Tomorrow sees the release of Joshua Burnell‘s stunning new single, a cover of the classic folk song – The Snow It Melts The Soonest. His contemporary arrangement is catchy as ever, but there’s no mistaking the dark, brooding undercurrent. He talks more on that below, but from Burnell’s gorgeous guitar fingerwork to the piano accents and driving percussion, it’s quite unlike any other version I’ve heard to date – it’s truly exceptional.
Today we have the pleasure of sharing the accompanying video; it features footage that Frances Sladen and Joshua collected on ambles around Yorkshire. Before we get into the weeds of the song, Joshua is on tour with his full band that also includes festivals: Costa Del Folk (Ibiza) and Sidmouth Folk Festival, see the tour poster and link below for more details.
While The Snow It Melts The Soonest is a well known classic folk song, popularised by the likes of Anne Briggs (it appeared on her self-titled 1971 Topic release) and later by Dick Gaughan on his groundbreaking album Handful of Earth (1981, Topic), few seem to reference its meaning. It was once named ‘Male Chauvinist Pig Song of the Year’ by folk singer Tom Gilfellon who covered it, with an apology, on his 1976 album In the Middle of the Tune released on Topic Records and on which he was joined by Martin Carthy, Johnny Handle And Liz & Stefan Sobell. In the liner notes, he wrote:
I still tend to the view that it might just be Male Chauvinist Pig Song of the Year… I recognise the arrogance of the words, and there I’ll let it be. It has a most beautiful tune, however, which was collected by the Newcastle radical Thomas Doubleday from a street singer (it’s not clear who wrote the words). I apologise to my female friends and to my wife Maggie in advance. The leopard cannot change his spots nor I my grunt but we can cunningly camouflage them if we’re lucky.
The lyrics were not lost on Joshua Burnell either, who was left in a conundrum…what to do?
Joshua:
When I was commissioned to record this song, I was stuck in a bit of a conundrum: it is a beautiful song with ugly lyrics. In essence, it is the monologue of a self-righteous misogynist, saying no matter how much he infuriates a woman, she’ll always come crawling back to him. All of this is told through pretty metaphors about melting snow, but it still left me feeling uncomfortable. Anne Briggs evened the playing field in the ’60s by swapping the genders, but I already sang her version as part of the Seasons Project. Besides, does swapping the roles make it any better?
Or did I need to rewrite the lyrics? No – pretending these kinds of attitudes don’t exist doesn’t make them go away. Instead, I decided to step into character as the villain and sing the original lyrics, collected by Thomas Doubleday from a Newcastle street singer in the 1820s, making this an approximate 200th anniversary of its first publication. We all have an arrogant, cruel side to our personalities, so perhaps this song is a reminder to examine that part of ourselves to keep it in check.
For the music video, I wanted to convey a sense of journey to reflect how we’re all on our own journeys to becoming better people. Like in the lyrics, the song is interspersed with natural imagery Frances Sladen and I collected on ambles around Yorkshire.
Throughout the past five-or-so years, I’ve been searching for where I fit into the world of trad music, and where the music fits in with me. This track is the moment I have found that place. It’s a heady mixture of influences from folk revivalists, jazz and psychedelic rock. It sounds both old and contemporary and fits in with where I’m coming from musically. It’s a sneak preview of things to come and an invitation for you to come along with me and the band as we bring the song to life on tour.
Tickets and more details: https://www.joshuaburnell.co.uk/tour
Bandcamp: https://joshuaburnell.bandcamp.com/