Song Links 2 - English Songs and Their American Variants

(May 2005)

A beautifully presented 2CD set, full of wonderful songs and sleeve notes. The 80-page hardback CD-size book marries together English traditional songs with their American variations - top singers from both sides of the pond perform. Following the success of the first Song Links album (which looked at Anglo-Australian songs) this release continues the theme by taking English traditional songs and looking at their American variants.

As in the previous album, these CDs feature the cream of singers specialising in this type of material from both sides of the Atlantic. The English singers include The Copper Family (who can trace their family's singing tradition back over two hundred years), leading lights of the Folk Revival such as John Kirkpatrick and the project's instigator, Martyn Wyndham-Read, and young singers already building a reputation for themselves, such as Benji Kirkpatrick and Jim Causley.

The American singers include the legendary Jean Ritchie. Cassie Franklin and Tim Eriksen contributed traditional material to the soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain. Jody Stecher has been at the forefront of the American folk scene with many fine albums to his name, and the mother and son contribution by Sara Grey and Kieron Means demonstrates the continuum of this material.

Shirley Collins, who accompanied Alan Lomax on one of his US song collecting trips in the 1950s, has written the book section. Again it is packaged in a handsome, hardback book form. Loads of information, full lyrics included and super performances.

"Sets new standards" (Living Tradition)

The English Songs:
Draggle-tail Gypsies-O (Benji Kirkpatrick) * Polly Oliver (Emily Portman & Lauren McCormick) * Locks And Bolts (Martyn Wyndham-Read) * Babes In The Wood (The Copper Family) * May Day Carol (Mary Humphreys & Anahata) * The Cuckoo (The Devil's Interval) * Ickfield Town (John Kirkpatrick) * Young Man Cut Down In His Prime (Jim Causley) * The Pretty Ploughboy (Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher) * Barbrie Ellen (Mary Humphreys & Anahata) * Tarry Trowsers (Emily Portman & Lauren McCormick) * Bow Down To The Bonny Broom (John Kirkpatrick) * As I Roved Out (Martyn Wyndham-Read) * The Trees They Do Grow High (John Copper) * Polly Vaughan (Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher) * The Pricklie Bush (Jim Causley) * Sovay (Benji Kirkpatrick) * Rose Of Allendale (The Copper Family).

The American Songs:
Tarry Trousers (Jody Stecher) * Locks And Bolts (Sara Grey) * The Maid Freed From The Gallows (Tim Eriksen) * Barbara Allen (Cassie Franklin with Southern Brew) * Clayton Boone (Skip Gorman) * Knoxville Girl (Sheila Kay Adams) * Pretty Sylvia (Jeff Davis) * The Devil's Nine Questions (Bruce Molsky) * The May Day Carol (Jean Ritchie) * Still Growing (Tim Eriksen) * Babes In The Wood (Cassie Franklin with Southern Brew) * Molly Varne (Kieron Means) * The Simple Ploughboy (Bruce Molsky) * The Cuckoo (Jean Ritchie) * Pretty Polly Oliver (Jody Stecher) * The Bad Girl (One Morning In May) (Sara Grey) * The False Young Man (Kieron Means) * Rose Of Allendale (Jeff Davis).