Pill Pilots

Bristol-based guitarist Hawes and fiddler Catlow have worked over the years with the likes of Seth Lakeman, Afro Celt Sound System and Sheelanagig, making their own debut as an acoustic duo with 2016's widely-praised The Fox. Most of the material on their follow-up is again traditional although the title-track is an original penned by Catlow about the skilled mariners who, for many centuries, guided tall ships through the treacherous waters of the Bristol Channel and the River Avon. Like the rest of the album, it was recorded live in a single room, an approach that lends vibrancy to proceedings.

Opener ‘I Know My Love’ is an eloquent tale of love and longing that has its origins in Ireland but Hawes and Catlow's version evidently owes a debt to the time they spent playing with Appalachian musicians in Nashville, while ‘The Yellow Handkerchief ’ (often called ‘Flash Company’) is inspired by Gypsy singer Phoebe Smith's version. Album highlight ‘Hard Times of Old England’ may be a ballad from the Napoleonic War, but this emotive tale of economic hardship was chosen for its contemporary resonance. Three instrumentals, along with the six vocal numbers, impressively demonstrate the fleet-fingered prowess of the pair.