Archangel Hill

Close to Shirley Collins’ home in Lewes, Sussex, is Mount Caburn, a hill topped by an Iron Age fort, that Collins’ stepfather called Archangel Hill. ‘Whenever I walk Mount Caburn,’ she writes, ‘I give a silent greeting in memory of my stepfather Bill…’ She has named her new album in his honour.

Memory, and honouring what is remembered, are at the heart of Archangel Hill, made by Shirley Collins at the age of 87 (accompanied by younger musicians, Ian Kearey, Pip Barnes, Dave Arthur and Pete Cooper). Almost all the songs were recorded last year. And almost all she first recorded decades ago: ‘Hares on the Mountain’ as long ago as 1959 on her first album, Sweet England; ‘Babes in the Wood’ (the version titled ‘Lost in a Wood’ appearing here) on The Sweet Primeroses, 1967; ‘Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear’ on Amaranth, with her sister Dolly Collins, in 1976.

All these Collins sings anew. Yet in the middle comes ‘Hand and Heart’, from a live recording made at the Sydney Opera House in 1980. Her beautiful clear voice and her assured performance contrast with the lower register she sings in now and its fragility – mixed with determination. There is, though, something shared across the years. These performances are made in the service of the songs, and the people who, over centuries, have made and sung them.

Archangel Hill ends with a piece spoken to the rhythm of a walk up a hill in the wind. Collins honours not just her stepfather but the landscape, the towns and the people that have shaped her and the music – such as the couple of dance tunes included – to which she has devoted her life.