Sunday, 2 April 2017

Notes on Continuum by The Shee

Click on the Image and this will take you through to the Bandcamp Download.
It costs a minimum donation of £7 for mp3 download and £12 for the CD and download.

Generally this is a website to encourage Christian growth or to broadcast critical material that people should know but are probably not hearing.

I am putting this up not because the musicians state any particular belief, but because of their true artistry and lyrics.

The band actually commisioned top composers and writers in their folk field to co write these songs with them. The result is incredibly varied, incredibly polished and speaks quite deeply somehow. As well as being a window into contemporary and Northumbrian folk fusion.


I wrote a few notes to Kimera Betz on what each track meant to me.

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Now here are some of the things that have gone through my head as I have listened
1From the Shadows is surely our song as we emerge from the Shadows if the secret place. Everybody has layghed at us...but as we come out and start circling things, the walls and towers of strongholds will come down. So wherever the Band are this is quite a spiritual song to march round the room to.

2Ower Late for the lasses/Sheepolska
Starting off in a kind of lament....stirring itself with more movement and returning to a more harmonised version of the original at the end. Lovely instrumental with great harp elements

3. Jute Mill song celebrating a real story of a woman who stood up for justice. I believe she is the one in the recording at the beginning
Just ordinary people making a stand
Very catchy hook....oh dear me what will we do

4.Lady Grey Whimsical sea shanty vibe...but beautiful in elegance. Instrumental with great strumming additions
Wowsers flute. I am a flautist but not quite that quick!!!

5.Atmospheric Northumbrian coast cradle song, with pizzicato being used like some Lighthouse searchlight or something or cottage houselight in the fog.....snowy conditions. In celebration of the goose who gives her down. In celebration of the Oak for the rocking cradle etc.
Northumbrian pipes sound I think on the flute. Lovely vocal harmonies

6.Peaks/Benasque Very catchy tumble turn kind of dance thing....that really hooks inside you. Changes into Benasque around 3 minutes. Awesome dance theme with great flute. You will see what I mean, with a very catchy ryhthm that will get you tapping your feet all over the place. Love that harp riff that sounds like something i stumbled on when I was recording my CD...which sounded so good I kept it too.

7.Vampire Rabbit begins like a round. Don't work too hard is more like a Northumbrian/ Scottish type folk dance

8.Precious Tears is a beautiful song of encouragement and hope.....reminding you how precious your heart is and how important wisdom is.
Really could be singing Proverbs. Truly lovely with bursts of flute. Then can you believe it singing about friends being a city of refuge.
"Do not worry do not fret......" You will love it. Knowing that intercession and pain is not wasted.....

9.The Birds of Salim  Ali/On the Breathing Road/The Soaring Seas Another of their lilting turning twisting tunes that will grab your insides like an Ohrwurm or earworm or hook and not let you go....as it opens out into a lovely flute refrain...... I think when they played this live on BBC Radio 2 I had fallen in love and knew I was going to have to have this mp3. They commissioned co writers of high excellence for each track with proven reputations in the folk writing scene.
The end of this track is a great lilting theme with guitar almost calypso style stopping in the strum

10 Jaspers/Dance with me  So this begins as a Dance, then unfolds as a song of loneliness and havent we all tasted these emotions as we have ploughed very lonely furrows socially.

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