Mousehold

Led by Georgia Shackleton on fiddle and vocals, with Nic Zuppardi on mandolin and Aaren Bennett on guitar, the East Anglian Shackleton Trio draw inspiration from British, American and Scandinavian folk traditions, paired with Shackleton’s flair for sourcing unsung gems from East Anglia, rooting the trio in their local history and traditions.

Fittingly, Mousehold was recorded on the edge of Mousehold Heath, on the medieval city boundary of Norwich. It’s a good place from which to start out with a set of songs that glide across land and water, history and the present. Opener ‘No Road Across Mousehold’ is based on a broadside ballad from the 1800s (‘Crackshots of Norwich’), set alongside self-penned songs about legendary locals, including Norwich’s Fortean Wild Man Peter – the mysterious, raised-by-wolves 17th-century East Anglian equivalent of Kaspar Hauser. ‘Ballad of Barton Broad’ comes via Peter Kennedy from Norfolk singer Harry Cox, and among the songs and ballads are strong tunes, including ‘Byard’s Leap’, inspired by the Lincolnshire story of a witch and a blind horse, and Nic Zuppardi’s tune set ‘Hold the Line/Mandy Lynn’, plus a slice of extravagant Norwegian fiddle work in Annbjørg Lien’s ‘Wackidoo’.