MM.......

Wendy says she looks forward to your version as well.

Tim, you'll be pleased to know that there is very little banjo (one track!) on this one! Plenty of beautiful fiddle and cello though.

Jim Giddings also wrote a review:

Wendy Arrowsmith - Seeds of Fools - A (rave) Review

24 Aug 2009, 01:46
I am delighted finally to have received Wendy Arrowsmith's new CD Seeds of Fools in last week's mail. This has been another case (along with that of Red Shoes's CD Ring Around The Land) of watching an album come together gradually on MySpace and take on a concrete form that is even better than the initial bright sparks of song heard in the player had led me to expect.

I don't remember whether she befriended me on MySpace or I befriended her, but as soon as I heard the songs in the music player, mostly from her first album, Now Then?, I was an instant fan. Her award-winning song "The Visitor", about a midwinter shipwreck rescue, even wormed its way into my dream life during the cold New England Winter. "Skipio", a historical song like the Visitor, tells of an African who landed on the shores of Scotland in the 18th century and was adopted by one of the leading families of the country. Skipio broke a fair number of hearts and fathered a fair number of babies; he may even be one of Wendy's ancestors.

Slowly, more and more songs that were to be part of the new CD began to appear on the music player. The title song "Seeds of Fools" is a powerful exposition of how prejudice in all its forms can be either reinforced or minimized by a parent's actions. When I first heard the album version of this song a couple of days ago, I was overwhelmed with the power and controlled emotion of Wendy's voice as she switches from a sweet expository mode to a deep firm demand that mothers "...love your children... help them sow the seeds of love, not reap the seeds of fools..." When I first heard "Sleep Well 'Till Morning" I thought I had heard it before, but it is an Arrowsmith original, a traditional Scottish ballad snatched directly from the Akashic record perhaps? Her version of Steve Bailey's "Holy Ground", which has been covered by numerous Irish and American singers, is the best I've heard. "Counting Dolphins" is one of those children's songs that delight all generations. "Gaza to Argyll" is a good topical song that celebrates the role of quietness and diplomacy in the freeing of a journalist held hostage in Gaza. For her version of Lady Nairne's "Land of the Leal", she chose to write a new tune, which is every bit as good as the original, and more folk-like.

To me, the high point of this album is her "Archie and Daisy", a fresh new addition to the canon of 19th-century "Songs of Happy Love", with a strong, loving heroine.

Get hold of this album. You'll not regret it! http://www.wendyarrowsmith.com or http://www.myspace.com/wendyarrowsmith.