A private pressing of pastoral summer folk
Label: Wild Bird
Year of Release: 1984(?)
It's interesting how your association and relationship with music changes as you age. In my teens and for most of my twenties, music often had to surprise me, and if its tone was optimistic or life-affirming, I usually wanted energy and urgency to accompany that mood. The older I've got, however, the more I've begun to see the appeal of artists and genres I would have openly mocked as a youngster. Everything, it seems, has its moment of personal relevance.
So then, "Purbeck Hills" is something of an anthem for Poole folk singer Nicky Hann, and spends just over three delicate, considered, gentle minutes extolling the virtues of a rural idyll. While I would have openly dismissed this kind of thing as self-indulgent, simplistic poppycock as a young man, these days, as a tired middle-aged individual in suburban East London, I feel I can understand what she means and acknowledge something that may be missing from my life. Her voice trills and soars over the delicate acoustic backing, and manages to sound both joyous and earnest in a manner you usually only experience with religious music - but in this case, she's referring to her particular idea of heaven. The song is still commercially available on Amazon (and presumably elsewhere) but there's a lovely live film of it on YouTube too.
The B-side "Oh Summer Time" has since fallen off the radar but is stylistically speaking more of the same, with less of a specific countryside reference and more of a yearning feel. You can listen in full at the bottom of this entry.
