Debut album which captures the essence of English folk traditions in old and new compositions.
‘Nightjar’ is Liz Overs’ debut solo album. It’s an album comprising a beautiful blend of traditional folk songs and new ones written by Overs. Overs seems to have been on an interesting musical journey. Back in 1999, as part of the duo Pocket Size, she was signed to Atlantic Records and had a number-one club record in the USA. Since 2018, Overs, who’s now based in Sussex, has hosted a radio show covering the music, folklore and social history of the county. This is an organic record, evoking bucolic scenes of country lanes, hedgerow and the sun rising over fields covered in frost.
‘Nightjar’ opens with ‘Prayer to the Year’, a song celebrating the winter equinox and the English countryside during the coldest season. Overs has certainly picked some fine musicians to accompany her on this album, with Neill MacCall on guitar, the acclaimed bassist Ben Nicholls who also contributes banjo and concertina, and David Tomlins on guitar and mandolin. Her vocals floats exquisitely over their sympathetic playing.
The album covers light and darkness. The traditional folk song ‘Cruel Sister’, often titled ‘The Two Sisters’, is a chilling murder ballad of sibling jealousy, recorded live in the studio. It’s followed by another oldie. ‘The Bramble Briar’ is the second tale of slaughter on the record. It dates back to the fourteenth century, and concerns two brothers who contrive to kill a servant with whom their sister has fallen in love. The new songs, such as ‘Snow Moon’, which is about gardening at night, fit in well with the traditional ones, which is a testament to the quality of the songwriting.
Overs didn’t always live in rural Sussex. ‘Alleyways’ recounts her days growing up on a housing estate, ‘Jumping the cracks in the pavement for luck’. Overs learnt the ‘Bad Girl’ from the American folk singer Texas Gladden’s version, the story is of a young woman dying, as she drools, owing to mercury poisoning, which used to be a treatment for syphilis.
The album ends with two original songs written by Overs, ‘Honeysuckle’ and ‘Nightjar’. The latter song fades out with the sound of a roaring fire. It’s an appropriate way to bring the album to a close, the images of warm flames reaching into the cold air of the room, are analogous to Overs’ voice reaching out to the listener’s heart.
