Shirley Collins - An Introduction To...
(Topic)

It's the dead of winter. Where there was once life and color, now it is bleak and gray. What is one to do? Well, as far as I can tell there are only two viable options; you either do as much as you can to deny your circumstances, or you lean into the darkness. An Introduction To Shirley Collins is a record that embraces the later option. Released by Topic Records, England's premiere folk music label, An Introduction To is a compilation that spans over four decades of Collins anything but ordinary career. Her style is cold yet elegant, haunting but traditional. Not only is she known for her formative folk recordings of the late 1950's and early 1960's, she also played a role in discovering and recording many folk and blues greats such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Hobart Smith and Almeda Riddle among others as she traveled through the southern United States with Alan Lomax. Not your average folk singer, to say the least. If you are a fan of “outsider” folk music along the likes of Vashti Bunyan, Karen Dalton, Sibylle Baier or Linda Perhacs, consider this record to be a worthy contender amongst any of those essentials. (Adam)
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