SHIRLEY COLLINS - SWEET ENGLAND ARGO ORIGINAL RARE
£
359
$
476
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Description
This is an auction for the most difficult Shirley Collins LP to find. It is the ARGO RG 150 Sweet England released in 1959 in a very limited run. These recordings were made at the same time as the "False True Lovers" LP which was released by Folkways although the two records do not duplicate each other. This record even predates the Decca involvement with the Argo label. Decca took the company over in the 1960s.
Shirley Collins was, around this time, taken by Alan Lomax around the southern states of the USA to record the singers of the Appalachians. And on this LP Alan Lomax writes the sleeve notes, promising that in ten years she would be a major artist. She is still in the limelight of the folk world, although not singing any longer, & her back catalogue is something anyone would be proud of. Recordings with Davy Graham, David Munrow, City Waites, The Incredible String Band, The Albion Band, Morris On (Richard Thompson, Barry Dransfield, et al) made her the favourite female singer for many. She received last year the EFDSS gold award and was always to be found when the Copper Family were singing locally.
This LP is so important it has been reissued on the See For Miles label (now defunkt) and more recently on CD by Topic Records. This has only heightened interest in the scarce original.
This LP is virtually mint. There are a couple of hairlines when viewed under bright light. I have listened to it carefully once and detected two tiny audible noises which lasted for one revolution each. It would be difficult to buy a brand new record and find it in such perfect condition.
The sleeve is very near perfect too. The sides are straight and sharp all around. Being really picky, there is very slight wear to bottom corner at the opening and slight crease to the top corner (see photo). That's it, apart from these two slight signs of wear, this 45 year old record is as perfect as when it was released.
Labels are both pristine, with minimal signs of playing and a small bubble on side 2 which dates from manufacture.
I can't believe there are more than a handful of these records still around. The last time I saw one advertised was about 5 years ago, so who knows when you might get the opportunity to buy this again. When it was released it did not sell well and it was not promoted so there were no further pressings.
Guests on the LP include John Hasted (banjo), Ralph Rinzler (guitar) and Guy Carawan (guitar) who was over from the USA touring and recording his debut LP for Topic Records in London.
Tracks on the LP are available on other sites but they include Barbara Allen, Sweet England, Hares on the Mountain (later sung by Steeleye Span), The Cuckoo & the Bonny Labouring Boy (from the Copper Family songbook)
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