The Fairest Flower of Womankind

A native of Montana, a graduate of Berklee College of Music and a traditional balladeer, Lindsay Straw infuses familiar and not-so-familiar English and Scottish folk songs with sparkling new life on this 13-track album. Much of the vivid emotional power and narrative heft of these songs arises from Straw's compelling vocal style, which is distinctively crisp and lithe. She is so captivatingly direct, it's impossible not to be swept along by the fresh interpretation she brings to time-worn broadside rhymes and sailor's tales. One of the highlights of the album, which celebrates female protagonists, is a variation on the Child Ballad ‘Young Beichan’, performed here in two parts. In the first part, Owen Marshall uses a harmonium and guitar to create a droning ambience in support of Straw's lyrical narration. The second is livened up by the addition of Armand Aromin on fiddle and Benedict Gagliardi's harmonica. The melody, derived from British folklorist Cecil Sharp, imparts a dreamy, contemplative temperament to the tale of an adventurous Londoner who makes a dramatic choice on his wedding day. Using deft technique and thoughtful scholarship, Straw has re-animated this material, which has been recorded hundreds of times by dozens of artists, for a 21st-century audience.