Robin Denselow 

Bella Hardy: The Dark Peak and the White – review

A low-key project linked to the Peak District's musical heritage finds Bella Hardy in stripped-back, no-nonsense mode, writes Robin Denselow
  
  


Two folk celebrities collaborate on a low-key project with help from the Peak District National Park's Sustainable Development Fund. Bella Hardy lives and was brought up in the Peak District, and this is a collection of new settings for songs that appeared in Songs and Ballads of Derbyshire back in the 19th century, and new material based on the history and legends of the area. Unlike her last release, Songs Lost & Stolen (which included her award-winning The Herring Girl), this is a stripped-back affair, with backing provided by her own fiddle, piano and harmonium, and the guitar, bass and mandolin work of producer Kris Drever. Her singing is as fine, cool and no-nonsense as ever, and the songs range from her stark, effective new setting for the 1815 murder story Henry and Clara: the Winnats Pass Murders, to the grand Peak Rhapsody and her own, piano-backed Lament for Derwent Village, the story of those forced to move to make way for a reservoir. But you have to check darkpeakandwhite.com to find out what the songs are about.

 

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