Williams Synthia

One of the most celebrated singer/songwriters of her generation, Lucinda Williams was also a fiercely independent artist who had to fight for the creative freedom that allowed her to do her best work. The daughter of a well-respected poet, Williams brought a literacy and sense of detail to her work that was unpretentious but powerfully evocative and emotional, which led to a number of major artists covering her tunes while she was still establishing herself as a performer. As a vocalist, Williams used the rough edges of her instrument to her advantage, allowing the grit of her voice to heighten the authenticity of her performance.

34 songs from the famous Songs of the Hebrides collection by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser published in the early years of this century. There are some extraordinarily beautiful songs here (Ernest Newman wrote of them that Schubert and Hugo Wolf would have knelt and kissed the hands of their unknown composers). The most famous song in the collection is the Eriskay Love Lilt but several of the others will be familiar to anybody who has bought our Bantock recordings: Sea Longing was the inspiration for the slow movement of the Celtic Symphony, and Kishmul's Galley is the tune blazed out by the Royal Philharmonic horns at the end of the Hebridean Symphony.