New York, NY (Top40 Charts) As the release of Lodestar - Shirley Collins' first album in 38 years - draws closer, Shirley is pleased to share a third track, 'Pretty Polly', from the forthcoming record.
The song 'Pretty Polly' comes from the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Shirley says of the song:
"A song found throughout England and the U.S., this version is the one I recorded from Mrs
Ollie Gilbert in Timbo, Arkansas, in 1959. Alan Lomax, with whom I was working, had settled down to talk and drink with Oscar Gilbert, a fine singer, fiddle player, maker of moonshine, and known as the fightingest man in the county. I'd been banished to join the womenfolk - but I had the recording machine with me, and took down several songs from Oscar's wife Ollie, a good singer in true Ozark mountain style, and a great source of songs. Pretty Polly remained a favourite of mine for over fifty-five years; I could never quite get out of my head her use of Nunited instead of United and the way she fitted in 'I'm a Nunited States soldier from
George Washington I came' in a line that didn't quite have enough notes!"
Directed by Layla Atkinson, the video was given one stipulation by Shirley, to incorporate a very special kind of puppet, a jig doll. These puppets come to life when jigged on a vibrating board and have been popular street entertainment for hundreds of years. Inspired by 'Pretty Polly' and these jig dolls, Atkinson decided to handcraft all the scenes in the video from cardboard and timber and shot it on 16MM on the hottest
September day of the last 100 years.
Lodestar - to be released on November 4th through Domino Records - is a collection of English, American and Cajun songs dating from the 16th Century to the 1950s, recorded at Shirley's home in Lewes by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown of Cyclobe and produced and musically directed by Ian Kearey.
Additionally, Shirley Collins will be performing at two record shops next month to launch the album - Rough Trade East in London alongside a Q&A with Pete Paphides and Union
Music Store, Lewes where she will be joined by Brighton Morris Men.
Born in Hastings in 1935, Shirley was fascinated by folk songs as she was growing up, songs she heard on the radio or sung by her grandparents in Anderson shelters. She left home for London to immerse herself in the burgeoning folk scene; at a party held by Ewan MacColl she met Alan Lomax, and in 1959 she joined him in the USA on the renowned field trip 'Southern Journey', recording American folk songs and blues, a formative journey for her personally and professionally.
On her return to England, Shirley cemented her role at the forefront of the Folk Revival, recording over a dozen albums including the influential Folk Roots, New Routes with avant-garde guitarist Davy Graham, and No Roses, from which The Albion Country Band was formed. However, in the 1980s, Shirley lost her singing voice - later diagnosed as a form of dysphonia - and withdrew from performing live. It was only in 2014, after coaxing from
David Tibet (Current 93), that Shirley sang in public for the first time since 1982.
Though Shirley Collins (MBE) has been absent from the music scene for many years, her impact has not diminished, the likes of Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Stewart Lee and
Angel Olsen laud her and a documentary The Ballad of Shirley Collins is currently in progress. Additionally, she was given the 'Good Tradition' award at the BBC
Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2008, elected President of the English Folk Dance & Song Society in the same year and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in
Music from Sussex University this year. Shirley released her first memoir,
America Over the Water, in 2004 and is currently working on her second book.
"Shirley is a time traveller, a conduit for essential human aches, one of the greatest artists who ever lived, and yet utterly humble" - Stewart Lee
Friday 4th November
Shirley Collins @ Union
Music Store, Lewes
Monday 7th November
Shirley Collins in conversation with Pete Paphides + live performance @ Rough Trade East, London
Lodestar will be available on limited edition deluxe vinyl with a 24 page 12" booklet featuring song notes by Shirley Collins and sleeve notes by Stewart Lee and a signed print (signed print is available exclusively via Dom Mart), limited edition deluxe CD with 28 page booklet and standard vinyl. For more details visit Dom Mart.
