So Slowly Slowly Got She Up

Drones, samples, feedback, accordion and the wavering tension of her voice on a set of great traditional material make Elle Osborne's first album since her 2000 debut a compelling listen. Opening your album with Alasdair Roberts playing an arresting but wildly out-of-tune guitar figure, as she does on ‘Bonnie George Campbell’, demands a certain chutzpah.

Osborne's vocal technique owes a good deal to the late Peter Bellamy (she features on the excellent Oak, Ash & Thorn album, reviewed in #76), though some may be averse to the warble that drifts into her voice. There's a wide range of instrumental support – scuzzy electric guitar from Scott Smith, accordion from John McCarthy, Jamie Savage on e-bow (an electronic drone-maker for electric guitar, which summons up a kind of keening, banshee sound) and the outstanding drumming of Alex Neilson from the Trembling Bells. The repertoire is from the English tradition, and Osborne provides brief notes on source singers – a courtesy that does not always appear on traditional folk releases. So ‘I Drew my Ship,’ we learn, is drawn from both Shirley Collins and the High Level Ranters of Northumbria, ‘Lay Me Low’ takes its form from John Tams and The Albion Band, while ‘My Coffin Shall be Black’ is from four distinct sources – and that is how the folk tradition shifts weight, mutates, and changes the locks. It's a welcome follow-up to her 2000 debut, and her first return to studio recording since a serious car crash in 2008. The result is vivid and contemporary sounding while rooted in the deep colour field of traditional song.