Last month we shared the video for Beneath the Willow, the lead single from Jim Ghedi for his forthcoming new album In The Furrows Of Common Place which is set for release on 22nd January 2021 on Basin Rock.
Compared 2018’s release A Hymn For Ancient Land, we are told this is a deeper plunge inside himself to offer up more of his voice to accompany his profoundly unique and moving compositions. “There were things I was seeing around me and being affected by in my daily life,” he says. “Socially and politically I saw defiance but also hopelessness. I wanted to be honest with the frustration and turmoil I was experiencing.”
That certainly proved to be the case with his lead single, on which we were given that initial sense of what he called “…something more live sounding, punchier, direct, even aggressive“. That same energy resides within ‘Lamentations of Round-Oak Waters‘ which leaves you with a feeling of an almost primal force at play, one so strong that nothing can quell its voice – it lies in the past, the present and future, locked into the constant struggle to survive in a system that only benefits the few in the name of corporate greed.
The single is inspired by the works & life of the late English writer John Clare who was known ”The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet”. The song takes it’s title directly from a poem of his:
“The poem and his life were centred around the time of the land enclosure act in England, where common land was enclosed and lower class farmworkers & labourers and their families were forced into poverty. Subsequently, the countryside across England in the years ahead would be dramatically shaped, changed and managed under the hands of private landowners, ensuring less open access for people. The words in this poem also felt connected to environmental issues going on in Sheffield currently, where local councils were signing private contracts with corporate companies, overriding public protests and allowing the felling of a vast proportion of the cities trees.”
The video was filmed in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland…the album was recorded at Peter Fletcher’s Black Bay Studio far out in Loch Roag on the north-western isles.
Lamentations of Round-Oak Waters’ is also our Song of the Day.
In The Furrows Of Common Place is released 22nd January 2021 on Basin Rock. Pre-Order via:
https://jimghedi.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-furrows-of-common-place
https://www.basinrock.co.uk/records/in-the-furrows-of-common-place/
Photo Credit: Jordan Carroll