Saving the Good Stuff Vol 1

Cast in a pristine C major and underpinned by the hypnotic backdrop of Freya Jonas’ harmonium and David Harbottle's acoustic guitar, the evergreen ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ kicks off this eight-track album from the Devon-based duo. Penned by Harbottle's friend, Jukebox Gypsy's Ben Balance, fiddle player Richard Trethewey provides the opening drone in the utterly beguiling ‘Water’, which also features telling contributions from cellist Claire Sutton and, in a touching coda, oboist Jenny Jonas. Based on a 15th-century French carol with lyrics appended by the Anglican priest, author and composer John Macleod Campbell Crum, the metaphorically rich Easter hymn ‘Now the Green Blade Riseth’ sees the duo's vocal lines beautifully intertwining around each other, while the album reaches its notable high-water mark with an extraordinarily affecting take on the ‘Mingulay Boat Song’.

Also featuring Natalie Merchant's ‘Motherland’, previously covered by Joan Baez, Christy Moore and others, a surprisingly effective Jonas-led piano ballad version of Joy Division's ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, plus Iris DeMent's ‘Our Town’ (from her 1992 debut album Infamous Angel), this imaginatively programmed album closes with a heartwarming take on Harry Glasson's beloved Cornish anthem, ‘Cornwall My Home’.