Taken from their 2018 album Fathoms, our Song of the Day is ‘Down By The Greenwoodside’ by The Furrow Collective (Lucy Farrell, Rachel Newton, Emily Portman and Alasdair Roberts). Watch the accompanying new video by Maud Hewlings who grew up in the Fens and in Cornwall. Her work is predominantly drawing, painting and animating and she also did the artwork for ‘The Fiery Margin‘, the new album from Alasdair Roberts (due for release September 13th on Drag City).
‘Down by the Greenwoodside’ is the Furrow Collective’s version of the ballad more widely known as ‘The Cruel Mother’ (number 20 in FJ Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads). One of the darkest, most tragic songs in the traditional canon is here matched to a suitably uncanny animation by Maud Hewlings. Crepuscular figures loom, as if from the collective unconscious, within a mysterious and timeless woodland setting. Subtle intimations of the narrative’s violence manifest through fleeting hints of berry- and blood-red in an otherwise predominantly monochrome field. The measured passage of images perfectly echoes the sombre tone of the recording with its stark harp motif, stabbing electric guitar and affectless vocal harmonies.
The Furrow Collective are on tour in September, details below.
The Furrow Collective are right at the very top of the game when it comes to traditional music. No-one else is as innovative, and in a genre where innovation is sometimes seen as incompatible with the conservation of tradition, they prove that the opposite is true, that by treating folk music in an exciting new way we are helping to safeguard its future. And it is no exaggeration to say that if the future of folk music sounds like Fathoms we are in safe hands indeed.Thomas Blake, Folk Radio UK
The Furrow Collective Tour Dates
Fri 6th September – Tolbooth, STIRLING tickets
Sat 7th September – Kirgate Arts, COCKERMOUTH tickets
Sun 8th September – The Crescent, YORK tickets
Mon 9th September – Nettlebed Folk Club, HENLEY tickets
Weds 11th September – Cecil Sharp House, LONDON tickets
Thur 12th September – Guildhall Arts Centre, GRANTHAM tickets
http://www.thefurrowcollective.co.uk/
Photo Credit: Seth Tinsley