Of Influential Albums 6 - Anthems In Eden by Shirley And Dolly Collins

This album was pivotal in expanding my musical knowledge. I learned many of the songs and remember getting into trouble for singing "Nellie The Milkmaid" at a church "talent evening"! The "bishop" told me I ought to give up singing "worldly songs". He'd be horrified at some of the songs I've written since I hope ... like the evangelical pastor who rushed away in disgust and disbelief at a festival last year. That was okay, he wasn't invited to harass people the way he and his congregation did anyway.

Importantly for me though was that, not only did "Anthems In Eden" inform my growing interest in traditional English folk song, but it was probably how I was introduced to the music of David Munro and the Early Music Consort of London, who soon became a hero to me. It was after buying and listening over and over to "Anthems In Eden" that I found my old Dolmetsch descent recorder and started to tootle again for the first time since I left primary school some three years earlier. I used the recorder then occasionally in the bands I played in and I have used it even more occasionally since. I may have to put that right if I can get my chops up again. I do have some very nice recorders that really ought to be used more often.

Later, at college, I took up the recorder as my main instrument. I began as a non-reader, but put in a lot of work to get through all the grades. Unfortunately teachers I engaged often died soon after. I hope it wasn't the strain of having me as a pupil. Through my first recorder teacher at college, the wonderfully patient and encouraging Margaret Horton, I met the director of an early arts performance company that consisted of some thirty instrumental musicians, singers, dancers, actors, costume designers/makers and makers of historical instruments. The company recreated Tudor "court entertainments", usually in stately homes and other authentic settings and less authentic but prestigious concert halls as well as medieval performances that mostly happened in cathedrals. By the time I was 22 I had performed in the Purcell Room, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Whitehall Banqueting Hall and cathedrals up and down the land. I carried on singing, dancing and percussing with this company for many years. It was a wrench to have to give it up when I moved too far away to attend rehearsals regularly.

Some years after qualifying as a school teacher I found another recorder teacher, Dale Noble, who took me on and coached me through the practical element of taking my "letters". It would take me a very long time these days to work up the Sammartini Recorder Concerto or the Lennox Berkeley Recorder Sonata again, but that experience all began with this record. These days, of course, most of my available practice time is given over to Marshlander repertoire, although just occasionally I grab a recorder ... 😎

Original 1969 tracks

1- "A song-story" (A Beginning/ A Meeting/A Courtship/ A Denying/ A Forsaking/ A Dream/ A Leaving-taking/ An Awakening/ A New Beginning)

The songs are: "Searching for Lambs", "The Wedding Song", "The Blacksmith", "Our Captain Cried", "Lowlands", "Pleasant and Delightful", "Whitsun Dance", "The Staines Morris" All traditional apart from "Whitsun Dance" (words by A J Marshall)

2- "Rambleaway" (Traditional)

3- "Ca' the yowes" (Robert Burns)

4- "God Dog" (Robin Williamson)

5- "Bonny Cuckoo" (Traditional)

6- "Nellie the Milkmaid" (Traditional)

7- "Gathering Rushes in the Month of May" (Traditional)

8- "The Gower Wassail" (Traditional)