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Acoustic duo Blanche Rowen and Mike Gulston: an eclectic feast of traditional and contemporary songs, with two voices in harmony accompanied by guitar, octave mandola, laùd and bowed psaltery.

Themes flowing through our music include the natural world and the folk customs of the seasons;
a unique blending of traditional songs from England and Wales; and the dance songs of France and Brittany.

And some daft stuff, just for fun!
In the wintertime, season of carols and wassailing, we can never resist Sid Kipper's classic tale of what happens when the Hell's Angels go wassailing ...



 

Around the year in fifteen songs

Our second album The Dance Goes On celebrates the turning year and its customs, along with some mediæval favourites. There are contemporary songs here as well as ones from the English and Welsh traditions, and even Irish and mediæval French.

From midwinter, through the greening of the land and the long days of summer to the time of hops and bonfires, the songs take you back to Yule feasting (with a difference) and another whirl round the circle.

"A musical calendar: engrossing from beginning to end." English Dance & Song magazine, www.efdss.org

"Excellent harmony vocals and dexterous guitar, mandola, psaltery and recorder ... this is classy stuff" fRoots

"... an enchanted journey, a pastoral celebration, a musical, historical and natural-world almanac. If you ever searched for the natural world and its reach into human lives, this is the guide you’ve waited for."  Tim Carroll,  FolkWords

"an eclectic and stimulating collection of songs ... The combination of Blanche’s delicate yet assured vocal timbre with Mike’s tender, tremulous tenor makes for some distinctively attractive harmonies ...The musical backdrops suit the material brilliantly, possessing a deftly charismatic quality .... I can confidently recommend this CD to anyone sharing the duo’s respect for this land’s traditions."  David Kidman, The Living Tradition