Watching for Winkles

Overview

Reviews

• Folk Northwest – Derek Gifford

  This is the second CD by this pair that I’ve received for review and is their 6th album. As in their previous collection there’s a real mix of songs in the 15 tracks with 6 traditional songs, 2 songs written by Lynne and 4 by Pat.

  They open the recording with a version of the traditional ballad Fair Rosamund which immediately illustrates their very fine close harmony singing. Pat leads the next song Only A Dream with a nice minimal guitar accompaniment which is one of two Mary Chapin-Carpenter songs on the album . This for me is one of the best tracks on the album. A hauntingly beautiful song superbly performed.

  Inevitably this is followed by a much lighter hearted rendition of Lynne’s I Do Like A Bit of Fried Fish! These two are masters (or should that be mistresses? .. perhaps not!) at moving from the sublime to the ridiculous. Also their Music Hall repertoire has been enhanced with Pat’s Brighton Belle and is even more amusing when they perform it live.

  Returning then to traditional material, of the 6 songs of this genre, I particularly liked their arrangement of The Wrecking of the Nightingale and the homiletic ballad (homolists are preachers – don’t despair if you didn’t know that dear reader – I had to look it up too!!) When I Was A Young Girl I Used To Seek Pleasure (they’re still seeking!) which are accompanied by Pat’s English concertina.

  Pat’s talent at song writing is well showcased here with The North Wind which is somewhat lightly dismissed in the sleeve notes as a song about our obsession with the weather; it’s much deeper than that and a very well written song.

  So, what of the title track, and to give its full name, Watching For Winkles At Westward Ho! ? It is a tribute to and was written by the late Hilary Bix a resident and organiser of the fine Bideford Folk Club and a very lovely talented lady who I had the pleasure of meeting when I performed at Bideford myself. This, as might be guessed from the title, is another Music Hall style song and perfectly suits Lynne and Pat’s approach to their singing.

  This CD will no doubt be an addition to the collections of their many fans as well as folk who’ve not come across them before. Available at their many gigs around the country and from the Wild Goose web site.

• Around Kent Folk – Bob Kenward

  Heroines of the Broadstairs Music Hall and Supergirls of stunning harmony, Lynne & Pat present another cornucopia from their impressive repertoire. Don’t be fooled by the title there are feats of innuendo, sure, but the first track is Fair Rosamund, in cut glass harmony, a quality tragedy, and the second Only A Dream, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s poignant drama here brought close by the simple arrangement far from full band complexity.

  Doesn’t take long for Lynne to pop in a bit of Fried Fish though these two know a bit about making powerful songs more so by adding some fun in between. You get two originals from Lynne and four from Pat here, a mixture of sauce and a lovely North Wind which brings out the side of their writing I’ve always enjoyed, the clear vision of how things really are, expressed in ways which make you think.

  Guitar, concertina, whistle and kazoo; 6 traditional songs from The Wrecking Of The Nightingale to When I Was A Young Girl, crisply recorded and full of vim. The title track, by Hilary Bix, brings us back to the good time gals we know and love. Get well soon, Lynne, we need more CDs like this to cheer us up in curious times.

• The Living Tradition – David Kidman

  Over the past 20 years, Lynne and Pat have secured their special niche on the English folk scene. A class act of the kind that never goes out of fashion, thoroughly entertaining with an accessible performing style and a flair for delivering an ideally balanced programme of songs that truly suit both their voices and personalities. As singers, they blend perfectly, Lynne’s appealing higher register ringing out and harmonising with Pat’s deeper, earthier timbre to give an extensive combined vocal range.

  One can rely on any new album from Lynne and Pat (this is their seventh) to contain a sensibly varied batch of sparkling additions to their repertoire that will alternate between ‘serious’ and ‘frivolous’ and equal-handedly comprise traditional ballads, contemporary compositions and lighter, slightly risqué material either from the music-hall or self-penned in the approved cheeky-life-observational idiom. The ladies’ presentational insight is so well developed that such an obvious juxtaposition device, which could so easily feel contrived, in their hands feels as natural as breathing. Their team-talent for impeccable timing and flawless harmonies is right there on every track, while each lady’s individual solo passages also never fail to delight.

  So, mindful of the need to winkle out particular highlights from the ladies’ latest scintillating collection, I’ll cite Pat’s compositions The North Wind and Hertfordshire Lullaby (though she can do fun too, as her Crafty Ladies and Brighton Belle prove); Lynne’s delish ode to fish (and chips); ballads The Brown Girl and The Two Brothers; and (The Wrecking Of) The Nightingale (from Helen Schneyer). The latter is one of a handful of other tracks that involves a modicum of careful accompaniment (guitar, English concertina, recorder), but invariably the focus is always on Lynne and Pat’s glorious harmonies.

  Yes, Watching For Winkles is fair guaranteed to warm the cockles!