first husband, rediscovered on some ancient tape of her and Davy Graham and rerecorded with Nathan Salsburg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa2oIMUKIPM

interview / favourite albums thing in the quietus:

https://thequietus.com/articles/28545-shirley-collins-interview-favourite-music?page=1

Awesome.

One of the many awesome things about that interview is that a couple of the albums she picks have album covers so awful or generic yet I still want to hear them all right now. Can't judge a book, etc.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/quietus_production/images/articles/28545/i__1594058957_resize_460x400.jpg

lol i have that cd but i never added it to my collection in discogs because my god it's ugly (just like 95% of folk cds tbh). nic jones is super great though

She's a treasure <3

Can vouch for Lankum's Between The Earth And Sky being really great, dark and droney. As for the rest (apart from Vaughn Williams) I've no idea but am ready to be surprised.

her new 2020 song came up recently in Discovery and blew me away, now I forget the name of course

great interview!!! classic shirley <3 <3 <3
https://toneglow.substack.com/p/022-shirley-collins

really nice interview, still so classic. new album is great!

i liked the part about how she and her sister used to sleep in the metal box to protect themselves from air raids
poignant and gnarly, just like a good folk song!!

I was just totally bowled over by Heart's Ease, and I've never really listened to much Collins before. I think I've heard No Roses and maybe one Shirley & Dolly one? -- looking forward to exploring more. I suppose I was poised to be emotionally moved by the fact that on the cover she looks quite a bit like my late grandmother, but there's definitely something special about hearing an octogenarian sing these old songs right now, or any songs maybe (I also like the new Dylan much more than I expected to). Enjoying that interview now, thanks LL!

yes this is really really nice, RIYL other recent "nu-trad-folk" releases like Lankum (unsurprising but cool to learn she's a fan), BLH or some Unthanks. it's been said but she really does sound amazing for her age.

public service announcement - she's doing a concert at the barbican next weekend, which you can watch via a paid livestream:

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/shirley-collins-the-lodestar-band-live-from-the-barbican

Ooooooh! Thanks for the alert!

Wowza

been rinsing this one lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sn3ZgtIsFw

Usual stab of anxiety whenever this thread gets bumped? CHECK!

But aye, what a glorious album.

sorry Chinaski, but she has a new album coming out in May!

https://shirleycollins.bandcamp.com/album/archangel-hill

One of the most important voices in British folk music Shirley Collins returns with Archangel Hill, her third album for Domino. Due for release on May 26th, it showcases another peerless collection of songs chosen by Collins, some from traditional sources but others from favourite writers of hers.

Produced by Ian Kearey - Shirley Collins’ musical director - the arrangements were shared between Collins, Kearey, Pip Barnes, as well as Dave Arthur and Pete Cooper, players from The Lodestar Band.

All of the songs on Archangel Hill were recorded last year except for “Hand And Heart”, which was taken from a live performance at the Sydney Opera House in 1980 and features an arrangement by Shirley’s beloved and talented sister Dolly Collins.

Hooray! Go Shirley!

yay. had somehow not noticed dave arthur played on the last two albums.

also just learned that there's been a new & updated iteration of the electric muse book/comp including the circa folk roots/new routes track that i think only came as a bonus on the deluxe version of heart's ease.

https://www.discogs.com/release/19452991-Various-The-Electric-Muse-Revisited-The-Story-Of-Folk-Into-Rock-And-Beyond

Yaaaaay get it Shirley!!

https://shirleycollins.bandcamp.com/album/archangel-hill

nobody? very good record imho