An Hour With Cecil Sharp & Ashley Hutchings

Bassist, vocalist and songwriter Ashley Hutchings was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English psych folk rock bands in England; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band. During 1984 Hutchings created a one-man show about folk song collector Cecil Sharp. In this concept album Hutchings takes on the persona of Cecil Sharp telling his story, which is interspersed with the cylinder recordings. This show featured early 20th century recordings made by Sharp on cylinders. This cd is a based on the show.

Track Listing:
1. Among The New Mown Hay – 0:42   2. Sharp arrives and observes starlings – 3:18   3. Among The New Mown Hay – 0:14   4. Hutchings introduces Sharp – 1:01   5. Bushes And Briars – 0:55   6. Sharp avoids being killed by a gypsy – 1:28   7. Banks Of The Nile – 1:34   8. Sharp illustrates the evolution of a folk song on a bicycle wheel – 2:56   9. Sharp opens his case and relates its contents – 3:17   10. Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson and Dave Whetstone play a jig, learnt from the cylinder recordings, on three guitars – 0:54   11. Hutchings reveals a catalogue of Sharp’s illnesses – 1:03   12. The cylinder recording of the previous jig, whistled by "as good a whistler as ever cocked a lip'' – 0:44   13. Sharp finds his lunch and holds forth on vegetarianism, politics, collecting folk songs and the acceptance of popularisation – 3:19   14. More cylinder whistling – 0:40   15. Sharp extols the virtues of bicycle travel and meets a bird-starver – 1:42   16. Hutchings offers an opinion on moulding music to suit its audience’s taste – 1:20   17. Rambling Sailor – 1:13   18. Sharp muses on John Short and the sea – 0:26   19. Rambling Sailor – 0:37   20. Richard Digance and British Telecom decide that Sharp has slept enough – 0:19   21. Sharp continues where he left off, then moves on to pipe-smoking ideosyncrasies in the Appalachians – 3:45   22. Black Joke – 1:27   23. Cylinder recording by Sharp of Herfordshire fiddler John Lock playing a hornpipe – 0:37   24. Sharp believes that fiddlers are a strange breed and illustrates why – 4:13   25. All My Chickens Have Gone – 1:01   26. Sharp relates more adventures in the Appalachians – 2:27   27. The Banks Of Green Willow – 3:00   28. Turtle Dove – 3:23   29. Sharp laments the passing of old-fashioned songs and kindly manners – 1:34   30. Turtle Dove – 0:52   31. Turtle Dove – 0:44   32. Hutchings sums up and gets himself off the hook – 0:50   33. Among The New Mown Hay – 1:25

Personnel:
Ashley Hutchings (vocals, bass) , Martin Carthy (guitar, vocals) , Richard Thompson (guitar) , Dave Whetstone (concertina, melodeon, guitar)