Anyone that follows Jim Causley will be aware of how proud he is of his Devonian roots which he has celebrated in the past through albums such as ‘Fruits of the Earth’ (2005), ‘Dumnonia’ (2011) and only last winter with ‘A Causley Christmas’ featuring West Country carols as well as medieval and secular carols from around the British Isles.
For his next offering, Jim is shifting away from the lesser-known songs he has introduced us to so far and turned to the ‘BIG Devon favourites’. He told fans:
One aspect of Devonshire song that has long fascinated me is the apparent juxtaposition between the often romantic and haunting songs that Sabine Baring-Gould collected in the late 1800s and the overwhelmingly jolly and humorous songs of the music hall in the 20th century which are now regarded equally as traditional in the county even though Baring-Gould would probably have considered them worthless drivel! These are all part of the rich tapestry of Devonshire song and they are all beautiful roses to me!
This record has been brought to life with superb performances from guest musicians; Nick Wyke & Becki Driscoll – fiddle duo of North Devon, Matt Norman from Okehampton on banjo, mandolin and mandola plus the ‘Mariners Away’ shanty crew of South Zeal adding rousing choruses and harmonies. Oh and Jim Causley on accordions, piano and singing too! The artwork has been beautifully created by the wonderful Karen Cater of Hedingham Fair fame. All musicians and singers have recorded themselves at home but you’d never know it!
A joyful celebration of the county in song that will warm the cockles of any lover of Devon whether at home or in exile, born here or drawn here!
Although originally planned as a Christmas release, COVID has meant that there a few things still up in the air so you can pre-order the album now via his website which we encourage you to do: https://www.jimcausley.co.uk/shop/devonshire-roses/
Devonshire Roses Tracklisting
- Bampton Fair
- The Bell Ringing
- The Blue Flame / Queen of Hearts
- Childe the Hunter
- Devon Glorious Devon
- The Dolton Boys
- The Exeter Carol
- Old Cobley
- The Mallard
- My Lady’s Coach
- Out Stepped Mother and Me
- The Rounding of Cape Horn
- The Slapton Smuggler
- Tavistock Goozey Fair
- Twenty One Years on Dartmoor
- What About a Little Drop o Cider
- Fremington Great Meat Pie
- Blackingstone Ravens
- Ockington
- Widecombe Fair
Plus…
Cyprus Well II – The Lockdown Sessions
When we spoke to Jim recently he also told us that during lockdown Narthen – the band I joined last year – decided to make some demos and Barry Coope asked me to record and send my parts to him via the interweb. I’ve barely done any self-recording before so he talked me through what to do on the computer.
Which got me to thinking “hey I could do this with some of my own music!” and so during lockdown, I began to learn all about home recording and I eventually produced a homemade CD (as I didn’t have the money to pay a recording engineer or guest musicians or someone to do artwork or for it to be professionally pressed etc) of more settings of Charles Causley poems… I burnt the CDs myself and hand drew every single cover myself!”
On the Bandcamp notes, he adds “I am not claiming that it is professional studio quality and the entire package will have a very homemade quality to it… because it is!!! Entirely homemade! But the quality of the artistic vision will be unquestionable!! I have recorded some of my settings of Charles Causley’s poems that I composed back in 2008 and several of these are numbers that never made it onto the original ‘Cyprus Well’ album because there simply wasn’t room or time. The rest of the settings are brand new this year. Some are poems I have long wanted to do something with but never found a way to approach them until now. I have had great fun making this CD, learning as I went along and I hope that people who enjoyed the original Cyprus Well will find some new favourites among these new settings.”
You can order Cyprus Well II on via Bandcamp here: https://jimcausley.bandcamp.com/album/cyprus-well-ii-the-lockdown-sessions