Newborough Open Mic

The Waters Of Sweet Sorrow

If you’re a fan of pastoral English or psych folk this may have passed under your radar. LIke most of my favourite music it’s from 1973 but unlike most of my recommendations I don’t have a 38 year old copy on vinyl because it was never released at the time, the master tapes sitting in someone’s attic and not seeing the light of day until 1994 on compact gramophone disc.

Midwinter were a (mainly) acoustic trio who got together in December 1972 to play a Christmas party at Great Yarmouth Folk Club and stayed together for a couple of years, playing around Norfolk and Suffolk. Paul Corrick and Ken Saul sang and played the usual wide variety of fretted instruments while Jill Child sang and played recorder and autoharp, this album also includes guests Dick Cadbury (of Decameron) on electric bass and Mick Burroughes playing occasional percussion and… jew’s harp!

“The Waters Of Sweet Sorrow” was recorded as a demo live-in-the-studio at Great Yarmouth Sound, eight of the eleven tracks are originals with lyrics based loosely on Norfolk myths and folklore (except one instrumental) and the other three are Trad. Arr. (the funereal Young Traditionish acapella “Scarborough Fair”, “Maids And Gentlemen” with a mellow fuzz guitar solo and the banjo and mandolin fuelled “All Things Are Quite Silent”). The playing, arrangements and vocal harmonies are superb throughout but the real star is Jill Child’s voice, unfortunately she left in ‘74 to go to college and, as far as I know, never sang professionally. The rest of the band morphed into Stone Angel – a whole other story – and are still around today, still making albums and still playing locally, see http://www.stone-angel.co.uk/.

When the record label Kissing Spell re-released the first two Stone Angel albums in 1994, Ken Saul also offered them these master tapes, that’s how “The Waters Of Sweet Sorrow” got to be released twenty one years after it was recorded. I don’t know who decided what to put on the cover but it’s perfect – the Arthurian “Lady Of Shalott (On Boat)” by late pre-Raphaelite artist John Waterhouse – Midwinter sound pre-Raphaelite and their music is full of myths and magic and the atmosphere of (Norfolk) waterways.

Not available on iTunes or Spotify, occasionally available on Amazon, Ebay etc, probably a cover-as-video on YouTube or you could just ask to listen to my iPod next time you see me out. (Be careful of dodgy metal bands with the same name!)