A Reminder

Just to let you know once again that the link to the online CD shop is now...

http://www.chipperfieldjones.co.uk/shop.asp

..so please ignore any other older links that you might be tempted to use.

Thanks!

PS You do realise what a perfect Christmas gift a Rattlebag CD would make, don't you?

We Bring You A King With A Head Of Gold

....is the title of Cold Spring's follow up to the award winning Folk compilation "John Barleycorn Reborn" . Subtitled "Dark Britannica II" this new double CD represents 34 tracks and 146 minutes of music from what they describe as "the best of current British Folk artists". Do they mean us? I think they do!

Go here to take a first look....

http://www.coldspring.co.uk/discography/csr100cd.php

Three of the songs on the album (including ours, folks) are linked to mp3 samples so you can have a quick listen before you buy!

"We Bring You A King With A Head of Gold" is available from November 29th. Just in time for Yule!

Another Rattling Good Singaround!

The Rattlebag singaround always takes place on the third Thursday of the month at our second home: The back bar at the Stag in All Saints Street, Hastings.
This means that the next one will be on Thursday October the 21st. We hope to see you all there: Bring a song or two or just bring yourself and have drink and a listen. It's always a good laugh. We'll start around nine.

Shop Update (new link)

As you know, the new Rattlebag CD is now being sold at the Angles/Climax Ceilidh Band/Meridian shop.

The shop has a new link and here it is...

www.chipperfieldjones.co.uk/shop/


Get in there and buy some stuff. Hurry. Christmas will be here almost as soon as you've read this link.

Rattlebag featured on new Cold Spring Collection.

Three years ago Cold Spring Records released the compilation, "John Barleycorn Reborn". Described as a collection of "Dark Britannica", this was a fascinating double CD set that included a wide range of music from acoustic to folk rock to the electronica and avant garde pieces more often associated with the label.

This combination of traditional and newly written material was a fantastic listen and critically well received. Now the same label has completed work on the follow up double CD collection, "We Bring You A King With A Head Of Gold". Rattlebag's song "The Tyburn Sisters" - a retelling of the old murder ballad "Two Sisters" given a psychogeographical twist and hot-wired into a traditional Swedish folk tune - is featured on this new collection. As far as we know, the CDs go into production this week. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, check out Cold Spring....

http://www.coldspring.co.uk/

It's a terrific label with a wide range of good music on offer, from the traditional to the dark and rather more hair raising. We've also added the label to the list of interesting links to stuff we like on the right of this page. Have a look!

Buy Rattlebag CDs Online!

As many of our friends know, the latest Rattlebag CD, "Shifting Shapes" has been available since the Spring. We're pretty pleased with it and with the balance of material it showcases from the traditional songs and gospel classics to the pieces where we've sourced unusual traditional melodies and given them our own lyrics. Getting it out there to people who might like a copy has been a problem, though. Not any more. We're delighted to say that from now on, you can buy Rattlebag's "Shifting Shapes" from right here:

www.chipperfieldjones.co.uk/shop/

This is the Angles/Climax Ceilidh Band/Meridian shop and we'd like to thank Richard Jones - who also produced and engineered the CD - for sharing his online retail space with us.

Four Star review in Rock n' Reel!

Get yourself down to your local WH Smith's and grab a copy of the latest Rock & Reel magazine where the new Rattlebag CD "Shifting Shapes" has been given a very favorable review. Or, if you'd rather save your money and not risk being informed that the shop "isn't a library", you could always read it here. This is an accurate transcript. All odd bits of prose and scandalous charges of being "middle aged" are theirs:

"Displaying eclecticism and unpredictability equally, this is the second collection by a formidable a capella quintet formed by middle-aged denizens of a Hastings pub and its folk club. They trade mostly in overhauls and, in some cases, virtual rewrites of traditional songs, but have the unmitigated audacity to throw in arrangements of, say, Cerys Matthew's 'Chardonnay' - on their 2008 maiden 'Girls Who are Drinkers - and 'The Scarlet Tide' from Elvis Costello's Delivery Man.
While the latter is sandwiched between the late Peter Bellamy's 'I Once Lived in Service' and 'The Tyburn Sisters' - Rattlebag lyrics to a Swedish melody - the run-on effect is seamless. It's the same when gospel ditty 'I'll Fly Away' follows the late mediaeval 'Auchindoun', owing to the ensemble impregnating any given musical genre with an ingrained originality.
Paradoxically the only issue I have is with the programming. Though led by Lynne Heffernan's assured soprano, downbeat 'Bright Morning Star' (from the Oysterband portfolio) might not have been the soundest choice of opening salvo, other than its evocation of the pageant of sunrise. Yet this is a minor criticism of an offering that can only enhance growing regional and, potentially, national renown."

So there you go.

Fancy a copy of "Shifting Shapes"? Getting one has just become a bit easier. More on this later!