Taken from Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds new album ‘Songs My Ruiner Gave To Me‘ (out November 3), our Song of the Day is We’ve Hardly Started yet, a song about the joys of growing older -its written by Naomi and Paul and is sung as a duet with longtime collaborator Justin Currie.
The album features contributions from Andy Summers, Justin Currie and Folk Award winner Ben Walker among many others, it is an eclectic, roots-based look at love, madness and obsession.
Followers of Folk Radio UK will know we a nice soft spot for this lovely duo who came together over a mutual love of folk and country music styles. Paul was the mandolin player and songwriter with The Men They Couldn’t Hang; Naomi was the singer and writer of Orbital hit ‘Funny Break’.
We declared their 2011 album ‘Tales from the Weeping Willow’ one of the best of the year, then their follow up album, ‘A History of Insolence’ received equal praise with Paul Woodgate declaring “It should be on every school’s history curriculum.” Read the full review here. We also interviewed Naomi around that album in which she gave us her own personal protest history followed by her own curated mix – “Ten Songs of Protest“.
Now comes the third part of the trilogy, ‘Songs My Ruiner Gave Me’; a look at the good, bad and ugly side of love from the sugar coat to the bitter chill.
At the heart of the album are Naomi and Paul. Partners in real, as well as musical, life; the album is their mission, their story and, appropriately, a true labour of love.