No Roses

Shirley Collins and The Albion Country Band | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: June 7, 2005
• Label: Castle Music
• Copyright: 2005 Sanctuary Records Group Inc under exclusive license from Sanctuary Records Group Ltd
• Total Length: 34:58
• Genres: Folk/Traditional British & Celtic Folk, Folk/Traditional Folk, Rock/Folk Rock
• ASIN: B000QR1W40
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,340 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Englishness, December 1, 2004

By 

Michael Crowley (Albany, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Roses (Audio CD)

I have to admit I was a little disappointed with this CD at first. I was hoping for something more like Liege and Lief, what with so many alums of that best folk rock record ever present (on one track or another, everybody but Sandy Denny and Dave Swarbrick). But this is very much an Ashley Hutchings project, and Hutchings left Fairport Convention because he thought their sound wasn't folky enough. Another way to look at this is that it's an electric Shirley Collins record. The point is it doesn't rock all that hard-its still electric, still kinda folk rock, but it has a much more gentle, rural vibe. The only song that strongly calls Liege and Lief to mind is The Murder of Maria Marten, which is a minor masterpiece. It alternates verses describing the murder that sound like a cross between Matty Groves and The Deserter with verses where the condemned man addresses his listeners from the gallows sung by Shirley, her voice bathed in echo, accompanied by a single hurdy gurdy. If only the whole CD was as good as this song!

But if you take the rest of the CD on it's own terms, it's pretty interesting. Hutchings and Collins were trying to revitalize traditional English music, which they saw as moribund and endangered by the spread of American and Celtic music. The result is so unrepentantly unabashedly English it's almost exotic, like a kind of world music, as foreign-sounding in it's whiter-than-white way as the latest disc out of Mali or Tuva. They're not afraid of concertinas or fol-a-diddle fol-a-day choruses here. But, for my money, they make them work. It doesn't sound corny, it sounds rootsy--English roots, mate (although, to be honest, The Little Gypsy Girl and Hal-An-Tow do kinda push the corniness threshold). We're not talkin' uptight repressed top hat and umbrella British English, we're talkin' earthy peasant English, singing for pints in the pub dancing round the May Pole bringing in the sheep screwing in the hay English. And some of the melodies are really beautiful, particularly The Banks of the Bann (with Shirley's sister Dolly on piano) and Just as the Tide Was Flowing (given a more rocked-out treatment twenty years later by 10,000 Maniacs).

Shirley is in fine voice (she describes her voice in the accompanying notes as "moldy and strange, but at least it's my own", which is a very fair assessment), although she does get buried a bit on the louder songs-she's no Sandy Denny. Her voice is more fragile, but that fragility can make it very affecting. It has a salt of the earth quality that I find very appealing, and it is of course quite, quite English.

The arrangements are excellent-varied and very evocative, with interesting mixes of instruments (electric guitar, medieval instruments, accordion, even the sound of a horse-drawn cart on one song) but they're a little tight-not a lot of soloing, which is, again, a bit of a disappointment given the fact that Richard Thompson is aboard. But I think the idea was to keep the focus on the songs rather than on soloists.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars locked on, entering brain..., October 24, 2006

By 

Edward Walsh (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No Roses (Audio CD)

This album has been with me since first released in or about 1971. It still holds fascination and the best songs resound with the inevitability of the great folk songs.

The opening song "Claudy Banks" which is one of those "will my love be faithful to me while I am at sea?" ballads and "I think I will test her!" has turned circles in my mind for years as I try to take in its simple but fascinating lyrics. It has a mesmerising tune, memorably introduced by a round of drums and Shirley's voice, before the full band launches into mid tempo electric guitar band, with an outro of crumhorns or the like.

The "Banks of the Bann" is a sad lament by a poor man not allowed by her cruel parents to marry his beloved. He goes down and his end is sad but there may not be a more beautiful melody in song.

"Just as the tide was a flowing" is like the folk song equivalent of "Wasn't born to follow" and is just as striking - complete with phasing in the break, of course!

"Hal an Tow" takes the coming of summer seriously (as one should), and sets out the old practices from a Cornwall town. It makes me want to go there.

"The poor murdered woman" takes an unsolved murder and a found body and clangs and builds inexorably through the process of discovery and sounding about, culminating in a promise of judgment to come at the last trumpet, even for those who have done these deeds and have been undetected in this life. Grim, perhaps, but also done with style and with a fine melody and singing.

I could go on, but each track holds luminous joy, and you should discover them for yourself. If you like the ballad tradition, be it English, Irish, Scots, or Appalachian, this album is for you. It also is one of the great "electric" folk and folk-style albums, the equal of "Unhalfbricking", Liege and Lief", "Henry the human Fly" and "I want to see..."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best, March 19, 2005

By 

Grehan (Aquitaine and Oxford) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Roses (Audio CD)

One of the two or three* best records I have ever heard. I return to it again and again. Uplifting and sad and liltingly happy in equal measures. Shirley Collins' outstanding voice is strong and true. Listen to the melodic beauty that underpins the tragic sadness of the words on Banks of the Bann or Van Dieman's Land. History. You'll understand the fundamental English connection with traditional Irish and traditional American ballads. Such quality. Such depth and musicianship. And variety, and inspired innovation for it's time. Perfection.

* and . .

Stormcock - Roy Harper (beyond belief)