When the Sun Goes In

After touring extensively for 12 years with the band Maia, Robinson has recently preferred to explore the more traditional roots of acoustic music, playing solo as well as with Redwood River Band and Moorlanders. He also runs the Leeds Old Time Session and his second solo album was recorded in the spring of 2020 during lockdown at his parents' house in Sheffield, using one microphone, one banjo and his mum's old nylon string guitar. ‘In the darkest moments of the last few months,' he reports, ‘I turned to music and nature to help me process and reassess, taking my banjo out for walks in the local woods and singing these songs. I decided to record these traditional songs and tunes that brought me solace as a sort of therapy and to give me a sense of purpose in a time when everything felt lost.' After a preamble like that, you could be forgiven for fearing a rather morose listening experience but there is instead a certain solace in the sheer purity of these old tunes rendered so sparsely. By their nature, most of the tunes will be familiar, only adding to the affecting nature of a fine collection.