While I appreciate we are only in February, Jim Ghedi‘s In the Furrows of Common Place, which Glenn Kimpton reviewed for Folk Radio here, is already one of my favourite albums of the year. To quote Glenn, one of the many ‘peaches’ on this release is a cover of Ed Pickford’s Ah Cud Hew.
This is such an enticing offering on its own, so immensely powerful that to consider an accompanying video sounds almost too daring for fear of detracting some of that energy carried in Ed Pickford’s lyrics and the incredibly passionate voices of Ghedi and his band. But they have…and thanks to Marry Waterson’s incredible animation work, they have reinforced that power still further. Words cannot describe how this song makes me feel but Ghedi’s message is loud and clear, as it is across the whole of this album…delivered with a real genuine care and sincerity – something you can only achieve through a sense of connection. As far as folk albums go, I’d call this one groundbreaking.
It’s also our Song of the Day.
Jim Ghedi on Ah Cud Hew:
Ah Cud Hew is a song written by North East folk singer & songwriter Ed Pickford, a song from the narrative of an ex-miner suffering the effects of coal disease, a reflection of his working life, his family & the community he was connected to.
I first heard Ed’s version of the song on a folk compilation given to me a few years back. I remember from the opening line it completely flawed me, I had it on repeat for days and couldn’t shake it off, mesmerised by Ed’s voice and his ability with song, to tell a story with such humanity and lyrical imagery.
Around this time, I was doing research into the history of social injustice, the Miners’ strike and more specifically the ‘Battle of Orgreave’. Watching Yvette Vanson’s powerful documentary ‘The Battle for Orgreave’ and finding a huge resource over on the ‘Orgreave truth and justice campaign’ website (https://otjc.org.uk/). Somehow Ed’s song really hit a nerve and correlated with themes I was becoming drawn towards, the starting point of political discourse into the breaking down of communities, state and police brutality and a further control and privatisation over the working classes. But the beauty of Ed’s song is he displays this through the personal perspective and the individual’s narrative connecting the listener by the raw emotion of it.
‘In the Furrows of Common Place’ out now on Basin Rock Records https://jimghedi.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-furrows-of-common-place
Photo Credit: Jordan Carroll