FOLK
BY JIM WORTH
Martin Simpson and Thomm Jutz
★★★★
Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs Of Mary Sands And Jane Gentry
TOPIC. CD/DL/LP
Wonder in the mountains: transatlantic celebration of Appalachian songs.
On a WW1-era trip to America, collector Cecil Sharp gathered over 90 songs from North Carolina singers Mary Sands and Jane Gentry, part of a huge cache of Appalachian material he believed had survived intact for centuries after going West with English settlers. Subsequent scholars would disagree, and with Brit-folk magus Martin Simpson and German-born Americana expert Thomm Jutz providing sparkly acoustic backing for a raft of British and American singers, Nothing But Green Willow underlines elegantly that the songs have roots all over the UK, and took on significant flavours from black, native American, Celtic and other European traditions during their time in the mountains. Sun-dappled and splendid, Emily Portman’s Fair Annie, Odessa Settles’ Pretty Saro, Angeline Morrison’s The Suffolk Miracle, Cara Dillon’s Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies and Tim O’Brien’s Edwin In The Lowlands Low ensure that this is anything but an academic exercise.