Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith – Awake Arise: A Winter Album
Many A Thousand Records – 6 December 2019
With the onset of the cold season comes the first recorded fruit of a thoroughly warming collaboration between two of the most engaging and inventive acts on the current folk scene, two charismatic acts whose individual gigs are invariably firmly in the “unmissable” bracket. This veritable-“supergroup” collaboration was heralded (seasonal allusion intended!) by last December’s special Awake Arise show, which is being revived this year on a second (eight-date) tour commencing on 14th December (see dates below), an event preceded by the release last month of two singles and (just this past week) this splendiferous full-length CD. For the astoundingly multi-talented Lady Maisery trio (Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans) and the unique, trusty Aldridge-Goldsmith partnership so clearly enjoy a strong chemistry when working together, not least in the arena of truly complementary musicianship, instrumental and vocal skills. A quality of deep integrity and conviction also unites the five musicians, and they’ve something of a reputation for sensitivity to social causes and often outspoken voices; this seasonal project, therefore, provides a timely opportunity for galvanising “the power of collective endeavour as a vital support during times of hardship and loneliness”. And of course, for celebrating “the power, beauty and vitality of song”. Their uplifting and positive message, the clarion-call to Awake, Arise, provides the title of this freshly-conjoined ensemble’s debut album.
Our own lives tend to be mirrored in the progress of the seasons, thus winter is also a time for reflection, in essence, our preparing to awake and arise; to assist in this process, we are encouraged to draw on a shared imagining of winters past and ancestral memories in order to properly assess the winter present. This sharing of experiences and customs through song draws us closer together and enables us to look ahead and plan for renewal that the spring will bring. Awake Arise succeeds royally in its mission to do just that.
There’s a wealth of worthwhile seasonally-related repertoire to be cherished, often well away from the hackneyed warhorses and well-trodden carols, and the five musicians embody precisely the spirit of exploration and sincere evangelism that can best bring this material to our attention – and to life. Lady Maisery are, of course, no strangers to the thoughtful, intelligently innovative presentation of songs from diverse sources, while Jimmy and Sid’s forte is in forging and highlighting the “common cause between antique songs and present circumstances”. All of these strands are brought together in the Awake Arise collaboration, where ancient and modern coexist and complement in an intelligently realised, rewarding and listener-friendly sequence of songs, readings and poems, a healthy proportion of which turns out to be unfamiliar.
The five-piece lineup makes a gorgeous sound, full and rich or drawn-back and limpid as required, while each of the musicians displays a keen feel for exactly the right kind of instrumentation to serve each item while maintaining interest for both listener and player – there’s a real sense of fun and involvement here, and it works both ways. The result is that the virtuosity is in the versatility and easy expertise, a jolly means to an end and most infectious. And the ensemble is doubly blessed too, in that each of the five participants is a superb singer, and so the various pieces in the programme can be equitably and appropriately distributed according to the character requirements of each individual item. Having said that, their combined harmonies are a treat too – the low-register male voices making a dark-lightening (but not cloying) adjunct to the high-register ladies’ voices in a thoughtful and sensitive counterpoint. All of the elements are expertly captured in Neil Segrott’s faithful recording.
So now to the programme itself. It’s hard to imagine a more apt and engaging invitation than show-opener Sing We All Merrily, where the full ensemble welcomes us into their home and we’re immediately surrounded by the glow of hearty voices and instruments in consort, chorus and harmony. The aim is to sing and gather to take stock of the year, to reinforce which theme Hannah has rewritten and added verses to this song originally collected by Vaughan Williams in Oxfordshire in 1918. After this lusty curtain-raiser comes the first and finest of the album’s canny juxtapositions of song and reading – Laurie Lee’s wonderful word-picture evoking The Christmas Road dovetails perfectly into the framework of a setting of Robert Burns’ verses and a traditional chorus done to the lilt of the traditional air Cold And Raw. A lusty account of Stephen Fawcett’s late-19th-century processional Bring Hither Now The Holly Bough ushers in – via a brief scene-setting vignette – the vibrant a cappella of Hail Smiling Morn, the quintessential Yorkshire pub carol – no raucous rough edges here of course, but a neatly turned rendition nevertheless. Perhaps Sid’s litany introducing the Winter Berries, which follows, would have been better placed before the Fawcett, though.
The next item on the programme marks a looser kind of religious connection with the season – The Old Churchyard was principally sourced from the singing of Almeda Riddle; originally a hymn, it brings a hope-filled meditation on the spiritual and restorative power of our sacred spaces, and receives a standout vocal performance here from the ensemble, with viola and melodeon to the fore underscored by double bass and percussion. The theme of seasonal restoration continues with Rowan’s original composition The Bear Song which dances and skips fleet-footed through a fable of the turning of the year before segueing into Night Came Early, a second reading from Laurie Lee’s Village Christmas, which depicts an indelibly memorable family episode in the progress of Christmas.
The traditional wrenboys’ blessing The King, usually done entirely a cappella, is here given a delicate and beautiful twin-banjo accompaniment, the instruments only falling silent for the final verse – very effective that. There then comes a moment of heart-stopping tranquillity and repose with a majestic solo performance by Rowan of Shetland fiddle tune Da Day Dawn, into which is tellingly interposed a recitation of Edmond Holmes’ poem Like As The Thrush In Winter, this, in turn, segueing into a fine account of The Snow It Melts The Soonest (this time taken from the woman’s perspective) whose complementary qualities of hope, resilience and wisdom are supported by an intricately moulded guitar accompaniment. Before it has the chance to melt, though, it returns (just as in real life!). Snow Falls, John Tams’ simple but powerful song of hope originally written for Lark Rise To Candleford is here given in the later (revised and expanded) War Horse version done to the Dives & Lazarus melody and with some of the verses switched round or omitted. The song is introduced a cappella before being given over to an urgent, though wearily-driven, broken plodding rhythm with fiddle and banjo boosted by accordion and percussion.
The practice and tradition of wassailing then enters the picture, with a recipe interlude as preamble to the lively a cappella of a fairly typical example of a wassail song, here plainly named Cornish Wassail, which to my ears combines elements of Bodmin and Malpas regional variants using verses collected in the early 1930s by James Madison Carpenter from two different local singers. This is succeeded by another of the disc’s standouts, a wistful banjo-and-shruti-backed take on Heading For Home, Peggy Seeger’s gorgeous philosophical meditation “full of the wisdom and power of living long on this earth and moving gracefully towards the soft winter of life”. This song might have made a perfect conclusion to the album, but its closing bookend is something of a masterstroke, a suitably rousing anthem finale (Hope Is before Us) where Hazel sets words by William Morris from his Chants For Socialists, here transcending any issue of political persuasion in reaffirming the initial clarion-call and the central Awake Arise message of resilience and hope.
A final word of praise must go to the actual presentation of this CD – the disc is encased in a sturdy hardback book containing full song lyrics and credits, with absolutely lovely, simple, traditional-styled artwork by Thomas Shahan. Needless to say, this release will make a fabulous Christmas present!
TOUR DATES DECEMBER 2019
14TH DECEMBER – MANCHESTER The Stoller Hall
15TH DECEMBER – MATLOCK, The Whitworth Centre
16TH DECEMBER – LIVERPOOL, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
18TH DECEMBER – LOWDHAM, St Mary’s Church
19TH DECEMBER – ALDERSHOT, West End Centre
20TH DECEMBER – LONDON, Kings Place
21ST DECEMBER – SHEFFIELD, Library Theatre
23RD DECEMBER – BRISTOL, St George’s
Ticket links and more information via:
www.ladymaisery.com | www.jimmyandsidduo.com