Music Arcades: Charlotte Greig: Winter Woods

Strange to think that I've been a fan of Charlotte Greig for eight years now. And I've not managed to 'turn anyone onto' her in that time, either. Not for want of trying: before Green Man Festival 2006 I played Lucy this album and another of CG's without any affect; then I got Guy, Paul and everyone else along to see at the festival — and they were just luke warm.

Strange, because I really love her stuff. Her voice and delivery have that same rich grain that lifts Alasdair Roberts above most of the other new folkies.

This was the second album of Charlotte's that I got, ordered direct from her website when I still barely knew what she looked like and had never seen her live, since she very rarely plays outside Wales (if you'd asked me to guess her age, I'd have been out by 15 years). The fact that she chose to cover a Sonic Youth song (Cotton Crown) was like a reassurance to me: I'd judged her sensibility correctly. When she sang that song in 2006, as the rain started again, she observed that it was the one that the audience sang along with, "the mark of a true folk song".

I'm intrigued to read, in Charlotte's notes that

Winter Woods was recorded quickly, but this time we spent about a year playing and singing the songs before we went into the studio. I hope this gives the songs a natural, lived-in feel.

because I was thinking that the first songs sounded rather tentative.

…

Something about this was not adding up, so I went back and listened to the album that first turned me into a fan in 2000. Winter Woods is good, but it's not in the same league as that album — more of which anon.