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The Exonian fiddle singer has an ear for scandal when it comes to choosing tunes. The morally ambiguous ‘Flower of Northumberland’ is nout but a ‘brazen faced whore’ and ‘The Staffordshore Maid’ is a bloodthirsty murderer.

She writes in the liner notes of her ‘morbid fascination’ and seems to have indulged this throughout the album. ‘The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter’, for example is a gruesome tale of murder and revenge, ‘Lord Abore’ is poisoned by his mother, and the most morbid of all ‘The Mistletoe Bough’ tells the story of a girl who hides from her lover in a game and dies trapped in a chest to be discovered years later by said beau.

Jackie Oates has a rare voice which flies in ‘Lord Abore and Mary Flynn’, Helen Bell’s excellent ‘Broken Town’ and especially the live bonus track ‘The 14th November’. And it’s this final track that should lead anyone to seek out Ms Oates for any of her coming live solo dates or with Rachel Unthank and the Winterset.

Produced by Show of Hands multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer, who also plays some great guitar on ‘I Wish it was Last September/ Ickbod’ it’s no-frills folk rooted in the most traditional side of English traditional music, with nods to traditional dances. It’s a fairly pure album in this sense, and for those who like their folk with a modern twist the arrangements may seem sparse. If on the other hand you like your folk raw and unadorned, Jackie Oates is definitely one to watch.

Links:
Sister Act
Jackie Oates