Cath & Phil Tyler's Lovely Molly
Nathan Budzinski
A great part of Cath & Phil
Tyler gig at Dalston's Café
Oto a couple Friday's ago (20 March) was hearing their version
of the trad tune "Courting Is A Pleasure" one of my favourite
recordings by the guitarist/vocalist/fiddler Nic Jones - a tune from his
excellent
Penguin Eggs album. Jones's recording is a great example of his
impressive guitar skills, with its faultless and quick, almost
harsh rhythmic picking complementing and intertwining with his
vocals creating an uncomfortable and driving effect.
The Tyler's version on the other hand, broke the song down into
slowly shifting fragments and a sleepy pace, a great version that
translated the song into a kind of lullaby (well, compared to
Jones's version...) Either way, the Tyler's show was a great gig,
different from the studio recordings I've heard (Dumb Supper) which
were far more dry, droning and harsh, than the rounded folkiness I
heard on Friday.
There's other arrangements of the song out there... One by the
Watersons called "Meeting Is A Pleasure" and another version
that goes by the name "Loving Hannah" and another whose title is
also the refrain of the tune, "Lovely Molly"... I'm pretty sure
Cath said that she first heard a version of it on a fund raising
compilation released by the New Jersey free form radio station
WFMU... I tried to find out
which CD she was talking about but to no avail...
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