Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer - 'Child Ballads'

Most of you will no doubt be aware that the Child Ballads are not a collection of songs for kids but were a five volume collection of 305 English and Scottish ballads put together by Francis James Child and first published between 1882 and 1898. Even if you are not a folk music purist, I am sure you will have heard variants of some of these songs. Think for example of 'Tam Lin' (39) or 'Sir Patrick Spens' (58) by Fairport Convention, or of 'Willie O' Winsbury' (100) or 'Sir James The Rose' (213) by Steeleye Span and you will be thinking of Child Ballads. (The numbers in parentheses are the numbers allocated to each by Child).

Of course there are also American variants of some of these songs and Harry Smith included a number of these in his brilliant 'Anthology of American Folk Music'. American artists such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and more recently, The Decemberists and Fleet Foxes, have also drawn on this rich repertoire of songs and stories.

Which brings me nicely to two American singer/songwriters who have long had a love of these fascinating folk tales and who heard them brought to life through singers in the folk tradition like Martin Carthy and Nic Jones. After years of discussion, planning and attempted recording sessions, Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer have now successfully recorded seven of these ballads. They are to be released under the simple, unpretentious title - 'Child Ballads' on 11 February 2013. (Not released until 19 March in US and Canada).

So far I have only heard samples of the songs but I can say without hesitation that this album will be making it's way into my collection. Additionally the pair are taking these ballads on the road in the UK in February and March. I will be stopping by to see them on 7 March.

I should also add a word about the cover art for the album (reproduced above). This was created by award winning artist Peter Nevins who was also responsible for the artwork of an earlier Anais Mitchell album, 'Hadestown'. If you examine the print, whose face do you see, the man's or the woman's? Whichever you answered, you were right. Thanks to a clever optical illusion, you can see both!