CD.Reviews
Sweet Nightingale    Revisited    Gown of Green    Morning Tempest

Morning Tempest WBCD 001   (now deleted)

(They are) terrific performers of English traditional material ... a great delight to come across music that's got that 'edge of authenticity' ... very traditional, very English but also wonderfully done ... for my money one of the best traditional (albums) to come out in years. I've been playing it ever since I got it. I think it's fantacca ..!

Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2


By being totally unassuming, nothing flash and very straightforward, the Threlfalls have conjured something rather special here . . . There's a coy, almost understated atmosphere, in a production skilfully handled by both artists, guests and that good chap Oliver Knight.

Quite rightly the focus is the harmony between Jane and Amanda which chills on cuts like Bushes and Briars, where shorn of all accompaniment their voices twist and spiral in close embrace. Backing is kept to a stark minimum, either melodeon, anglo concertina or guitar and rarely more than two instruments are present as familiar folk tales tumble from the speakers and sparkle again in the Threlfall mode.

They seem to revel in selecting chestnuts and reviving them. The English bias is welcome . . . this is an Albion piece, the sleeve notes - yes, proper sleeve notes - make that clear. Just to illustrate the point, I never really thought in a thousand years I'd ever be enchanted by yet another version of Linden Lea . . . but here, it's absolutely pristine, slowed to a stately, elegant rate that lifts and rises on the back of such unaffected singing. There's none of the assumed folkstyle about this pair; these vocals are 100% natural.

Other stuff to impress . . . Young and Single Sailor - a jolly way to kick off with a box and Carthy-style guitar line and a class set of pipes singing the story of virtue rewarded; To Althea From Prison which does Dave Swarbrick proud; and Hedger & Ditcher, bouncing with an earthy resonance before surging into Sorry the Day.

With well placed tune sets to leaven the songs and showcase the talents of backroom boys Martin Ellison and Roger Edwards, I doubt I'll hear such a complete and accomplished release in traditional style for quite a while. All in all a bit of a belter.

Simon Jones , fROOTS


This is a very 'English' record, mainly of very old songs with a few musical interludes . . . Jane and Amanda's vocals gain much from sympathetic accompaniment on melodeon, whistle, concertina and guitar by Martin Ellison and Roger Edwards.

The girls' harmonies are mellow and true and they have the ability to slip easily into unison at the right time . . . it's good that younger singers can still sing so unaffectedly.

There are some excellent tracks here. 'Linden Lea' for instance: that wonderful lyrical old English song has been long neglected . . and it's good to hear it again. In a similar vein, there's a splendid version of the old Irish song 'The Lark in the Clear Air' beloved of Owen Brannigan and well worth a revival.

There's one song from an undisputed line of tradition, the Copper Family's version of 'The Banks of Claudy', given a syncopated rhythm which is not at all disrespectful to its origins in the Sussex downs. Jane and Amanda's view of the English singing tradition does them great credit.

Jim Bainbridge, The Living Tradition


Sweet Nightingale    Revisited    Gown of Green    Morning Tempest