Shirley and Dolly Collins - Glenlogy

Often seen as a mere companion piece to the previous year's Anthems In Eden, Love, Death... is, perhaps, Shirley and Dolly Collins' true masterpiece. Both albums, significantly, appeared originally on the Harvest label; the home of progressive rock, but also of some truly out-there cross-pollinated acts such as the Third Ear Band and Kayak. Shirley began her career as a companion to Alan Lomax on his song-collecting trips around the states and by the mid-sixties had claimed her place in the folk pantheon by fusing traditional ballads with newer song structures by accompanists such as a young Davey Graham.

On the previous Anthems (1969) her sister helped create a loose concept around a series of renaissance songs, underpinned by the virtuosity of members of the Early Music Consort of London such as Christopher Hogwood, Alan Lumsden and Adam Skeaping;plus the percussion of Pentangle's Terry Cox. By 1970, with both sisters in marital crises (both albums were produced by Shirley's husband, Austin John Marshall) the stage was set for a far bleaker set, albeit with the same band.

It's as though Collins poured her strife into her choice of material. These traditional tales are heavy with gloomy metaphor. The opening ''Death And The Lady'' recounts the struggle of a woman with the reaper. Songs such as ''Polly On The Shore'', ''Plains Of Waterloo'' and ''Geordie'' all take the loss of a loved one as their main theme; while elsewhere maidens are frequently mistreated (''The Outlandish Knight'', ''Are You Going To Leave Me?'') or even murdered (''The Oxford Girl'' and the frankly self-explanatory ''Young Girl Cut Down In Her Prime'').

In keeping with this material, Dolly's arrangements are sparser; giving Shirley's voice more space to approach an almost trance-like state. Yet for all the flattened (and quite often musically naïve) delivery she manages to retain a wonderful humanity. It's as if her pain raises the material to an almost universal level of significance. But then again, by this point she well knew that these snippets of our history had been forged from centuries of common experience. They're archetypes in which all of our cultural expressions are rooted and, as such, transcend any 'Olde Englishe' stereotype you care to put on them. This is one album that'll still be as relevant in a hundred years time. Haunting.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Shirley
• Dolly
• Collins
• Glenlogy
• Folk
• English

[DasLevel]

HASTINGS FOR EVER

[66gadus]

gorgeous song & arrangement - one of my favourites by shirley & dolly - first heard this on the compilation album Picnic - very good too!

[caley956]

Fudzy, maybe you haven't heard "No Roses" by Shirley Collins - and Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, and Dave Mattacks amongst others?All of whom played on Liege and Lief of course. But thanks for the stern warning, I must learn what REAL folk music is sometime.

[robcmoseley]

I wish someone would post Anthems in Eden I had my copy nicked at a party in 1972.......

[fudzy62]

i wish people could really get their teeth into this.there are far too many morons out there who believe the hype about 'liege and lief '(by fairport convention) being " the best british folk album ever" this is REAL folk music they should learn how to appreciate folk music by listening to albums like this.

[Jarrahnut]

Hello Shirley. You are such a sweet person. Your music is beautiful. Your influence on the British Folk Music scene is immeasurable. You are an absolute treasure.

Greetings to you from Colin in Jarrahdale, Western Australia.

[rps1958]

I heard "Glenlogie" on the harvest sampler "Picnic. A breath of fresh air". I always imagined Harvest records to be a wonderous place filled with beautiful sounds.

I do so agree with friendliers comments. I picture them in court, mocking/warning a king but remaining untouchable.

Shirley's voice seems to occupy a frequency all on its own. Somewhere beyond calm, beneath shrill, this side of stark, but outside of full.

[friendlier]

What a wonderful piece you've written to accompany what I agree with you is the better of the two albums. Love, Death and the Lady is an album that utterly changes the mood you listen to it in, if not the very light in the room.