Sussex folk hero hits another peak.
Shirley Collins
★★★★
Archangel Hill
DOMINO. CD/DL/LP
Named after Mount Caburn, a hill not far from her home in Lewes, East Sussex, the third album since the folk Grand Dame’s unexpected 2016 return tours a number of significant personal landmarks. Collins’s oak-toned, 87-year-old voice re-engages with some traditional songs she first recorded in the ’60s and ’70s (Hares On The Mountain and a twinkly Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear) while long-term collaborator Pip Barnes weaves her memories of song-collecting in the States into the buoyant High And Away. A 1980 rendition of Hand And Heart (based on a poem written by Collins’ uncle) is a reminder of the hurricane force of her voice in times past, but with its own low-key sparkle Archangel Hill stands testament to a musical third act every bit as engaging as anything that went before.
Archangel Hill is out now via Domino
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