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Friday, September 30, 2005
REYNARDINE
June Tabor
Airs & Graces
Shanachie: 1976
[Buy It]
REYNARDINE
Shirley Collins & Davy Graham
Folk Roots, New Routes
Decca: 1964
Fledg'ling: 2005
[Buy It]
PLAINS OF WATERLOO
June Tabor
Airs & Graces
Shanachie: 1976
[Buy It]
PLAINS OF WATERLOO
Shirley & Dolly Collins
Love, Death, & the Lady
Harvest: 1970
[Buy It]
This post can serve many functions. It commemorates the tenth anniversary of the passing of Dolly Collins, sister to that singular, stunning voice of Shirley Collins, a British folk legend (that you can read more about via this excellent interview with Ugly Things scribe Johan Kugelberg here). (Dolly actually passed on September 22nd, but the sentiment remains reverent even a week late.)
British folk music seems perfect for these ears when autumn finally arrives, as leaves begin to curl and burn into auburns and siennas, and northern airs turn slightly chilly. Does it evoke the countryside, the highlands? Such lands seem to always be windy and cold (though with global warming, maybe not for long). Both ladies sing songs that sound as old as the hills, the voices of both Shirley Collins and June Tabor embodying what scholars usually tag on rural American singers as "that high, lonesome sound." It's evident on June Tabor's selections, which focus solely on her lone voice, unaccompanied. Shirley's voice is swaddled first in that of legendary guitarist Davy Graham (who melded Indian modalities to American blues and British folk as if they were all from the same land) and then on the charts arranged by her sister.
Now, I'm not a folklorist by any stretch, and won't delve into the meanings and variations of either "Reynardine" or "Plains of Waterloo" (or how Willie Smith's betrothed would fail to recognize him), but Dolly's arrangements were oft-considered to be non-traditional, experimental even. Her little pipe organ tweets like a wee bird at first, but slowly gains in gravitas as the sorrowful song progresses. When the strings and bass drum rumble in midway through this tale of love ripped asunder by the horrors of war, its sudden grandeur is almost overwhelming. Perhaps such songs are to remind us that war, lost love, and coldness are never really in the past.
posted by beta
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