It’s always a pleasure to share a song and some news from Fay Hield. I interviewed Fay at Priddy Folk Festival back in 2011 when her folk music career was beginning to blossom. Her debut album ‘Looking Glass’ had been released the year before and her new album (Orfeo), which at this point had yet to receive a title, was to be released in a few months time. Apart from my 6 and 7-year-old sons interrupting the interview with some chaotic wrestling in the hospitality tent, it was an interesting chat. She was very open and spoke about her own introduction to folk music and the strong sense of community she felt towards the likes of the Bacca Pipes Folk Club where her father played. “My Dad used to play at Bacca Pipes Folk Club, my mum died when I was a teenager, and a lot of the regulars there took me and my sister under their wing, so they’re a very extended family to me, there’s a feeling of community and family, commitment to each other rather than just a musical, social scene.” Community always seems to be at the forefront of her mind; when I interviewed her, she had not long completed a PhD in ‘English Folk Singing and the Construction of Community’.
Again, linking to the community, she has striven to make the experience of traditional music widely accessible through initiatives such as Sound Post (www.soundpost.org.uk) which, aims to bring ‘song and dance into people’s lives through participation and performance’. She’s also a senior lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Sheffield University who, for those of you interested, also now offer a Distance Learning course in Traditional and World Music.
Following the release of ‘Orfeo‘ in 2012, Fay’s next solo offering came in 2016 with ‘Old Adam’. The in 2020, she released her latest solo release ‘Wrackline‘. In his review of the album, Thomas Blake described Wrackline as “an album full of pleasing and brilliantly executed internal mirrors and unexpected directions. It is a world lovingly crafted by Hield, with its own logic, its own depths of meaning.” He ends the review by highlighting his previous point with “When She Comes”.
“So it is fitting that, with the closing track When She Comes, it comes full circle. Here Hield uses the words of Sarah Hesketh, who writes from the point of view of the hare that first made an appearance in the opening song. The imagery is stunning, the language highly original. The relationship between hare and witch is rendered electric and intimate, almost sexual in its vocabulary of passion. It is wonderfully performed too – Hield gives herself to the song as completely as the hare gives up its body to the witch. It is a rapturous and strangely life-affirming way to end a record that is often haunted by death or loss, and it helps to cement the album as more than a mere collection of songs. Wrackline is a stunning and complete work of art, put together with great care and skill and performed with Hield’s distinctive magic.”
It’s also our Song of the Day which you can watch Fay performing live below from her launch gig. It’s fitting that this is a live performance as Fay Hield is on the road with her Wrackline Tour in September which includes a special online gig, details of which are below.
Fay Hield Wrackline Tour
THU 2 SEPTEMBER – Victoria Hall, Settle
FRI 3 SEPTEMBER – The Greystones, Sheffield
SAT 4 SEPTEMBER – The Constitutional, Leeds
TUE 7 SEPTEMBER – The Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham
WED 8 SEPTEMBER – Live to your LIving Room (live stream)
FRI 10 SEPTEMBER – The Nest Collective, London
SAT 11 SEPTEMBER – Silver Street Sessions, Wiveliscombe
SUN 12 SEPTEMBER – Topsham Folk Club, Topsham
FRI 17 SEPTEMBER – St Mary’s Centre, Chester
Ticket links and details: https://fayhield.com/shows.html
