Shirley Collins' collaboration with the Albion Country Band for No Roses
is considered a major event in the history of British folk and British
folk-rock. For it was the first time that Collins, roundly acknowledged
as one of the best British traditional folk singers, sang with electric
accompaniment, and indeed one of the first times that a British traditional
folk musician had "gone electric" in the wake of Dave Swarbrick
joining Fairport Convention and Martin Carthy joining Steeleye Span. The
album itself doesn't sound too radical, however. At times it sounds something
like Fairport Convention with Shirley Collins on lead vocals, which is
unsurprising given the presence of Ashley Hutchings on all cuts but one,
and Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol on most of the selections (Dave Mattacks
plays drums on a few tracks for good measure). The nine songs are almost
wholly traditional tunes with Collins' arrangements, with perhaps a jauntier
and folkier mood than that heard in early-'70s Fairport, though not much.
It's more impressive for Collins' always tasteful smoky vocals than for
the imagination of the material, which consolidates the sound of the more
traditional wing of early-'70s British folk-rock.
(by Richie Unterberger, AMG) |