root salad f18 Lady Maisery
The all-girl trio capped a successful year with a BBC Folk Awards nomination. Sophie Parkes hears all.
H
annah James laughs, explaining during a conversation at Bromyard Folk Festival how she and Hazel Askew set the criteria to find their
third and final member of Lady Maisery… “Well, we wanted a woman with a low singing voice who wasn’t too tall!” In fiddle player and singer Rowan Rheingans, they were successful on one count – but sadly not the other, if the promo shots are anything to go by. “Yes, we didn’t quite succeed on that one,” she concludes, shaking her head and smiling.
Though all in their early twenties, their combined back catalogues and extensive touring experience – Hannah in Kerfuffle and The Demon Barbers, Hazel with her sis- ter as The Askew Sisters and Rowan in Fidola – has meant that, actually, their paths have crossed frequently over the years.
“We all go way back,” Hazel confirms.
“We’ve met up with each other at gigs, fes- tivals and Folkworks; Hannah and I were actually rivals in the Wiltshire Folk Associa- tion Young Folk Award years ago…” “…and Rowan is from Grindleford, near Sheffield where I live,” Hannah interjects. “Oh, and Rowan and I met in Newcastle. We shared a house there for a time, which was great for rehearsals,” Hazel concludes.
Lady Maisery began with a politically- driven motive: to form a young, all-female singing group, showcasing younger female talent. The name came to repre- sent that; something recognisable from traditional ballads, something feminine “but not too girly.”
But as the trio gelled and enjoyed their repertoire, they just realised they simply relished singing together. “The feeling of singing with other women is different; it’s just so enjoyable,” Rowan explains. “Musically, it’s great to hear our voices blending so well.”
The group sought to source material that was female-focused, too. “Even if we’re singing about something we haven’t directly experienced, we can still relate to the emotions and tell the story,” Hannah says. “I suppose that’s intensified as we’re often singing about female experiences.”
A mutual interest in Scandinavian music also helped to extend Lady Maisery’s repertoire. With Rowan studying fiddle and song under the tutelage of Swedish musicians for a year and Hannah studying in Finland for six months, they certainly have an authoritative and experienced knowledge base on which to build.
“We all really love a Swedish female singing group called Kraja; one of Kraja was actually in Rowan’s class at Bollnas Folkhogskola,” Hannah continues.
Kraja indulge in singing tunes, or ‘did- dling’, something which Lady Maisery also experimented on their debut album, Weave And Spin, released earlier this year on RootBeat Records. The album includes an interpretation of Elin’s Trall, a sung- tune that Kraja also perform.
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“Tune singing is still really popular in Scandinavia, but not a lot is known about diddling in England as it seems to have died out. It probably happened in areas where people couldn't afford instruments, as a way of making music for dancing,” Hazel says. “We’re all musicians as well as singers, so it’s really nice to have the same kind of energy in diddling as you get with playing tunes. It demonstrates another thing we can do as singers.”
longside the Scandinavian influence on Weave And Spin, there are also renditions of well- known songs from these shores. But close, unexpected harmonies, and unusual instrumentation – including Hannah’s clogging accompaniment and Rowan’s bansitar (her father, Helmut Rheingans, is a luthier and the banjo-sitar his own invention) – make for a fresh, innovative interpretations of songs such as Nottamun Town, I Know My Love and The Colour Of Amber.
“We all brought different things to the table,” Rowan says, “some songs did- n’t work at all, whilst some came natural- ly.” And some, according to the cover notes, were “learnt via osmosis whilst growing up on the folk scene.”
Having recently completed a UK tour in promotion of the album, the trio hope that 2012 will bring further exposure from festivals, and a March 2012 tour is already on the cards.
All accomplished tutors in their own right, their expertise in harmony singing has led to bookings for workshops and tuition, including the inaugural Soundpost singing weekend hosted by Fay Hield and Jon Boden. Plans are also afoot for their own singing and song weekend.
But despite it being relatively early in the life of Lady Maisery, the ladies are keen to get their next record down. Ideas have been sketched out for the follow-up, though they are keen to stipulate that plans are still, at present, very rough.
“There are some definite themes
developing off the back of this one, though,” Hannah smiles, mysteriously.
www.ladymaisery.com F
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