Archangel Hill

by Shirley Collins

Overview

Shirley Collins' return to recording has been as rewarding as it is surprising. Nearly 40 years after one of the giants of British folk stepped away from her career in music, she made an unexpected and satisfying comeback album with 2016's Lodestar; 2020's Heart's Ease proved to be even better. It was the work of a singer whose instrument was weathered by time, but whose skill as an interpreter and a storyteller was as keen as ever. 2023's Archangel Hill offers a brief taste of what Collins was like as a performer shortly before her retirement, with a live recording of "Hand and Heart" recorded in Sydney, Australia in 1980, but the other 12 tracks came from sessions recorded in 2022. If her voice is lower and wavers a bit, she absolutely knows how to inhabit a character and make it come to life, a priceless gift in a musical form dominated by first-person narratives. As on Heart's Ease, Archangel Hill was produced and arranged by Ian Kearey of Oysterband, who is also Collins' musical director. His accompaniment is elegant and evocative without ever taking the focus away from Collins, and she gives these tales of love, misfortune, and adventure a vivid reality and no small amount of grit. (Discreet yet unapologetic details of seduction pop up in several tracks.) Collins and her accompanists approach these songs with an eye toward historical accuracy, but without treating them as museum pieces; the electric guitar and sound effects on "High and Away" and the title track absolutely serve the songs, giving them an atmosphere that's a fine match for the lyrics and Collins' voice while delicately nudging the music into the 21st century. Collins has said that what drew her to traditional folk music were the songs telling tales of working people, and a listen to Archangel Hill bears this out, and if our culture has changed, the emotions she expresses here have not. Collins has suggested Archangel Hill may be her final album, and it would be a shame if that were true, but her late period work has arguably made a better case for her talents and lasting importance than her last LPs of the 1970s. Archangel Hill documents a singular artist with a tremendous command of her gifts -- no small accomplishment for someone who was 87 when this was released. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	05/26/2023
Label:	Domino
UPC:	0887828049424

Tracks

1. Fare Thee Well My Dearest
2. Lost in a Wood
3. The Captain with the Whiskers
4. June Apple
5. The Golden Glove
6. High and Away
7. Oakham Poachers
8. Hares on the Mountain
9. Hand and Heart
10. The Bonny Labouring Boy
11. Swaggering Boney
12. How Far Is It to Bethlehem
13. Archangel Hill

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Shirley Collins   Primary Artist