For those that missed this the first time around, English Acoustic Collective consists of Chris Wood, Rob Harbron and John Dipper. Back in 2004, they released their album Ghosts on Chris’s label R.U.F. The album takes its name from the belief (or maybe a feeling), that behind a playing musician stands the ghost of the person that they learned from. Standing behind that ghost is the ghost of the player they learnt from, and so on.
In the liner notes they say:
If we who are the flesh and blood at the head of this long line get too clever, we get a dig in the ribs from the old ghost; but if we play the same way every night, we hear the sounds of spectral snoring! Here lies the folk musicians’ territory, between a dig in the ribs and snores of boredom.
Even for the innovators in folk music today there are constant reminders of these ghosts…in our most recent interview with LAU they commented: “For progress to be meaningful, we have to care about where we’ve come from.”
When Ghosts was released it received a great press response. The Irish Times made it one of their Top 10 albums of 2004 and Siobhan Long of the paper had clearly read the liner note as she declared “This is precisely the dig in the ribs that English folk needs.” Listen to the track Bleary Winter below, a song written by Hugh Lupton and Chris Wood about the enclosures act (of which there were several)… “With one swish of the legislative pen, the land was taken from under the feet of the people and the English Diaspora began.”
Special Bandcamp Offer
Christmas Champions offer has sold out now, Ghosts is currently available via Bandcamp. For a limited time only, all orders of the Ghosts CD will receive a free copy of Christmas Champions featuring Hugh Lupton, Chris Wood, Rob Harbron, John Dipper & Olivia Ross.
Grab a copy now – Bandcamp