We recently shared the news that London band Stick In The Wheel are to release their third album Hold Fast on August 21st 2020. That announcement led with their new single Fake Away and today we get to sample more delights in the form of Budg & Snudg which features none other than John Kirkpatrick ‘one of those irrepressible artists who seems to have been around the English folk scene forever’. It’s also our Song of the Day.
This old song makes mention of Tyburn, which was an execution site in London for 600 years consisting of a triangular gallows. Here, those who fell foul of political, religious and judicial reforms enacted by the state were executed for public entertainment and instruction. Ironically, this is now an up and coming area for the wealthy. The Dead Rat Orchestra based a whole project around it called Tyburnia – A Radical History Of 600 Years Of Public Execution which also included a version of this old song.
Stick in the Wheel on Budg & Snudg:
The day to day life of a 17th Century house burglar, full of London slang – a mish mash of words from all over the world. Trying to survive in a brutal place, and what you can expect at the end of it all, allegedly the words of an inmate of London’s notorious Newgate prison. We wanted that heavy morris rhythm which guest musician John Kirkpatrick exemplifies.
Words from Musa Pedestris, Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes 1536 -1896. Tune by Ian Carter. Arranged by Nicola Kearey and Ian Carter. Guitars, bass Ian Carter, melodeon John Kirkpatrick, drums Siân Monaghan.
Hold Fast is the continuation of Stick In The Wheel’s sonic and immersive journey; ultimately it’s an album of stark contrasts that illuminates themes of hope and resistance, that interweaves traditional folklore with influences as wide as psychedelia, electronica & folk protest music. Having been anointed the ‘medieval Kraftwerk’, both Carter’s and Kearey’s early musical leanings were toward electronic music, jungle and dubstep. These days the band obsessively seek out historical and traditional sources, then weaving in their own experiences of growing up in working-class East London. In an era of stoked nationalism, Kearey and Carter have created a conscious musical work that looks at England’s cultural heritage afresh, highlighting the centuries-old systematic oppression of the working-class. They look back at the lessons and stories our ancestors taught us, showing their ongoing relevance to today. “Nothing changes, we’re all still in the same situation being ruled by the aristocracy, where it’s one rule for them and another for us”, says Carter.
Stream Budg & Snudg: https://stickinthewheel.lnk.to/BudgandSnudg
Pre-Order/Pre-Save Hold Fast: https://stickinthewheel.lnk.to/holdfast