Neil Spencer 

Jackie Oates: The Spyglass & the Herringbone review – bright as a May morn

Jackie Oates’s sixth album, mixing old songs and fine new material, marks her out as one of English folk’s finest
  
  

jackie oates
‘Easy grace’: Jackie Oates. Photograph: /PR

The Devon singer and fiddler has made some bold moves over her previous five albums (a Björk cover, for example), but here she mostly cleaves to tradition. Old songs such as Robbers’ Retreat and The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife are reprised with exuberance, while new material like Chris Sarjeant’s title piece – a touching tale of Victorian foundlings – are cut from familiar cloth. Oates’s vocals, bright as a May morn, carry the tales and poems with easy grace, helped by polished accompanists, while a cover of the Sundays’ Can’t Be Sure comes with a lush string arrangement. One of English folk’s class acts.

 

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