A charming, intimate and light-hearted taste of life on the waterways. All Hands Together, the debut album from close-harmony trio Three Idle Women, is a delight.
Release Date: 8th November 2024
Label: Self Release
Formats: CD /Digital
CHARMED TO MY WOOLY BRITCHES
Well – I don’t know how you’ve been spending your afternoon, but I’ve been spending mine being charmed to my wooly britches by All Hands Together, the debut album from Oxford trio, Three Idle Women. Maybe I’m an easy catch for the ladies, being a committed narrowboater – All Hands Together is Three Idle Women’s special tribute to the waterways that have inspired their music and lifestyles for many years now – but, really, if these songs don’t delight you, I can only conclude that you’re made either of iron or of concrete.
Three Idle Women – Charlie Henry (vocals, accordion, musical saw, baritone ukulele and banjo), Steph Pirrie (vocals, piano, ukulele, harmonium, trumpet and whistle) and Jane Rouse (vocals, concertina, bass, ukulele and percussion) first got together in Oxford in 2013, over a mutual love of the Oxford Canal, close harmony singing and folk songs – particularly the type that carry strong stories in their narrative. By the way – don’t be misled by the group’s name… Idle Women was the title bestowed upon those hardy female souls who kept goods moving up and down our waterways during World War II. “Idle,” they certainly weren’t – and neither, I suspect, are Charlie, Steph and Jane.
WATERWAYS ASSOCIATIONS
Each of the ladies has a close association with the waterways. Jane has lived aboard her narrowboat for almost 30 years and her 2004 album, A Life On The Water, collects eleven songs and tunes, each with a waterways theme. Charlie has also spent time living aboard and she still loves to absorb herself in the canalside environment and its community. Steph is based in Jericho, the bustling neighbourhood at the southern-end of the Oxford Canal and she’s a trustee of the Jericho Wharf Trust, the organization seeking to resurrect a community boatyard at Jericho Wharf.
All Hands Together is the culmination of the trio’s 10+ year relationship; a mix of original and traditional songs that comprise a musical journey along the Oxford Canal, the Grand Union Canal and even take in a brief sojourn along the Sheepwash Channel and onto the mighty River Thames. Along the way, the songs capture snapshots of life through the eyes of boaters, exploring ideas of socio-geography, proximity to nature and the unique waterways community lifestyle.
All Hands Together is a wonderful package. The music is delightful and I also love the informative booklet that accompanies the CD, particularly the notes that not only put each song into context, but also provide a mental picture of the location in which each song is set.
LOVE BLOSSOMS IN HATTON LOCKS
It’s Jane’s Boaty Boy that gets All Hands Together underway. The song is her story of how she first met her life partner at the foot of the daunting Hatton lock flight, just outside Warwick (is the story true? It sounds like it might be…) “The 21 locks at Hatton are a boating nightmare,” she sings, and she’s right, but she’s helped on her passage though the locks by her knight in shining armour, her Boaty Boy, and Jane’s lyrics not only tell the story of a romance that blossomed as the boats ascended the never-ending flight, but also provide a few useful tips in lock operational methodology. And the song is an enticing first taste of those signature Three Idle Women close harmonies…
Nowadays, The Oxford Canal is a thriving 70-mile linear and scenic pleasure park, teeming with boats of all descriptions and providing a home and workplace for hundreds, but it wasn’t always like that. Back in the 1960s, serious consideration was being given to a plan to infill the canal, to turn it into a roadway and when Transport Minister Barbara Castle visited Oxford to see the canal for herself, the local waterways community knew that they had to do something very special to convince Mrs Castle that the canal was fine, just as it was.
enter jack and rose…
Enter boating couple Jack and Rose Skinner. Jack and Rose took Mrs Castle on a cruise aboard their narrowboat and Castles and Roses, a song by Charlie and Steph, tells the story of that cruise and its outcome. The instrumentation is rich and mellow and the vocal harmonies are heavenly as the ladies tell how: “Carried along by the grace of the water, Barbara Castle watched the world passing by” and, after an experience like that, it’s no surprise that The Oxford Canal won its reprieve. Thank you, Jack and Rose Skinner!
The girls’ voices mesh deliciously on their interpretation of the well-known Lowlands. The version here is an adaptation of Anne Briggs’ arrangement and the light harmonies are excellent.
EVERYONE HAS TO START SOMEWHERE…
Jane reflects the experiences of every single person who has tried their hand at narrowboating in the hilarious Green As. It’s a song with a contemporary feel in which Jane recalls the mistakes she made and the surprises she had when she first took her newly acquired boat out into the big, wide, world. “I had no idea what living on a boat would be like,” she sings, as she recounts tales of domestic challenges, mooring mishaps, breakdowns and the challenges posed by locks, but she comes to accept that “Things break and it often goes wrong, but my canal journey keeps moving on.” Stick at it, and it’ll come good in the end is the message here, it seems.
The theme of things going wrong is continued in Charlie’s bright, bouncy Hieronymous Peypes, the story of a boat, hired by many over the years, that was notorious for its unreliability. Charlie accompanies herself on her accordion as she lists the many challenges, including gas leaks, cabin leaks and carbon monoxide accumulation that she had to deal with during her own tenure of the boat, all of which were forgiven as she recalls how the motion of the boat would “…gently rock me to sleep.”
When the embryonic Three Idle Women first gathered together, back in 2013, the first song on which they tested their pipes was the 1930s classic, Old Father Thames. They reproduce it here in breathtaking form; the harmonies are glorious and the ukelele, bass and trumpet accompaniment evokes an authentic ‘30s feel.
SHEER, UNADULTERATED JOY
Charlie takes the opportunity to express her love of the natural environment of the canal with Springtime. On an album that is rammed with evocative images, the pictures painted here are, perhaps, the most vivid. To many canal-users, myself included, springtime is the most eagerly-awaited time of the year and Charlie captures the sentiment perfectly as she sings: “Springtime is springing all around me and I am delighted to feel it.” The harmonies are lush, the pared-back ukelele accompaniment is just right and, when Charlie declares that “I feel my soul unfurling,” the sense of relief and sheer, unadulterated, joy is palpable.
It might not, necessarily, be a traditional song, but the version of Peter Dodds’ Rosemary, the story of an unloved boat that was rescued and refurbished by a Birmingham boatman, sounds very much like one, and I particularly love the spooky sound of Charlie’s musical saw as the boatman entices Rosemary’s long-neglected engine back into vibrant life. And the optimistic tone of the whole album is encapsulated in Jane’s bright, breezy and optimistic Turbulent Waters. Guest Wilfred Howes contributes some nice fiddle That adds to the joy of the song and the song’s message: “This boat will carry on floating,” is as metaphorical as it is literal.
AN ALBUM WITH EVERYTHING
This enthralling album is brought to its close with The Water is Narrow, a gentle piano ballad, written by Ban Avison, the album’s co-producer and a close friend of Three Idle Women. With lyrics like: “Home, this boat is my home,” the song is a vivid articulation of the emotions stirred by life on the water. And there’s time to savour those wonderful harmonies for one final time before the ladies bring the album in for a soft, gentle landing: “I wish, I wish, I could be young again, But young again I never shall be, Till narrowboats grow on the willow tree.”
With a wonderful selection of songs, delightful close harmony vocals, an inspired choice of sometimes quirky instrumentation and canals and narrowboats, All Hands Together is an album with everything. Don’t miss it.
Watch Three Idle Women perform Turbulent Waters – a track from the album – here. Filmed on the Oxford Canal!
Three Idle Women online: Official Website / Facebook / YouTube / Bandcamp
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