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The Cruel Mother (Outtake)

by Jon Wilks

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This recording of "The Cruel Mother" is the song that got away from me when I was making the "Up The Cut" album. I didn't feel it quite made the grade when sitting alongside the other tracks. There are about four or five versions of it in my outtakes drawer, with this take probably hitting reasonably close to what I envisaged it to be.

The song is well known in folk circles, of course. Roud 9, Child 20, it has been recorded in various guises by a cast of thousands. I first heard it performed by Emily Portman when she visited the folk club I help to run in Whitchurch, Hampshire. I was spellbound. She sang it unaccompanied, and it was one of the most wonderful things I felt I'd ever heard. From there, Emily encouraged me to go and explore the recordings of Digbeth singer, Cecilia Costello, and it's from those old vinyl discs that I properly learnt this song.

Oddly enough, it's the first song I tried to record for "Up The Cut". I had it in a state not dissimilar to the version you heard hear way back when I was putting the "Midlife" album to bed. That I never quite nailed it, all through those months of research, arrangement, rehearsal and recording is one of those quirks of album making.

Still, listening back I'd say it's a perfectly listenable recording. I hope you get something out of it, too.

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released January 17, 2021
Recorded, arranged, performed and mixed by Jon Wilks.

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Jon Wilks Whitchurch, UK

'The sort of performer folk circles mean when they talk of the living tradition' - Mike Davies, Folking.com

“One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes. As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.” – Ian A. Anderson, fRoots Mag
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