Shirley Collins

Biography

Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the British Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on piano and portative organ created unique settings for Shirley's plain, austere singing style.

Early life

Shirley Collins was born in Hastings, East Sussex, England on 5 July 1935. Her father left the family when she was about twelve or thirteen, and her Uncle Fred, who was an author, largely took his place. She grew up, with her older sister Dolly, in the area, in a family which kept alive a great love of traditional song. Songs learnt from their grandfather and from their mother's sister, Grace Winborn, were to be important in the sisters' repertoire throughout their career.
On leaving school, at the age of 17, Collins enrolled at a teachers' training college in Tooting, south London. In London she also involved herself in the early folk revival, making her first appearance on vinyl on the 1955 compilation Folk Song Today.
In 1954, at a party hosted by Ewan MacColl, she met Alan Lomax, the American folk song collector, who had moved to Britain to avoid the McCarthy witch-hunt, which was then raging in America. Lomax and Collins lived together in London, with Collins assisting Lomax on various European projects and singing backing vocals on a version of MacColl's "Dirty Old Town" by Alan Lomax and the Ramblers, in 1956. "I was madly in love with him," Collins said of Lomax.

First albums

In 1958, Collins recorded her first two albums, Sweet England×Sweet England1959 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 18 tracksA1Sweet EnglandA2Hares on the MountainA3Hori-HoroA4The Bonny Irish BoyA5The Tailor and the MouseA6The Lady and the SwineA7Turpin HeroA8The CuckooA9The Bonny Labouring BoyA10The Cherry Tree CarolB1Sweet WilliamB2Omie WiseB3Blackbirds and ThrushesB4A Keeper Went HuntingB5Polly VaughanB6Pretty SaroB7Barbara AllenB8Charlie and False True Lovers×False True Lovers1959 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 19 tracksA1I Drew My Ship2:24A2The Irish Boy1:37A3The Spermwhale Fishery2:41A4Dennis O'Reilly2:06A5My Bonny Miner Lad1:51A6Just as the Tide Was Flowing1:21A7Bobby Shaftoe1:23A8Richie Story4:07A9The Unquiet Grave4:12A10The Swapping Song1:30B1Poor Old Horse1:11B2The False True Love3:51B3The Foggy Dew2:25B4Mowing the Barley0:56B5Scarborough Fair1:40B6The Cruel Mother7:05B7The Bonny Cuckoo1:28B8The Queen of May1:50B9Died for Love1:50, featuring sparse arrangements, with Collins accompanying herself on the banjo. Sweet England was released in 1959 and False True Lovers in 1960. Collins also recorded a series of EPs in 1958 and 1959 with The Foggy Dew and English Songs being released in 1959.
From July to November 1959, Collins and Lomax made a folk song collecting trip in the Southern U.S. states. It resulted in many hours of recordings, featuring performers such as Almeda Riddle, Hobart Smith, and Bessie Jones, and is noted for the discovery of Mississippi Fred McDowell. Recordings from this trip were issued by Atlantic Records under the title "Sounds of the South", and some were re-enacted in the Coen brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The experience of her life with Lomax, and the making of the recordings in religious communities, social gatherings, prisons and chain gangs was described in Collins' book America Over the Water (published 2005).
Back in Britain, Collins met Austin John Marshall, whom she later married. She also proceeded with her singing career, appearing on three compilations albums (A Jug of Punch, A Pinch of Salt and Rocket Along) in 1960 and an EP, Heroes in Love×Heroes In Love1963 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracksA1The False BrideA2Locks And BoltsB1RambleawayB2A Blacksmith Courted Me, in 1963 (now included with False True Lovers on the CD release). It was after that, in a series of influential albums, that she helped to introduce many innovations into the English folk revival. In 1964, she recorded the landmark jazz-folk fusion of Folk Roots, New Routes, with guitarist Davey Graham.
English Songs Volume 2 and Shirley Sings Irish were both released in 1964.

The Sweet Primeroses

1967 saw the essentially southern English song collection, The Sweet Primeroses, with Collins accompanied for the first time by her sister Dolly's portative organ. 1968's The Power of the True Love Knot also featured Dolly's accompaniment. 1969 brought another collaboration, The Holly Bears the Crown, this time with The Young Tradition – featuring, in addition to Dolly Collins, Peter Bellamy, Heather Wood, and Royston Wood. This album was not released until 1995.

Anthems in Eden

Anthems in Eden was released in 1969, the first album to be credited to Shirley and Dolly Collins. It featured a suite of songs centred on the changes in rural England brought about by the First World War. Dolly Collins created arrangements featuring David Munrow and various other players from his Early Music Consort. The unusual combination of ancient instruments included rebecs, sackbuts, viols and crumhorns. All these recordings strove to marry a deep love and understanding of the English folk music heritage with a more contemporary attitude to musical settings.
Anthems in Eden was followed by Love, Death and the Lady, also co-credited with Dolly, in 1970.

Albion Country and Etchingham Steam Bands

Collins married her second husband Ashley Hutchings in 1971. He left Steeleye Span that year and he and Collins assembled the first incarnation of the Albion Country Band to accompany her on the 1971 album No Roses×No RosesOctober 1971 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Claudy Banks4:37A2The Little Gypsy Girl2:16A3Banks of the Bann3:39A4Murder of Maria Marten7:27B1Van Dieman’s Land4:59B2Just as the Tide Was A’Flowing2:13B3The White Hare2:44B4Hal-An-Tow2:53B5Poor Murdered Woman4:17, with a total of 27 musicians participating over numerous sessions. Collins also provided guest vocals on the Hutchings project Morris On in 1972. Following the breakup of a later version of the Albion Country band in 1973 (shortly after recording the album Battle of the Field) the couple created the all acoustic Etchingham Steam Band with Terry Potter, Ian Holder and Vic Gammon, in 1974.
The couple were living in Etchingham at the time and the decision to eschew electricity was inspired by the Three-Day Week. The Etchingham's repertoire was drawn from the traditional music of Sussex. The only recording by the band available at the time appeared on the 1974 compilation album A Favourite Garland×A Favourite Garland1974 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracksA1PrologueA2A BeginningA3Staines MorrisA4Lady Margaret and Sweet WilliamA5One Night as I Lay on My BedA6The Little Gypsy GirlA7Plains of WaterlooB1Nottamun TownB2God DogB3Just as the Tide Was A-FlowingB4Mistress's Health / Lumps of Plum Pudding / Sherborne Jig / Spaniards CryB5Over the Hills and Far AwayB6The Murder of Maria MartenB7Higher Germanie, although Terry Potter and Ian Holder (as well as Simon Nicol and Roger Swallow, formerly of the Albion Country Band) appear on some tracks on Adieu to Old England, a Collins album also released in 1974 (and produced by Ashley Hutchings). Live recordings of the Etchingham Steam Band from 1974 and 1975 were released on a self-titled CD in 1995.
A largely new group of musicians (with some participation from Etchingham Steam Band members) was assembled for two 1976 releases: the Morris On follow up Son of Morris On (with Collins again providing vocals); and the newly recorded tracks for the Shirley and Dolly Collins album Amaranth (half of which was a reissue of the side-long suite of songs from Anthems in Eden). The involvement of Philip Pickett and John Sothcott in these recordings saw a return to the use of early music instruments. The bulk of the musicians became The Albion Dance Band, performing traditional material on a mixture of modern (electric) and early music instruments, with Collins on vocals. They recorded the album The Prospect Before Us and a BBC session in 1976, with a single ("Hopping Down in Kent", Roud 1715) released that year and the album following in 1977. Live recordings from this period were released on the CD Dancing Days are Here Again in 2007.

Retirement

1978's For As Many As Will was the last studio album recorded by Shirley and Dolly Collins, although live recordings from 1979 have been issued since, and in 1979 she released a single, "The Mariner's Farewell", with Bert Jansch. Collins does not appear on the next Albion Band album (Rise Up Like the Sun, recorded in 1977 and released in 1978, with the "Dance" dropped from the band name) and decided to focus on home life and her children from her first marriage, while Hutchings and the Albion Band collaborated on several National Theatre productions. It was during this period that Hutchings left Collins. The painful divorce was followed by loss of her voice and "the ability to sing entirely", through dysphonia, leading to her retirement from music.
Her music career seemingly over, Collins resorted to "a number of low-paid jobs"—including employment at the British Library and the job centre—to get by, and she sold her old equipment.
She made one last appearance with the Albion Band, on the 1980 album Lark Rise to Candleford (the soundtrack of the plays). In 1993 David Tibet of the apocalyptic folk band Current 93 released a collection of her recordings, entitled Fountain of Snow, on his Durtro label. Since then, she has appeared on a number of Current 93 recordings.

21st century

Collins sang on the final version of "Idumæa" on Current 93's 2006 album Black Ships Ate the Sky. In 2009 Topic Records included in their 70th anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten two tracks from The Sweet Primeroses: "All Things Are Quite Silent" and "The Rigs of the Time".
With actor Pip Barnes, she toured with her three illustrated talks "America over the Water" (about her field trip in the Southern States of America with Alan Lomax), "A Most Sunshiny Day" (about the traditional music of England and Sussex in particular), and "I'm a Romany Rai" (about the Gypsy singers and songs of Southern England). She also edited a CD entitled I'm a Romany Rai (2012) in the series The Voice of the People.
In 2013, Collins appeared on Justin Hopper's text composition, "Fourth River: Ley Line", to be released on the Contraphonic Sound Series. On 8 February 2014, at Union Chapel, Islington, in London, Collins sang for the first time for many years, performing two songs; "All the Pretty Little Horses" and "Death and the Lady". She was accompanied by Ian Kearey from the band Oysterband.
She returned to recording and in November 2016, Collins released Lodestar, her first new album in 38 years. Earning two BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominations for the work, considered her best by some, she found this late success highly improbable, saying: "I never believed it could happen. It's a bit of a miracle, really."
Lodestar was followed in July 2020 by another album of new material, entitled Heart's Ease. The album included re-recordings of some songs she had sung in her twenties, such as "Barbara Allen". In a five-star review, The Guardian described it as "...a more confident follow-up [to Lodestar]", saying: "The veteran singer's comeback really takes wing with this impeccably judged set."
Another album of new recordings, Archangel Hill×Archangel Hill26 May 2023 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear3:172Lost in a Wood3:003The Captain with the Whiskers2:474June Apple1:535The Golden Glove3:126High and Away3:557Oakham Poachers2:198Hares on the Mountain3:099Hand and Heart2:4710The Bonny Labouring Boy3:2111Swaggering Boney1:4312How Far is it to Bethlehem?2:0713Archangel Hill4:34, was released in May 2023, featuring songs chosen by Collins – some traditional and some by her favourite modern writers.
In August 2023, Collins was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, where her choices included "61 Highway Blues" by Mississippi Fred McDowell, "A Heart Needs A Home" by Richard and Linda Thompson and "The Birds in the Spring" by the Copper Family.

The Ballad of Shirley Collins

A film about her life, The Ballad of Shirley Collins, was released in October 2017. She was not sure such attention was warranted, saying: "When they first asked me I was nonplussed. I thought, 'is this a wind-up?'"

Honours, awards, distinctions

In 2004, Collins was awarded a Gold Badge by the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
She was awarded the MBE for services to music in the 2007 New Year's Honours List.
She holds an Honorary Degree from the Open University (for a "notable contribution to education and culture") and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sussex.
In 2008, she was elected as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and received the "Good Tradition" award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
She is currently patron of the South East Folk Arts Network and Folk South West.
Collins garnered two BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominations for her seventh studio album, Lodestar×Lodestar4 November 2016 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Awake Awake / The Split Ash Tree / May Carol / Southover11:102The Banks of Green Willow3:193Cruel Lincoln3:314Washed Ashore2:575Death and the Lady4:466Pretty Polly4:177Old Johnny Buckle1:438Sur le Borde de l'Eau3:549The Rich Irish Lady / Jeff Sturgeon5:5910The Silver Swan1:26, released in 2016.
A film about her life, The Ballad of Shirley Collins, was released in October 2017.

Influence

The American folk-rock band 10,000 Maniacs did a cover of "Just as the Tide was Flowing", closely modelled on the version on the No Roses album.
Billy Bragg said of her: "Shirley Collins is without doubt one of England's greatest cultural treasures."
Few singers of the English folk revival have attempted as much on record as Collins. "I like music to be fairly straightforward, simply embellished – the performance without histrionics allowing you to think about the song rather than telling you what to think."
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists recorded a whole EP of Shirley Collins tunes. It was sold on Meloy's 2006 spring United States tour in limited quantities.

Shirley and Dolly Collins

Anthems in Eden – EMI Harvest (1969)
Love, Death and the Lady – EMI Harvest (1970)
For as Many as Will – Topic (1978)
Harking Back – Durtro (recorded 1978–79, released 1998) – [live]
Snapshots – Fledg'ling (recorded 1966 and 1978–79, released 2006) – [demo and live recordings]

Shirley Collins with Ashley Hutchings/The Albion Band

Morris On, by Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield – Island/Carthage (1972)
Son of Morris On, by Ashley Hutchings and others – Harvest (1976)
The Prospect Before Us, by The Albion Dance Band – Harvest (1977)
Lark Rise To Candleford, by The Albion Band – Charisma (1980)
The BBC Sessions, by The Albion Band – Strange Fruit (1998) (tracks 5–8, recorded 1976)
Dancing Days Are Here Again, by The Albion Dance Band – Talking Elephant (2007) (recorded 1976)

The Young Tradition and Shirley and Dolly Collins

The Holly Bears the Crown – Fledg'ling (recorded 1969, released 1995)

Etchingham Steam Band (includes Shirley Collins)

Etchingham Steam Band – Fledg'ling (recorded 1974–75, released 1995) – [live]

Compilations

A Favourite Garland – Gama (1974) – [compilation]
Fountain of Snow – Durtro (1992) – [compilation]
The Classic Collection – Highpoint (2004) – [compilation]
Within Sound – Fledg'ling (2003) – [box set, compilation]
The Harvest Years – EMI (2008) – [compilation of Anthems in Eden×Anthems in Eden1969 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1A Song-Story28:11B1Rambleaway4:23B2Ca' the Yowes3:28B3God Dog3:25B4Bonny Cuckoo1:56B5Nellie the Milkmaid2:42B6Gathering Rushes in the Month of May3:31B7The Gower Wassail2:52, Love, Death and the Lady×Love, Death and the Lady1970 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracksA1Death & The Lady4:09A2Glenlogie3:47A3The Oxford Girl2:01A4Are You Going to Leave Me?2:54A5The Outlandish Knight5:05A6Go From My Window2:36A7Young Girl Cut Down in Her Prime3:42B1Geordie5:00B2Salisbury Plain2:41B3Fair Maid of Islington2:18B4Six Dukes2:30B5Polly on the Shore3:11B6Plains of Waterloo8:03 and Amaranth, with one track each from Son of Morris On and The Prospect Before Us]

Autobiography

Shirley Collins, America Over the Water, SAF Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-946719-66-7
Shirley Collins, All in the Downs: Reflections on Life, Landscape, and Song, Strange Attractor Press, 2018.