Patience Vaisey at Adwell 1892 - Amsher
Written by May Humphreys
This little gem of a CD is full of delightful songs and singing. It probably not your cup of tea if you like loud backing and lots of instrumental accompaniment, but if you like an intimate song with minimal interference from backing musicians, this is right up your street. John Dipper who was the technical brain behind this deserves credit for a superb end product. Bob Askew,the mastermind behind the project, is a svengali of the highest order.
Lucy Broadwood visited her cousin Herbert Reynardson in 1892. He lived in Adwell House, Oxfordshire. The gardener's wife, Patience Vaisey was a Hampshire lass and sang her repertoire to Lucy, probably very gladly because her husband the gardener at Adwell didn't like folk songs preferring instead hymns Ancient and Modern. There's no accounting for taste!
The songs are performed here by a select cast of Southern singers. Annie Winter and Alison Frosdick are well known on the trad folk circuit, being regulars at Whitby and other trad festivals. This is the first time I have come across Anna Baldwin and Jack Burnaby who supplies the minimal accompaniment on piano and concertina. His piano playing is very in keeping with the sort of parlour music Lucy Broadwood would have been used to. I was most taken with his little riff at the beginning of When The Moon Stands on Tiptoe. This is a glorious hunting song which is ambiguous in its quarry - human or hare!
There are many songs here that would benefit from more exposure. Many of us know , or at least have heard, My Bonny Bonny Boy, but how many of us know How Sweet in the Woodlands? We have a huge wealth of songs that were collected because somebody out there thought they were worth preserving. Let's get them out there into the folk consciousness. This collection deserves to be much more widely performed.
Thank you to Bob Askew for your dedication to your local heritage. It is a grand job you are doing. Keep plugging away!
Two Score is performed by the line-up which has been in place since 2005, Andy Cutting – melodeon, triangle, Jo Freya – vocals, saxophones, clarinet, whistles, Paul James – vocals, bagpipes, saxophones, Gregory Jolivet – hurdy-gurdy, Dave Shepherd – violin, octave violin, viola, Barnaby Stradling – Bass, Jon Swayne – bagpipes, saxophones, whistle.
I have enjoyed Terence Blacker’s songs since I first saw him do a floor spot at The Everyman Folk Club about five years ago. I was immediately struck by how much his style of singing and guitar playing, as well as the subject matter of some of his songs reminded me of the great French chansonnier Georges Brassens. Other people have compared him to Jake Thackray; there are similarities, but I’d say Terence has the more laid-back, cool European style of Brassens. I love the way he pokes fun at the English middle-classes and their pretentions. Intentional or not, he seems to relish teasing listeners of a certain age - his and mine I suppose – by pointing out their lingering hopes or memories of romance, and their almost certainly doomed artistic ambitions. If younger people understood and applied his messages to their own situation they might be tempted to slit their wrists. Fortunately, they probably don’t believe it’ll ever happen to them.
Some of Terence’s older songs have certainly stayed with me; these include his greatest hit: Sad Old Bastards with Guitars, as well as I’d rather be French and The Young Girl with the Ukulele*. But here I’m considering his most recent recording, the 12-track Enough About Me. The first thing to say is that Terence is accompanied by a host of excellent musicians: Jon Loomes on violin, organ, ukulele, flute and backing vocals; Hugh Bradley on double bass, Murray Grainger on accordeon and shaker and Edwin Beasant on drums and harmonica. Together with Terence, Jon Loomes also recorded and produced this album. This “band” produce a great bluesy, jazzy sound which reminds me of one of my favourite retro French groups, Les Primitifs du Futur.
Starting in Norwich, Norfolk, Alden, Patterson and Dashwood are Christina (vocals/guitar), Alex (fiddle/vocals) and Noel (dobro/vocals). Their homespun-style CD is entitled By The Nightwhich they have performed in an extensive gig list all over the UK. Their music encompasses the ‘Americana/country’ part of the folk spectrum with accessible songs and charming melodies, some traditional and some self-penned. Their own songs are inspired by books, stories and even an Attenborough wildlife programme, and the traditional numbers are arranged to suit their own mellow style. Their perfectly harmonising voices are used to greatest effect on the unaccompanied ‘Red Rocking Chair’ and in ‘Railroad’ and it’s nice to hear the contrast of either Noel or Alex taking the lead vocal on ‘Blow the Wind’. Their instruments are used to embellish the songs not to show off, although occasionally a tasteful solo break is added in keeping with the style of music. Nice to see an instrumental number, Noel’s The Nerves. 
From Cambridgeshire we have a CD titled Heartland Soul by Red Velvet. The band is led by Dierdre Murphy (vocals) and Les Ray (vocals/guitar/mandolin/bass) who are joined by George Harper (harmonica/whistles), Colin Smith (drums/percussion), Chris Fox (trumpet/guitar/bass), Robin Gillan (fiddle/guitar/mandolin/guiro) and Gene Thunderbolt (piano). They mostly write their own songs inspired by such diverse subjects as Francis of Assisi (the Milky Way), an Argentinian sugar refinery (El Patron y el Diablo), private prisons and xenophobia (Stranger Welcome), all as metaphors for life. The trumpet gives a Spaghetti Western atmosphere on three tracks and in addition to a couple of contemporary songs by other writers they slot in the tear-jerking Carrickfergus and American Classic Night Train to Memphis. Nice addition of the harmonica on Ship in a Bottle and You Put a Spell on me, and piano on the final track Harbour vary the instrumentation. All in all a well-played and sung selection, a mixture of styles that works well. 
At harvest time during the chaotic reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154), there was a strange occurrence in the Suffolk village of Woolpit, near Bury St. Edmunds. While the reapers were working in the fields, two young children emerged from deep ditches excavated to trap wolves, known as wolf pits, hence the name of the village. The children, a boy and a girl, had skin tinged with a green hue, and wore clothes of a strange colour, made from unfamiliar materials.