Wonderful return of a lost voice
Folk legend back with brilliant new album at the age of 85
English folk legend Shirley Collins celebrated her 85th birthday earlier this month in lockdown watching Morris Dancers on the street outside.
“It’s either dreadful or it’s wonderful,” says Shirley. “Sometimes you get a team of really old people who can’t get their feet off the floor.
“But then you get young, vigorous ones and it’s great to watch. I truly love it.”
Along with her late sister Dolly, Shirley made folk history on classic albums such as 1969’s Anthems In Eden. “I was very fortunate to have such a wonderful big sister. I was protected by her,” says Shirley. “When she started writing arrangements for the songs I sang, that closeness was just so lovely to have. I didn’t have to worry.”
Born in 1935 and raised in Hastings in the Second World War, the Collins sisters survived bombing raids.
“One day a plane came up from the sea, the road in front of us filled with bullets – that was the scariest moment of the war,” she remembers.
Shortly after Shirley recorded her debut album in 1958 she joined American song collector Alan Lomax on a journey through the southern states. “I was slightly inclined to fall in love with him because I’d been listening to his radio programmes.
“The way he spoke in that Texan drawl, the songs he played,” she recalls.
“To go into the black areas of North Mississippi was an extraordinary thing for me. But we were eating in segregated restaurants, swimming in segregated pools. I felt ashamed, but that was how it was.”
Shirley’s recording career halted for 38 years after she developed dysphonia, a psychological condition that meant she lost her voice following a traumatic split with second husband Ashley Hutchings.
“It was like being in a prison. I didn’t think I’d ever sing or record again,” she admits. When she conquered the condition, going back to singing was initially “terrifying”.
But the love shown by audiences sustained her.
Her acclaimed Lodestar album in 2016 was followed by an MBE for lifelong service to folk music.
“I met Prince Charles. I told him I learned a lot of songs from my granddad who was the gardener on the biggest estate in Sussex.
“He immediately perked up and we had such a lovely brief conversation. He had kind eyes. I really liked him. I can’t deny it.”
Shirley’s brilliant new album Heart’s Ease centres on weird, wonderful, often local Sussex songs, a tradition that endures.
“They’ve been passed on by working class people and I think they need some recognition.
“I don’t want them ever to be forgotten or ignored.”
■ Heart’s Ease is out today
It was like being in prison. I didn’t think I’d sing again