Review | Songlines

The Devil's on the Mast

Rating: ★★★★

View album and artist details

Album and Artist Details

Artist/band:

The Ciderhouse Rebellion & Kirsty Merryn

Label:

Under the Eaves Records

July/2023

The prolific folk duo, fiddler Adam Summerhayes and accordionist Murray Grainger, have joined forces on their latest release with singer and songwriter, Kirsty Merryn. The result is an unflinching study of the darker recesses of the British nation's past, and those who were persecuted and ignored within it.

The album's title refers to the notion that a becalmed sailing ship was a victim of the Devil's work. Similarly, a sense of demonic possession runs through other self-penned tales such as that of healing women accused of witchcraft, a vagabond who caught snakes in the New Forest, or the two monks who fall in love in a monastery.

The lyrics by Summerhayes and Merryn are fascinating portraits of lost stories, with humble professions such as gong-farmer, knocker-upper and thurifer illuminated to give the listener a chance to reconsider how history is constructed. Throughout, the fiddle and accordion swoon gracefully around Merryn's clear and languid voice.

The album concludes with WB Yeats’ poem ‘The Song of the Old Mother’ set to music. It is a fitting tribute to that most unseen of workers, the old mother setting the fire alight in the morning for the household.

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