Neighbours and Sisters

This is the strong follow-up to The Crowing from the Brighton quartet composed of alt-folk artist Jinnwoo, folk duo Hickory Signals (Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti) and multi-instrumentalist Tom Pryor. Like that first album, Neighbours and Sisters pokes around the more obscure corners of English folk song, drawing primarily on Georgian and Victorian sources, and with lashings of city grime, crime and exploitation from both those periods. On the way, you'll encounter Sir Death, a monstrous workhouse rapist, the prostitutes of Yarmouth, the condemned of Newgate and a World War I soldier's yearning for home.

The album title comes from the refrain to ‘Phoebe to Phyllis’, a vigorous account of working girls turning to the streets in their husbands' absence, revelling in a favourite client and ‘when our husbands come home and ask what we've done/to look at those cuckolds there will be some fun.’ Ward and Ronchetti trade lead vocals and share harmonies, and the instrumental mix of Ward's flute, Ronchetti's shruti and the fiddle, guitars, organ and banjo Pryor handles make for a fresh and light touch, bringing these social songs from a long-ago era back to life.