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'SAVING THE GOOD STUFF VOL. 1', an eclectic blend of the traditional and contemporary with unique and original arrangements
It is a familiar story for a musician to find some gold in the old and reinvent it. Covering and adapting songs plays an important role in the rich musical tradition, especially when it comes to folk music, to keep the music breathing and alive.
‘Black is The Colour’ is a fantastic example of a song that has been given many rebirths including Christy Moore, Nina Simone and US on our 2021 release ‘The Beacon’.
This wonderful notion of carefully taking a song and making it feel original is something that is explored in Saving The Good Stuff Vol.1. There is something almost sacred in the process of assembling and interpreting traditional songs.
Saving The Good Stuff Vol.1 is our ninth offering. Following on from the release of ‘The Beacon’ in 2021 we have continued to maintain a high level of output with the albums ‘Live at Acoustic Roots’ and ‘Songs of Love and Death’ – a collaboration of traditional folk songs with Reg Meuross. Saving The Good Stuff Vol.1 though offers the listener something slightly different.
Since the back-end of 2019, we decided to release a cover song a week on our social media platforms. Each song being a love note to the artists that we most admire. This weekly video series, aptly named Saving The Good Stuff began to gain momentum and our fan base started to take note and set aside 5 minutes each Sunday morning at 10am. The series title itself was inspired by a favourite song by Richard Thompson. Sometimes these songs were in the form of a live stream and quite often 100+ people from all over the world would tune in to watch these live streams. It felt like a community was beginning to grow and flourish.
We continued this tradition often whilst on tour. Whilst touring in Germany (March 2020), we hurriedly returned to the UK for what we thought might be a brief liaison with staying at home... we all know what happened next. Lockdown helped to stoke our creative fires and we worked harder than ever – putting out two songs a week in between live streams, recording an album, participating in Global Music Match, veg picking for Riverford and releasing several other collaborative videos with artists such as Reg Meuross, Phil Beer, George Sansome and Paul Hutchinson to name a few.
Since the beginning of this unique project, we have uploaded in the region of 150 videos across our platforms amassing more than a million views collectively. Some of these songs have since featured heavily in our live set and have become fan favourites. More importantly, a community had been established and following on from all of us being released from lockdown, we were humbled by the reaction we received from people at festivals, folk clubs and gigs. People would often say that these songs were a big part in getting them through some tough times, lockdown and never failed to bring a smile each Sunday morning.
We are making a habit of recording from our home, located in the Dartmoor National Park. This is how ‘The Beacon’ was recorded in 2020, with Josh Best-Shaw acting as producer. This time around Dave was responsible for the recording, mixing and production with a little help from Josh in the latter stages. The 8-track mini-album, allowed us to collaborate with great friends, who just so happen to be fabulous musicians. Richard Trethewey who is a wonderful songwriter and Cornish Bard features heavily on the album with his wonderful vocals, often adding a third harmony and his very accomplished fiddle playing. Freya’s mum Jenny Jonas brings her haunting oboe to a couple of the tracks. Andy Tyner provides the beautiful mellow tones of the brass section and Claire Sutton provides her stunning cello playing. The artwork is a collaboration with local artist Louise Scammell and is a portrait of our favourite place to reflect, Penstave Copse.
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UPCOMING GIG DATES 
