New Music 2014 - Part 4 - Smoke Fairies

I'm not sure that I have ever tried to write two posts on-line simultaneously but I see no reason why not to try it.
The Smoke Fairies self-titled forthcoming third album, released on 14 April by Full Time Hobby Records on DL (various file formats) to vinyl (but perhaps not cassette) just as you might wish.

Beyond that I can't tell you much other than to say that I have almost all of their previous LPs, EPs and none of them have disappointed.
I can't remember how I first came to know of them but the first time I saw them live was at Latitude Festival 2009 on the Thursday evening and a performance (in a marquee, fortunately) that was interrupted by a truly epic thunderstorm.  I shall look at the ghosts of festivals long gone and try and find some pictures.

This is the only remotely usable one from Latitude 2009 - Katherine Blamire on guitar.

On the Garden Stage at End of The Road Festival 2010 the sun was shining and all this explains, at least in part, why I wish to see them play live once again.

Jessica Davies playing slide guitar.

Now The Green Blade Rises - a lyric hymnal

Note added 25 June 2009:

10:30pm on THURSDAY 16 July, according to the Smoke Fairies' latest e-mail update. Live music on the Thursday evening hasn't been a feature of Latitude as I remember but is certainly a welcome development.

Note added 19 June 2009:

Smoke Fairies has just been added to the bill at Latitude 2009 on the "Film and Music Arena" - see here for current programme - but the day and time are not currently specified. While not a headline act this is certainly something I don't want to miss...

Note added 18 June 2009:

I've just listened to the recorded lyric (several times) while now able to compare it with the (supposéd original) one below. There are some minor differences and I'll post what I think are the actual song lyrics tomorrow.

Richard

I'm sorry about the delay in posting lyric for The Smoke Fairies download single but here it is, or at least that for 'Now The Green Blade Rises' as it appears in the Ox­ford Book of Car­ols, 1928.

Now The Green Blade Rises

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

I didn't imagine when I started this blog, and even though I subsequently realised that lyrics were not simply a curiosity of mine, that I would ever be asked about ones such as these or, for that matter, still be enjoying the challenge even more almost 350 posts later. I now wish I could add more sooner...
For the original post about this song:

http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/06/now-green-blade-rises.html

Now The Green Blade Rises.

You hadn't forgotten about The Smoke Fairies and the amazing 2008 single 'Living With Ghosts' had you? Well, even if you had you are forgiven as the Frozen Heart EP is out on June 29.

In the meantime they are back with the track 'Now The Green Blade Rises' which, if you are quick, you can have legally and free on <.mp3> and it is a perfect slice of made-for-summer languorous folk.

It is traditional, up to a point. The melody is French - it dates from the 15th century - and still one that accompanies the carol Noël Nou­ve­let although this arrangement of it owes much to that of Martin Fallas Shaw (1875 - 1958). The English lyric was written by John Macleod Campbell Crum (1872 - 1958) who started his career as as­sist­ant cur­ate at St. John the Evan­gel­ist, Dar­ling­ton (1897 - 1901) and ended it as Ca­non of Can­ter­bu­ry (1928 - 43).

Not quite the everyday history of a 2009 cover version!

For the traditional, and largely unchanged, lyric see http://rpgreenhalgh.blogspot.com/2009/06/lyrics-again-now-green-blade-rises.html