the owl service & alison o'donnell

The Fabric of Folk

Legend has it this collaboration between The Owl Service's Steven Collins and Alison O'Donnell - formerly of Irish prog-folk legends Mellow Candle - came about after a chance meeting on a social networking website. It's not long since that The Owl Service's A Garland Of Song hit shop shelves, and fans of that record can expect a not dissimilar brew of trad folk and '70s-style prog-lite fusions from The Fabric Of Folk. These are songs that reference Robin Hood, wanting to "don the wooden coat", and just generally make Steeleye Span sound like The Clash. There's an electrified, gothic quality to the opener (called "The Wooden Coat" in fact), a track held together by creepy guitar chords, bells (probably freshly poached from a Morris dancer's clogs) and the myriad other instruments Collins can play. O'Donnell's voice is still in good form, and the multi-faceted instrumentation is always of the highest order, but be warned: this is folk with a capital F (that would be Folk, then).