As he tells us, this is already the third time that Collins has recorded this folk song: “I had already recorded it twice before: once a rather trivial version picked up by Ralph Vaughan Williams; the second time I rewrote the melody and recorded it with Davy Graham in 1965. This time he sought to bring out the mysterious and ironic quality that underlies it.”
After decades, Shirley Collins allows us to rediscover her timeless classic “Hares On The Mountain” once again, a song that defined her when she was young but, when she sings it again in “Archangel Hill”, rises up in pain with the wisdom of the archetypes that she has embodied in many moments of her life. All of the songs on the new album were recorded last year except “Hand And Heart”, which is taken from a live performance at the Sydney Opera House in 1980 and features an arrangement by Shirley’s sister, Dolly Collins, as well as with the words of the author FC Ball. The record has been produced by Ian KeareyShirley Collins’ musical director, and the arrangements have been shared between Collins, Kearey, Barnesas well as Dave Arthur y Pete Coopermusicians of The Lodestar Band.