CD.Reviews
Sweet Nightingale    Revisited    Gown of Green    Morning Tempest

Sweet Nightingale WBCD 004

I've been a fan of Lancashire lassies, Jane and Amanda Threlfall, ever since 'Gown of Green', their CD of a few years back. They're great musicians and singers, deeply rooted in the tradition, and working with Roger Edwards (a man who's been making wonderful music for a long time) they've made some great tracks.

I am besotted by the new album...I think it's absolutely beautiful.
Terrific songs and playing and really tight, unfussy arrangements. The girls are in great voice and the accompaniments are brilliant.

Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2


I should probably declare that I believe that the Threlfall's 'Gown of Green' was and is one of the finest Folk CDs ever recorded. So it was with interest that I listened to 'Sweet Nightingale' and horror that I discovered that 'Gown of Green' has been deleted.

'Sweet Nightingale' is another fine collection of English traditional folk songs delivered by Jane and Amanda, two of the finest singers of English folk song. The CD opens with Yellow Handkerchief, a finely paced rendition with a lively accompaniment, followed by No My Love Not I, beautifully sung and simply arranged. These two songs epitomise the whole CD, Jane and Amanda manage to keep the integrity of the songs and the beauty of the melody, their harmonies and vocal arrangements shine throughout.

Roger Edwards provides sympathetic arrangements and beautiful musicianship to the songs, aided and abetted by Jane and Amanda. The two tracks of tunes played by the trio make a pleasant interlude, placed carefully in the running order to heighten the enjoyment.

Ophelia's Song is particularly interesting; from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Brian Bedford, who recorded the CD, has multi-tracked Jane and Amanda into a beautiful choir - a very short song but perfectly formed. Followed by The Bold Grenadier - wonderful.

This CD will inspire club singers to add many of these songs to their repertoire. Songs of special note; Once I Courted a Damsel, Rosemary Lane, Once I Had a True Love, Banks of Sweet Primroses and of course the title track Sweet Nightingale.

The CD cover has extensive notes to accompany the songs, for those who like to know where and when the songs were written, performed and collected. This is a collection of songs without which your folk collection will not be complete.

Andy Knight, What's Afoot magazine, Devon

Jane and Amanda Threlfall ... pour their distinctive vocal blend over the Eng Trad songbook, ably abetted by Roger Edwards. Their performances are restrained, respectful. They're content to let the songs take centre stage. The CD packaging sends out a similar message. It's organised around a sequence of pastoral landscapes essayed in the style of British Railways posters from the 1930s.

Hidden amongst the dense thickets of expository notes are small pictures of the Threlfalls and Roger looking happy to take a break from all that singing and playing. The modesty of the Threlfalls' approach is disarming. You get the feeling that they see themselves as custodians of their songs rather than reinventors or reinterpreters ... their simple, heartfelt immersion in their material fills me with admiration. It's no secret: less really is more.

Raymond Greenoaken, Stirrings magazine


Of the books that I have read, one that has had a great influence on me is 'Waldon Pond and Lessons in Civil Disobedience' by the American essayist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. From this book I learned the wisdom of being able to strip away the unnecessary trappings and trivia of existence and to focus on what is of real value; the true essence of it all. You may ask what this has to do with a review of Threlfall/Edwards 'Sweet Nightingale'? I will explain.

In the excellent sleeve notes that accompany this album, those for track 14 'The Sweet Nightingale' declare that the song is 'a perfect example of intellectual richness through the fewness of wants'. Thoreau could not have said it better and for me it expresses so much of the Threlfall/Edwards approach to and delivery of their music. They seem to understand what is important; what the essence of the song is and, despite their considerable instrumental and vocal abilities, they give only what is appropriate and in proper measure.

Instrumentally they are now of course different from what they were on their first and second albums. The voices are still the same but the accompaniment has subtly changed. To me they sound more like a band. I like it and on the opening track 'Yellow Handkerchief' they sound quite funky. It gets things off to a lively and rhythmic start. Jane and Amanda's playing has a texture and colour that fits the song perfectly; but I do make a special mention of Roger Edwards' anglo concertina which underpins so many of the tracks in a sensitive and yet solid way. One of my favourite tracks is no. 3 'Bonny Labouring Boy'. As it progresses it is beautifully built with delicately applied layers and the anglo weaves it's way like a continuous thread through this song which is a celebration of love and ordinary honest working folk. On track 10 'The Bold Grenadier' the sparsity of the anglo accompaniment reflects the bleakness of the abandoned girl's situation. 'Once I Courted a Damsel' on track 5 is a song that I have not heard before. It is a truly heart-rending tale and in the acknowledgment of the inspiration for including it, i.e. the singing of it by Clive Pownceby, the artistes show a generosity of spirit and a real respect for the music and for others that is so clearly demonstrated in notes on the tunes on tracks 6 and 11.

The Coppers' song 'Pleasant Month of May' is on track 8 and I can imagine that listening to this on a warm summer's afternoon, maybe after a pint or two of real ale, some of us may feel nostalgic for the so-called rural idyll. The sleeve notes on this will put that into perspective. The enjoyment of the artistes in the making of their music is tangible on track 13 'Banks of Sweet Primroses'; it's terrific! These are a few of the highlights of 'Sweet Nightingale' which have particularly appealed to me. The overall quality of this album is impressive and well up to the standard to which we have become accustomed from Threlfall/Edwards.

I am writing this review at home whilst in the process of recovering from heart surgery. It has bucked me up no end and listening to the music has raised my spirits considerably. I don't believe in miracle cures but I am seriously considering petitioning the Dept. of Health to make Threlfall/Edwards available on the NHS. It would have a positive effect on the statistics for depression. But if I don't succeed in persuading the government of the therapeutic powers of this music then I recommend, and this goes against my political grain, go private and buy a copy.

Norman Wilson, FolkNorthWest


Sometimes the work of a reviewer can be easy. The artist or artists set out their ambitions for the record and then the task is to measure ambition against achievement. So it is with the Threlfalls' Sweet Nightingale. They tell us how important it is to them '...that the integrity remains intact...' and they continue to '...reflect the cultural values of that essential England'. For lovers of those 'essential' English songs, Baring-Gould, Broadwood, Grainger and Sharp are all mentioned in the text and these sources are tapped, investigated, researched and the songs reinvigorated.

Accompaniment is on bouzouki, fiddle, guitar and keyboard plus the gentle, skilful concertina playing of Roger Edwards who leads two tunes. There is a lot of rhythmic emphasis in the accompaniment and in the case of 'Banks of Sweet Primroses' I feel this leads the song astray into a harsh, edgy direction that the rest of the album does not take. Contrast the title track with its simple concertina and fiddle background. There is a lot of pastoral England in there too, reflected well in the sleeve design reminiscent of 1930s Southern Railway posters.

Roger plays the tune 'Princess Royal', used for a double jig by Bampton Morris, and two polkas of uncertain origins learned at sessions. The women sing two unaccompanied songs, the short 'Ophelia's Song' from Hamlet and 'The Spotted Cow', each song demonstrating the strong, clear harmonies typical of their singing throughout the record.

So do the Threlfalls achieve their stated aims? Certainly there is freshness to the treatment of the material. Sometimes this is delicate, sometimes bold, sometimes beguiling, sometimes refined but always with an ear to the nature of the song. So ambition and achievement do seem to match. And the sound man gets a cheer too. Well done, Brian Bedford.

David Eyre, English Dance & Song

Sweet Nightingale    Revisited    Gown of Green    Morning Tempest