Album Notes

This collection contains quite a few old favourites, which, for various reasons, we have not got round to recording before, and also a good number of new titles drawn mainly from our programme "John Barleycorn is Dead". The title is drawn from a line in the song "Bridgwater Fair".
“It is full of interest, variety and fun. The band comprises five very talented musicians and performers, all of whom are noted as individual performers. They have been playing together in the band for a number of years and the symbiosis between them enhances their performance to an exceptional degree.
The mix of tunes and songs on the album is well-balanced. Some of the songs will be familiar to people who do not follow traditional music, many will be known to people who regularly attend folk events, while people who have attended performances by The New Scorpion Band will have heard several of the band’s favourites…
The polkas provide the opening track, an excellent way to lift the spirits of the listener in a trice. The vitality of the performance, superb instrumentation, and the excellent arrangement, are captivating. The next track, the song, The Painful Plough, is a complete contrast: a simple, reflective arrangement, in which the words provide the focus. These two tracks form the pattern for the album, a sympathetic blend of poignancy and fun, which provokes thought, smiles, or laughter at every turn. The final track is an old favourite, Spanish Ladies, thus the band leave the listener with raised spirits, as they began.
There are many devoted fans who will be delighted to add another album from The New Scorpion Band to their collection without even looking at the track list; however high their expectations, they know they will not be disappointed. At the same time, the band continues to reach new audiences and its reputation reaches new heights… it is highly recommended, do not hesitate.”
Jacqueline Patten What's Afoot
"New Scorpion Band albums always seem brimming with new and exciting ideas. This new album is no exception. The band has a very theatrical approach to its music, which can produce spectacular results. This is particularly true as early as the third track, Bridgwater Fair. The band takes a pleasant, simple song and makes full use of their dazzling array of instruments and musicality to create a stunning soundscape of the Fair itself. We are all aware of the distinctive sound of a fairground organ and the band recreates that sound using a maximum of musical and creative ability and a minimum of technical wizardry. The record is worth getting for this one track alone… The brass tracks on this album are very strong and give the record a glorious additional texture. I loved the way the brass gave added poignancy to Ye Tyrants of England…there are so many highlights as to make this an album well worth buying...yet another glorious celebration of traditional British music."
Eddie Upton, Folk South West.
“The title is drawn from a line in the song "Bridgwater Fair". If this collection finds favour, we hope to have more for you before long. Reviews will be posted as and when they arrive, this is hot off the press!”
and add these
“…professional musicianship goes hand in hand with intensely intelligent, consciously arranged settings, an exceptional sense of ensemble and an abundantly fresh-sounding spontaneity in realisation. The musicians treat their sources with respect, but – importantly – also show a keen sense of fun. There’s always plenty going on in the instrumental texture, which is constantly varied to suit the expressive needs of each piece. A gloriously rich sound emanates from the five players, each of whom also happens to be a fine singer as well as an expert and versatile instrumentalist. Having said that, there are several instances when a more restrained scoring pays dividends too, as on the sparser accompaniment to Sharon Lindo’s rendition of Rosebud in June…well-coordinated collection that contains some old favourite from the band’s repertoire that they’d not got round to recording hitherto, along with some items from their newest programmed shows…Around a third of the tracks are purely instrumental, and these use individual colours and timbres most creatively; highlights include Brian Gulland’s delicately moulded cor anglais portrayal of The Gentle Maiden, to which is appended Robert A White’s excellent performance of Tom Clough’s Herd on the Hill, and, earlier on the disc, a daintily executed yet suitably spirited set of border-country tunes. The vocal items mostly comprise well chosen variants of quite well-known …and the rousing marching-band ambience of Ye Tyrants of England (dedicated to the memory of Brass Monkey’s Howard Evans) is particularly well conveyed in the NSB’s performance. This delightful disc presents just over an hour’s worth of top-class music, where folk naturally and unpretentiously meets pre-classical and baroque in a carefully considered but always supremely entertaining tapestry”.
David Kidman, The Living Tradition Magazine
“Tim Laycock has the ability to surround himself with musicians who seem to come from outside what we might once have termed ‘the folk scene’, but who always seem to understand the genre perfectly…one of the finest sounding recordings I’ve heard in a long time. Opening with a suitably lumpy version of English polka favourites…you might expect a standard English sound, particularly followed by the Copper style harmonies of The Painful plough’. Two tracks later ‘when the Cock Crows it is Day/The Gander in the Pratie Hole’ is full blown Irish, rattling away at full tilt with the best of the craic…we’re treated to a ‘Welsh Droving Song’ paired with Billy Pigg’s The Old Drove Road, a tune in the Northumbrian Tradition. In other hands this might sound like five musicians in search of a tradition; here it’s five consummate players enjoying a great tune, no matter from where. Nowhere is this more evident than on ‘Bridwater Fair’, where the band manages to sound like a ‘mighty fairground organ’, a village silver band, and, in a passing nod to Cyril Tawney, a village silver band after a hard day in the cider tent! Having singled out these tracks, I realised I could have picked any of the fifteen on offer; truly a delight, cider or no”.
Baz Parkes English Dance and Song