HOLLY CLARKE
Wild Feral Fierce
At last, a debut full-length solo from the wonderful Holly Clarke, the Cumbrian singer, now residing in Newcastle. If the name rings a bell, that could be through her earlier music with Holly Clarke and The Reivers, her work with feminist alt-folk band Re:Vulva or her Granny’s Attic duo. Or you might just have read plaudits such as “Man, she can sing.” (Martin Carthy) or Nancy Kerr’s “Holly is the possessor of a seemingly effortless and transporting folk voice.”
Of the ten tracks presented on the album, Wild Feral Fierce, the majority, seven, are reinterpretations of traditional songs, taken from Britain and Europe, in particular Scandinavia. Be warned, however, if you are a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist, (a stereotype, I know), then her exploration of the deeply rooted folklore found in traditional ballads and songs, as delivered here may not be for you. In presenting refreshingly modern sculpted soundscapes and vistas, she is aided and abetted by Anna Highes, fiddle, viola & vocals, Amy Thatcher, accordion, synth, shaky egg & vocals, John Pope, double bass & bowed cymbal, co-producer Pete Ord, electric guitars, additional guitars & percussion together with Jacob Stoney who provides the soundscapes, synths and toy piano. Add into the mix the Northumbrian pipes of special guest Kathryn Tickell, and the line-up emphasises the potential for an expansive sonic palette.
From the first notes of opening track, ‘The Spectral Stag’, a Rhineland legend proudly wearing its green credentials on its sleeve, it is clear that there is both musical alchemy and synergy afoot. The stunning version of ‘John Barleycorn’ which follows has tremendous production values, building atmospherically, electric guitars meld with the drone-like synths, strings and percussion, but leaving enough space for Holly’s to shine through, as indeed they do on ‘The Maiden Hind’, the classic Danish shape-changer ballad, hauntingly delivered here, which, as the title suggests, has a cervine subject matter, in this case the hunter ignoring the words of his mother and killing a hind, only to find that it’s his sister.
In an other-worldly version of ‘Bonnie Woodhall, learned from Martin Carthy, the atmosphere is again enveloped with layers of electronic sounds, whilst ‘Strawberry Town’ a murder ballad learned from Nancy Kerr is delivered, apart from eerie echoes, unaccompanied. This is immediately followed by another murder ballad, ‘Burd Margaret’, the arrangement and delivery of which will surely to be regarded as a psych-folk classic in the fullness of time, such is its spectral beauty?
The final trad offering is also the longest track on the release, with ‘Sir Aage and Lady Elselil’, the Danish version of the mystical tale ‘Sweet William’s Ghost’, the ballad catalogued as Roud50/Child 77, which clocks in at over seven minutes.
Of the three remaining tracks, two are Holly originals and one a collaboration. The title track of the album, written in the winter of 2018, is about “self-acceptance and the fight to accept one’s self in a world that does not make everyone who is different feel welcome or safe.” Whilst the message accepts that life’s transitional stages are fraught with difficulty, there is an underlying optimism that “you will emerge and be liberated with joy.”
Closing the album are the two others. Firstly, ‘The North’, an instrumental collaboration between herself, Hughes, Poope, Thatcher and Tickell, which celebrates and summons thoughts of her Cumbrian homeland through a soundscape which is an aural equivalent of an impressionist or abstract painting, layers of sound washing around the speakers, before morphing into the final song,‘Home’, her love song to home, again accompanied by the evocative sound of Kathryn’s pipes.
Wild Feral Fierce is a very fine, accomplished, debut album which not only showcases Hollie Clarke’s strong vocals but also highlights a willingness to embrace modern sounds and techniques whilst at the same time giving due deference and respect to the tradition.
Wild Feral Fierce