Murder, And The Birds

We have managed to get a few copies of this amazing album released on the ever reliable Triassic Tusk. A personal journey through the artist's own personal mythology told through the perfomance of found folk songs, Murder, And The Birds acheives a remarkable feat. In re-casting traditional folk songs from the 19th Century and before, David A. Jaycock channels universal human concerns and emotions. Using multilayered vocals, a spidery guitar technique and tasteful augmenting instrumentation, the artist becomes medium, a mouthpiece for lost voices that still resonate.

In a moment of reflection and homesickness, British psychedelic folk traveller Jaycock set about uncovering traditional folk songs spurred on by an antique song collection Ballads and Songs of Lancashire (1865) by John Haland. Borrowing 5 songs from this book - unaccompanied sets of lyrics without music - Jaycock's journey then took him to different corners of the UK, from Ayrshire to the Midlands collecting traditional ballads that reminded him of home or resonated with his wavering sense of place. Having grown up in Lancashire but travelled extensively since, the ambiguities of where "home" is for the artist lend him a troubadour's gift for interpretation, with each composition and arrangement treating each lyric set with the utmost respect and sensitivity.