This month sees the release of Botany Bay, the new album from Hertfordshire-based performer Kelly Oliver. Set for release on September 28th and supported by a 16-date UK tour including a special London album launch gig at Cecil Sharp House (see dates below), Botany Bay was produced by Megson’s in-demand Stu Hanna and was 18 months in the making.
Those familiar with Kelly’s debut album This Land and sophomore release Bedlam will notice a change as she looks closer to home for inspiration with her feet planted firmly in the roots of traditional English folk.
Says Kelly: “I wanted to have a theme for this album and alighted on folk songs collected from my home county of Hertfordshire. My previous two albums were almost all my own material. But working on the folk scene for the last few years I’ve become immersed in the traditional music of this country, and I enjoy it more every time I’m exposed to it.
“I didn’t know some of the songs at all so researching and creating Botany Bay was a really fulfilling journey – learning the lyrics, understanding the stories, arranging and composing music for them and putting a contemporary stamp on them.”
Watch her new video for the title track below (filmed and edited by Rob Bridge of Redwood Photos), a song, like many of those featured, collected by Lucy Etheldred Broadwood, an English folk song collector of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was a founder member of the Folk Song Society, editor of the Folk Song Journal and one of the main influences of the English folk revival of that time.
The album also features a top cast of musicians including three of Sam Kelly’s talented ‘Lost Boys’ – Jamie Francis on banjo, Toby Shaer on flute and whistle, fiddle and harmonium and Evan Carson on percussion, bringing a full-bodied sound to the table. Show of Hands’ multi-instrumental wizard Phil Beer guests on fiddle on one track, Lukas Drinkwater is on bass and Hanna himself on mandola and piano.
Botany Bay is a release full of freshness which does the English folk song tradition proud. Kelly will showcase the album on a 16-date UK tour starting September 8 with a special London album launch gig at Cecil Sharp House on October 10.
Botany Bay Album Tour 2018
SEPTEMBER
8 – BROMSGROVE – The Artrix
19 – SCOTLAND – Aberdeen Folk Club
20 – SCOTLAND – Montrose Folk Club
21 – SCOTLAND -Strathaven Folk Club
OCTOBER
5 – COVENTRY – Big Comfy Bookshop
6 – GLOUCESTERSHIRE – Under The Edge Arts Centre
10– LONDON -Cecil Sharp House *ALBUM LAUNCH*
12 – SURREY -Cranleigh Arts Centre
13 – PURLEY-ON-THAMES – Village Concerts
16 – DEVON -Bradninch Folk Club
19 – PENZANCE -The Acorn
25 – LEICESTER The Musician
NOVEMBER
2 – SUFFOLK – Hadleigh Folk Club
3 – CHESTER – House Concert
8 – MILTON KEYNES – The Stables
9 – LINCOLNSHIRE – Market Rasen Festival Hall
More details here http://kellyoliver.co.uk/