Friday (10 March), sees the release of Blackletter Garland, the debut album from Hack-Poets Guild featuring Lisa Knapp, Marry Waterson & Nathaniel Mann. Thomas Blake reviewed the album for Folk Radio here and concluded:
It’s tempting to say that this is a blueprint for how folk music should be made, but prescriptive statements like that are narrow and limiting, and Blackletter Garland is the opposite of that. It shows many possible futures of folk music, all of them varied and vibrant.
Thomas Blake, Folk Radio
Today, we have the pleasure of sharing their new visualiser video, the fourth in a series of gorgeous animations by Marry Waterson. The latest is for the album track Something To Love Me, described in our review as “a calmly delivered, tantalisingly modern-sounding plea for love. The electric guitars and keyboards move easily between subtlety and drama in a way that almost recalls trip-hop giants Portishead.” Marry expands on this folk ballad (Ballad – Roud Number: V4408 1860) below, which, despite its age, resonates across time.
Marry Waterson on ‘Something to Love Me’
On first reading, this ballad looked like a Moon, June, Spoon sickly rhyming affair, but when I got to the line “Something that loves me, not as summer friends love”, I thought, oh, this is lovely, it has depth.
Then the line “Something that clings to me – even a bird” – so terribly lonely.
Finishing with “That I may still in this hollow world find, there’s something left to be loving and kind”, and isn’t that a statement for the times? Some Days it’s hard to find the love in this warring, planet destroying, poverty stricken madness populated by corrupt politicians.
There was no melody to go with the words, so I sang my own into my phone and sent it to Laurence Hunt. I thought a trip-hop beat would be a good place to start, and then Barney Morse Brown added his beautiful Cello. Gerry Diver brought the drama and further loveliness.
Hack-Poets Guild Tour Dates
Hack-Poet’s Guild will be touring in March 2023 and will be joined by band members Duotone and Laurence Hunt.
Live dates 2023
17th March – Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds
18th March – More Music, Morecambe
19th March – Social, Hull
23rd March – Cecil Sharpe House, London
24th March – North Wall, Oxford (OCM)
25th March – Folk House, Bristol
26th March – Exeter, Phoenix
Ticket Links: https://sounduk.net/events/hack-poets-guild/
Pre-Order the album – Bandcamp | OLI Records
More: https://hackpoetsguild.com/
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