Elspeth Anne has some live dates coming up supporting the excellent Jacken Elswyth (dates below), who we also highly recommend. Elspeth has been featured a number of times on Folk Radio, and she recently released her third album ‘Mercy Me‘, described by Folk Radio’s Thomas Blake as ‘an album full of ideas, but more importantly, full of feeling, a raw, moving triumph.’ Being Bandcamp Friday, today is the perfect time to purchase her album…we highly recommend you get the CD which has been beautifully put together (also available digitally).
Below is her video for Mercy Me, the album’s title track. Elspeth comments on the song and video:
A discordant and menacing track composed on a drone of transposed shruti box. The song uses the imagery of witch trials – enforced drowning, burning, hanging – to convey the same sentiment: a feeling of being manipulated, controlled and wrongly blamed. The lyrics display an anger at being made a scapegoat for another’s sins. The parting line of “no one is looking for me” is a declaration of freedom rather than sadness.
For the video, I wanted something simple and more of a complimentary visual than a narrative film. The slow pace fits the drone and the glitchy-ness adds to the ominous quality of the song.
The rowan tree and berries are well-known in British folklore as protection against evil and are a common around the Welsh Borders area I live in. it was filmed in the Grwyne Fawr Valley in the Black Mountains.
video by KIDMILK & Elspeth Anne.
Although not from the album, I wanted to also share this recent live video from Elspeth (video & graphics by KIDMILK), performing the traditional lullaby Heap of Horses with Helen Melon, some of you may also know it as All the Pretty Little Horses.
Buy Mercy Me on Bandcamp
https://elspethanne.bandcamp.com/
Upcoming live dates (supporting Jacken Elswyth)
31st March – The Triangle, Shipley: tickets
2nd April – Bishops House, Sheffield: tickets
24th April – The Prince Albert, Stroud
25th April – TBA, Bishops Castle
+ more coming soon!