Review: Seasonal Sevens – Autumn (7”) [Pamela Wyn Shannon & The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree]

Seasonal Sevens – Autumn (7”)
Autumn Ferment Records 2009

[tags: acoustic, folk, 7'']

Listen while reading:

Pamela Wyn Shannon – Woolgathering (from Autumn 7”)

The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree – The Blackthorn Tree (from Autumn 7”)

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Maybe you remember my delayed review for the Summer release in the Seasonal Seven series. If you do so you also remeber that I promised you to review the following three vinyls as well and here we go with the brand new Autumn 7’’. (For all readers who missed the first review, let me explain what the Seasonal Sevens are: they are a series of colored 7’’s whereby every record should represent the season it is dedicated to. Altogether there will be 4 different 7’’s.)

This time the good guys over at Autumn Ferment Records chose one track from Massachusetts based singer-songwriter Pamela Wyn Shannon (which currently lives in Wales) and one from The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree from Ireland. Let me say one sentence before I start reviewing: If you love folk music and you have some money left, buy this record and don’t think about it!

The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree and Pamela Wyn Shannon

Pamela Wyn Shannon’s track Woolgathering is one dreamful homage to the lovely time of the year we call autumn (or fall or whatever) and which we all love with all our flesh and bone. All the melancholy, the raw weather, but also the beautiful colors and the alluring scent of fallen leaves are represented in her little story about wandering and woolgathering all around. Musically this theme is realized by the use of strings whose melodies are sad, thoughtful and melancholic at the same time. Along with those strings Pamela Wyn Shannon plays one overwhelming fingerpicking style on her acoustic guitar whereby the guitar melodies are rich and haunting and a perfect foundation for the strings and the stunning voice of her. Everytime she sings you can feel all the power of the instrumentation gathered in one mystical but earthbound voice sounding like a twilight that can guide you to every place it wishes. An astonishing track.

Let’s move on to The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree and their song The Blackthorn Tree. First of all I can’t imagine a track that could possibly go better with Woolgathering as this one. And this is not because it would sound alike but for it is sort of different – very different so to say – where Woolgathering sounds floating this one sounds earthly, where the first one is dreamy this one is perfectly aware. If you listen to the music, the somewhat outstanding flute (or what instrument is this?), the stripped down acoustic guitar and the duet of two male voices you can feel the rough charme of a walk in the dark woods but also the loneliness of being out of sight of everybody’s eyes and just alone with your own thoughts of love and life. Pure beauty.

So what is there to say anymore? Autumn Ferment Records released one of the loveliest records and one of the best collector’s items this year with the two 7’’s and especially with Autumn. If you have any passion for collecting music and folk you should buy your copy as long as they have some left. Click here for buying your copy and visit Pamela Wyn Sharon’s MySpace as well as The Magickal Folk Of The Faraway Tree’s MySpace for further information. To listen to all the tracks of the Seasonal Sevens series, head over to the Seasonal Sevens’ MySpace site.