Description

Specially selected 15 track career spanning compilation / Features recordings from the legendary Sweet Primeroses LP / Some recordings feature the Young Tradition / Track by track information and deluxe booklet.

Shirley Collins is without doubt one of Englands greatest cultural treasures. Billy Bragg

During the 1960s and 70s Shirley Collins was regarded by many as the first lady of folk music, the subsequent decades have only served to enhance that reputation. Between 1955 and 1978 she recorded for the Folkways, Argo, Harvest and Topic labels. Aft er the release of For As Many As Will in 1978 she withdrew from performing and the music world after developing dysphonia. Shirley recently returned to recording aft er a very long hiatus and is still widely acknowledged as one of the finest singers and ambassadors to have emerged during the Folksong Revival of the 1960s.

Few singers of the English folk revival have attempted as much on record as Collins an extraordinary combination of fragility and power. I like music to be fairly straightforward, simply embellished the performance without histrionics allowing you to think about the song rather than telling you what to think. Through an impressive series of experimental recordings Shirley established an extraordinarily sympathetic marriage of traditional songs handed down through generations of rural labouring people with ground breaking contemporary arrangements recordings that have scarcely been equalled in subsequent decades. This collection draws together some of her most iconic recordings and will serve as an Introduction to her very special catalogue of music.