Here, we present a new anthology of some of the most melodramatic, gruesome and supernatural broadside ballads from the 17th to 19th centuries. These popular ballads, selected from archives by Gaskell, cover everything from funeral arrangements to cat food and rural insurrection. They were printed and sung in the Georgian and Victorian eras but have lain unrecorded and largely unperformed for the last 100 years. Indeed, many of their tunes have been lost to time, and so the words have been rearranged and re-fitted with newly composed music on piano, accordions, violin, drums, bouzouki, bass, banjo and guitar.

Taking an alternate route from more familiar traditional folk styles, this show promises a wild and yet haunting journey through a murky past to a dark future and is sure to enthral, educate and entertain both the young and the old.

This project will be a live performance featuring ballads, tunes and a printed broadside for all to enjoy. Preview performances will take place at:

• The Poly, Falmouth – Friday 24th Feb
• Warleggan Jubilee Hall – Friday 3rd March
• Lambeage Hall, Coverack – Saturday 10th March

We intend to record an album of this material in 2023, in the meantime, ‘Burial Club’ c/w /The Ghost of Maria’ offers a taste of what to expect.

And here is a lonesome ballad from a lonesome signal box on a lonesome railway…