Brandywine Bridge – The Grey Lady (Cottage Records 1977)

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I bought ‘The Grey Lady’, but I found this to be a very strong album. It was the debut album of this largely unknown and VERY British sounding band, and features a great combination of uptempo jigs, and dramatic vocal oriented gems. The biggest highlight, for my anyway, is without a doubt ‘King Richard III’. The melodies on this one are fantastic, and the arrangement truly epic. It is the longest song on the album, clocking in at nearly six minutes. Lyrically it deals with the confrontation between King Richard III and Henry Tudor. That went quite bad for the former, so to speak. His blood stained naked body was hung on public display in the Newsarke at Leicester for two days prior to being claimed by the Franciscan Friars for burial. Brandywine Bridge were, as several other great folk bands, meticulous diggers of old English history as well as great musicians, and were able to bring the past alive through music. ‘Jack Hall’ is the other epic on this album. It deals with a thief who eventually gets caught and ends up on Tyburn Hill (the gallows…). Again: Great melody, and it’s sung very convincingly. By the way, the band had both a male and a female vocalist, and they had both great voices that truly suite this kind of music. They also frequently sang in harmony, and the results were striking. All in all, this is a very strong and even album. Get it, if you can find it!