Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell self-released their first duo album, You, Golden, almost a year ago. A Featured Album of the Month on Folk Radio at the time, Glenn Kimpton didn’t take long to point out the quality and talent on display across the nine tracks – It “is frightening and fully belies the pair’s ludicrous average age of twenty-one.”
If you’ve never seen them live, then now’s your chance as they head out on tour next week (see dates below).
And here’s a reminder of why you should make the effort:
Glenn Kimpton: “Recorded in just two days, with no studio tools to hand, the music throughout You, Golden is fresh, pure and energised but also varied in its nature…You, Golden is a splendid effort; uplifting, probing and exciting, as well as wise and patient; it is an album to return to and savour. Excellent stuff.”
Glenn also touched on their influences, highlighting the calibre of their playing:
Among a wide variety of others, they mention The Gloaming and Lau as influences in the press release, and these are present from the off, with the patient intro to Adson’s using sparsely played guitar chords to frame a beautifully dreamy violin melody that shifts and ebbs and flows, allowing Louis to get creative along the fretboard. At over eight minutes, the piece is unhurried and diverse in its structure, moving through moods and tempos. It’s a lovely tune and immediately brings to mind other significant musical duos like Dipper Malkin and Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill.
Songs like Nineties allow Louis to further demonstrate his guitar playing chops and indulge his fondness of players like Nic Jones, with a strong melodic opening that sits back part way through to allow Owen in with a lovely fiddle line before the pair spa and intertwine towards the end.
“Hares on the Mountain” is as close to a ‘standard’ as can be found in English traditional music, having been recorded hundreds of times by artists ranging from Shirley Collins and Davy Graham to Alt J. In other traditions, the idea of ‘standards’, from “All The Things You Are” to “Mohabbat” and “Whiskey Before Breakfast”, work almost as a control variable for understanding style and individualism. A fascination with this concept led to Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell choosing to include ‘Hares on the Mountain’ as the only full song on their debut album ‘You, Golden’.
Don’t miss them; dates and links are below:
Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell Tour Dates
14/09/23 – Black Swan Folk Club, York – Tickets
15/09/23 – Bishops House, Sheffield – Tickets
17/09/23 – Band on the Wall, Manchester – Tickets
23/09/23 – Pound Arts, Corsham – Tickets
24/09/23 – Worthy Earth Festival, Basingstoke – Tickets
28/09/23 – Metronome, Nottingham – Tickets
29/09/23 – Kings Place, London – Tickets
We also recently shared news of Owen’s live installation ‘Welcome Here, Kind Stranger’, exploring memory, culture and community through the traditional music Session (read more here).