Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe has launched a campaign to collect 21st century recordings of Cecil Sharps work in order to compile a collection of 3 traditional songs, The Seeds Of Love, Claudy Banks and Barbara Allen .
My contribution was my version of 'Claudy Banks' which I learnt and then recorded on garageband in my kitchen in just one evening.
I'm in the middle of working on my new album 'The Lament of the Black Sheep' so I was only able to give this project limited time and attention. This almost didn't happen, but I'm so glad it did. It was really quite inspiring and I am now toying with the idea of a future album featuring a collection of traditional songs. Perhaps all, as with this one, slightly 'Angeified' (is that a word?!) as I found that changing the melody and phrasing to this song really opened up it's potential.
I'm quite pleased with it, and in the words of the station itself: "Very nice it is, too."
You will find my contribution embedded on the Radio 2 website by clicking on the photo of Cecil or by clicking here.
Posted by Ange Hardy on February 3rd 2014