Review: Seven for old England

Subject: RE: Review: Seven for old England
From: GUEST,Claire M
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 03:12 PM

Hiya,

I've just got '7 For Old England'. Didn't realise Maddy wrote the last track. I'm starting to doubt that there's anything she can't do, I really am.

Subject: RE: Review: Seven for old England
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 06:05 AM

I got Seven for Old England just before Christmas. It is excellent.

My daughter Andie started teaching me Silly Sisters songs about 11 to 12 years ago when she was a teenager in the Society for Creative Anacronists. When I saw/heard Maddy and June BBC Live recording from C# House a month or so ago, I was gobsmacked. Just never made the connection until then.

Wish Andie was alive now to share what I have learned re both UK and US folk music in the last 3 + years. Sigh.

She would love Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Review: Seven for old England
From: Colin Randall
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:36 AM

David: quite agree that this is an outstanding CD, one that takes you back to an earlier folk age of which Maddy Prior, of course, was also part. And this effect was quite deliberate - Maddy wrote in the notes:

"This album is in many ways a return and revisiting of songs that first engaged me. I have always found the tradition of English lyrical and pastoral ballads an area of sweet melancholy...."

For Maddy fans who may have missed an earlier thread, there is a bit more on the album in my own review at Salut! Live. The comments section has a collection of marvellous anecdotes about Maddy and the Steeleye, which were given my Mudcatters & others in response to a small competition I ran for free copies.

Subject: Review: Seven for old England
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:46 PM

One of the big advantages of working nights occasionaly is those times when there is little to do but wait for a support call that never comes. If I hadn't been on nights tonight and in that situation I would never have got the chance to listen to this wonderful album by Maddy Prior. I share a laptop with the family but on nights it is exclusively mine so I can surf, watch DVDs and listen to music; it's a tough life in Unix support you know... Anyhow, I was very pleasantly surprised to find this CD had been left in the drive. I have been listening to it ever since.

I am huge Maddy fan and love her work with Steeleye, the Carnival band and all sorts of other collaborations. This one is a bit different. A solo album, albeit with cracking good backing from Benji Kirkpatrick and Giles Lewin amongst others, including Benji's Dad! Not quite back to the Prior/Hart days but certainly back to 'roots' at least. The sound is distinctly Maddy, and although the songs are not all traditional English, the delivery certainly is. A grand reminder of why I liked folk music in the first place.

I would recommend it to anyone and urge all and sundry to rush out to your local record store now, buy it and see if we can knock some of the X-factor warblers and wannabees off their perches.

Cheers

DeG