The fine talents of Lucy Ward and Cupola combine to form this vibrant new collaboration of music and song to thrill folk club and festival audiences alike. Lucy Ward is a highly respected singer-songwriter from Derby. She plays guitar, ukulele and concertina but considers her voice to be her first instrument. Horizon Award for best newcomer at the 2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and nominated “Folk Singer of the Year” at the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Cupola (Doug Euson, Sarah Matthews and Oli Matthews) who’s fine instrumental arrangements and vocal harmonies provide the perfect backdrop for Lucy’s songs and strong delivery.
All four come from Derbyshire, a county that’s on the rise in breeding singers and musicians, but only three of the songs originate there. The template for their debut album, Bluebell, comes from what some of us still think of as a golden age: some traditional songs and a couple of covers, nothing too outré but variations on the familiar.
The set opens with a high energy take on Julie Matthews’ ‘Crane Driver’, originally written for the 2006 Radio Ballads. It’s a great song and Cupola:Ward do it full justice. They follow that with Tucker Zimmerman’s ‘Taoist Tale’ paired with ‘Blew Bell Hornpipe’; a philosophical song enlivened with a sparkling tune . The first native song is ‘Jacob’s Well’ a version specifically from a Derbyshire collection and now we’ve had a touch of rock, a bit of thoughtfulness and unaccompanied four-part harmony.
Not on the album, but played at the launch evening, was another modern folk classic “Hit Me Baby One More Time” and why shouldn’t it be considered a folk song and, more specifically, a broken token? “I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now Don’t you know I still believe That you will be here and give me a sign”
The last track “Normandy Orchards” written by Keith Marsden. It tells the story of a small village, somewhere in the bucolic south, that became a staging post for troops preparing for D-Day. The sudden influx of tanks, wire barbed and “young men come learning to die” stands in stark contrast to village greens and cornfields. It’s an incredibly moving song, combining Cupola’s fine musicianship with Lucy Ward’s voice at it’s most delicate and beautiful.
