Maggie Holland [Down To The Bone]
Here's a disc that's making it's first appearance in my Blog, in fact it's the first time i've ever played it, i saw it on Ebay for a fairly cheap price, listened to some samples, and was impressed enough to obtain it, it's a compilation album, some of her best known songs, i guess she's a Folk Artist, a bit like Joan Baez i guess, sparse instrumentation, i admit that it's only a first listen, so a really well informed opinion of her will take more listens, but i like what i hear already.
Maggie Holland is English, not sure how old she is, but i would guess she was born in the Fifties, so putting her roughly around sixty today, this album was recorded in 1991, in fact not a compilation album per se, but rather a re-recording of all her best music, the front cover photo [by Dave Peabody] is a beaut, a close up head shot, lots of out of focus, which works so well, most important is in focus eye, it has a gorgeous stream of side sunlight on the right, bringing wonderful highlights to the mainly in shadow face, and the somewhat haphazard lettering is excellent, and well placed too.
Of these 17 songs, the one's that caught my eye / ears the most were 2-3 & 14, and i would like to talk about each here,
2 Black Crow [2:37] - She plays banjo, and sings about social and political issues, this track is really sparse just Holland singing and playing her banjo, there's a degree of talk-singing, very much the style of old Folk, yes i like the banjo, and i like the middle instrumental refrain [1:26-1:43], it's well played, and well recorded, her voice is marvellously caught as well, even though she does do covers, this isn't the one by Joni Mitchell.
3 Levi Stubbs Tears [3:40] - A Billy Bragg song, still sparse, some nice guitar work going on here, about a lonely woman, runs away from home, marries too young, gets injured by her husband, ends up alone, it's the 'ordinariness' of the everyday that really gets to me, most people sing about something profound, but this songs hits you with lyrics like 'she takes off the Four Tops tape, and puts it back in its case', huh?, really important stuff, especially since the previous verse she got shot by her Husband!, sounds like two guitars here, making a beautiful noise, i love the way the beginning chords start up again halfway through [2:16+], a glorious moment of repetition, incidentally Levi Stubbs was the lead singer of the Four Tops, still not exactly sure what his tears are though!.
14 Company Policy [3:14] - Banjo again, and with a gentle tapping percussion, it's a Martin Carthy song, sounds like a song about the Falklands War, and some girl's love died in battle, references Margaret Thatcher at the end too, a nice lilt to the song, twelve lovely verses, best lyric 'an empty shell pressed to my ear, the only sound is the sound of cash'.
This album makes me want to explore other Artists more, especially Billy Bragg.
Maggie Holland is English, not sure how old she is, but i would guess she was born in the Fifties, so putting her roughly around sixty today, this album was recorded in 1991, in fact not a compilation album per se, but rather a re-recording of all her best music, the front cover photo [by Dave Peabody] is a beaut, a close up head shot, lots of out of focus, which works so well, most important is in focus eye, it has a gorgeous stream of side sunlight on the right, bringing wonderful highlights to the mainly in shadow face, and the somewhat haphazard lettering is excellent, and well placed too.
Of these 17 songs, the one's that caught my eye / ears the most were 2-3 & 14, and i would like to talk about each here,
2 Black Crow [2:37] - She plays banjo, and sings about social and political issues, this track is really sparse just Holland singing and playing her banjo, there's a degree of talk-singing, very much the style of old Folk, yes i like the banjo, and i like the middle instrumental refrain [1:26-1:43], it's well played, and well recorded, her voice is marvellously caught as well, even though she does do covers, this isn't the one by Joni Mitchell.
3 Levi Stubbs Tears [3:40] - A Billy Bragg song, still sparse, some nice guitar work going on here, about a lonely woman, runs away from home, marries too young, gets injured by her husband, ends up alone, it's the 'ordinariness' of the everyday that really gets to me, most people sing about something profound, but this songs hits you with lyrics like 'she takes off the Four Tops tape, and puts it back in its case', huh?, really important stuff, especially since the previous verse she got shot by her Husband!, sounds like two guitars here, making a beautiful noise, i love the way the beginning chords start up again halfway through [2:16+], a glorious moment of repetition, incidentally Levi Stubbs was the lead singer of the Four Tops, still not exactly sure what his tears are though!.
14 Company Policy [3:14] - Banjo again, and with a gentle tapping percussion, it's a Martin Carthy song, sounds like a song about the Falklands War, and some girl's love died in battle, references Margaret Thatcher at the end too, a nice lilt to the song, twelve lovely verses, best lyric 'an empty shell pressed to my ear, the only sound is the sound of cash'.
This album makes me want to explore other Artists more, especially Billy Bragg.
