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No Roses

No Roses
Noroses.png
Studio album by Shirley Collins and The Albion Country Band
Released October 1971
Recorded 1971
Genre Folk rock, art rock
Length 33:30
Label Pegasus
Producer Sandy Roberton, Ashley Hutchings
Shirley Collins chronology
Love, Death and The Lady
(with Dolly Collins)
(1970)
No Roses
(1971)
A Favourite Garland
(1973)
The Albion Country Band chronology
No Roses
(1971)
Battle of the Field
(1976)

No Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded at Sound Techniques, and Air Studios in London, in the summer of 1971. It was produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings (Shirley Collins' husband at the time). It was released in October 1971 on the Pegasus label.

It is very unusual to have 27 musicians and singers on an album of traditional folk songs. It happened because people simply dropped in during recording sessions and were asked to join in. "The Murder of Maria Marten", a lengthy song about the Red Barn Murder, is broken into segments, with parts of British folk rock alternating with more traditional parts featuring Shirley Collins' voice and a hurdy-gurdy drone. Shirley Collins had used a similar technique on "One Night As I Lay on My Bed" on "Adieu to Old England".

Some songs, for instance Poor Murdered Woman and Murder of the Maria Marten, feature big parts of the Fairport Convention line-up of late 1969 (Liege and Lief). In fact, Fairport Convention member Ashley Hutchings appears on all, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson on eight, and Dave Mattacks on three of the nine songs on this album.

Claudy Banks includes a composed duo performance by Alan Cave on bassoon and British free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill – his only performance ever in the context of British folk music. Hal-An-Tow features members of the two acclaimed folk vocal groups The Watersons (Lal and Mike Waterson) and The Young Tradition (Royston Wood). Both drummer Roger Powell and pianist Ian Whiteman previously played together in the band Mighty Baby.

All songs are arrangements of traditional folk songs. Claudy Banks stems from Ron and Bob Copper. The line-up is according to the folk database Mainly Norfolk.


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