Shirley Collins - An Introduction To (CD)

1.The Foggy Dew
2.I Drew My Ship
3.A Blacksmith Courted Me
4.The False Bride
5.All Things Are Quite Silent
6.Polly Vaughan
7.False True Love
8.Spencer The Rover
9.The Sweet Primeroses
10.Rambleaway
11.March The Morning Sun
12.The Cherry Tree Carol
13.The Moon Shines Bright
14.One Night As I Lay In My Bed
15.Come All You Little Streamers

“Shirley Collins is without doubt one of England’s greatest cultural treasures.” Billy Bragg During the 1960s and ‘70s Shirley Collins was regarded by many as the fi rst lady of folk music, the subsequent decades have only served to enhance that reputation. Between 1955 and 1978 she recorded for the Folkways, Argo, Harvest and Topic labels. Aft er the release of ‘For As Many As Will’ in 1978 she withdrew from performing and the music world aft er developing dysphonia. Shirley recently returned to recording aft er a very long hiatus and is sti ll widely acknowledged as one of the fi nest singers and ambassadors to have emerged during the Folksong Revival of the 1960s. Few singers of the English folk revival have att empted as much on record as Collins – an extraordinary combinati on of fragility and power. “I like music to be fairly straightf orward, simply embellished – the performance without histrionics allowing you to think about the song rather than telling you what to think.” Through an impressive series of experimental recordings Shirley established an extraordinarily sympatheti c marriage of traditi onal songs handed down through generati ons of rural labouring people with ground breaking contemporary arrangements – recordings that have scarcely been equalled in subsequent decades. This collecti on draws together some of her most iconic recordings and will serve as an Introducti on to her very special catalogue of music.