In late 2019 the folk experimentalists Harp & a Monkey released their long-awaited fourth album ‘The Victorians’ (reviewed here), and then got three shows into a 30-date promotional tour in the spring of 2020 when the pandemic struck. Three-years of work cut-off in its promotional prime.
It is the kind of story that will be all too familiar to so many of the artists we feature here at Folk Radio UK.
So what do you do to keep your work alive?
Well, in the case of Harp & a Monkey, they have been heading out into the landscapes of their native north of England (Lancashire) every week and recording acoustic versions of their songs to post up every Friday on their social media sites.
And now, their harpist and guitar player Simon Jones (an award-winning animator and photographic artist) has made a stunning short film to accompany the title track of that last album.
The trio’s singer and storyteller Martin Purdy explained: “We had the 12-months following the release of the last album very well planned out, and then we all know what came next.
“We should by now have completed our first full promotional tour and expected to have put out a couple of singles with PR, but the money to pay for the singles would have come from the tour.
“Simon had, however, already begun work on a new short film for the title track and recently finished it. We thought we might as well share it rather than have it languish in our archive.
“So, we hope that people will enjoy the video to the single that is no longer a single – and look forward to being able to get back to proper performances and promotional processes at some point in 2021!”
You can view the acoustic sessions in the landscape at the band’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. Here they are performing The Pilgrim’s Cross on the West Pennines in the summer.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Harpandamonkey/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Harpandamonkey
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/harpandamonkey/videos
Website: http://www.harpandamonkey.com/