Shirley Collins has announced she'll release the follow-up to comeback album Lodestar in July. Heart's Ease, her second album for Domino, is touted as “even stronger” than its predecessor, in light of her newly gained confidence. Shirley says, “Lodestar wasn’t too bad, was it? But when I listen to it, it does sometimes sound rather tentative. I had to record it at home because I was just too nervous to sing in front of somebody I didn’t know. This time I was far more relaxed – even though I went into a studio.”

Recorded at Metway in Brighton, Heart’s Ease features traditional songs from England and the US, as well as four newer, less traditional tracks.

Its lead track “Wondrous Love” comes from an 18th Century English ballad about a sea captain called William Kidd who was hanged for piracy in 1701. The hymn, also recorded by Collins and Alan Lomax on a field recording trip in 1959, was first heard by Collins at a Sacred Harp Convention in Alabama. She decided to record it for this album “because songs are stored in my memory for a great many years, and suddenly it seems the right time to bring them out again.”

Heart's Ease is released on 24 July.