New single from Toria Wooff as she gets all seasonal doing the Waltz Of Winter Hey.
Was it really 2021 when Toria Wooff was in our list of ‘One to watch in 21′? We’ve kept an eye out since and seen her play live, support Exploring Birdsong and release new music.
Her latest single is out now on Sloe Flower Recordings via Bandcamp and sees her continuing on the mission to push contemporary folk through a vintage filter. The new single – The Waltz of Winter Hey – draws inspiration from tales gathered from historical UK towns visited on her musical travels, and offers up a spooky ballad to fill in the ghostly gaps of the moors surrounding her home.
“When I’m on the road I like to read old stories from the places where I play,” Toria says. “The West Pennine Moors are quite creepy but is missing some good ghost stories, so I decided to write my own. The song is about a woman who is already dead and watches her husband take up with a young woman, so she curses him and brings him to the grave.”
Whether taken literally, or figuratively, exploring bitterness and jealousy brought about by loss of youth as a suggestion for how things can fester over time. The Waltz of Winter Hey unfurls like a thorny Scarborough Fair or cautionary tale penned by love-torn Cohen or Cave. The tune is coated with a rustic Psych-Folk vibe with rich strings accompanying the gentle sway of the tale. All very mournful and melancholic, frosted with a seasonal chill.
Toria is accompanied by Dave Ormsby on drums & percussion, Danny Miller on bass, Scott Poley on pedal steel and with strings from Polly Virr, Sophia Dignam, Cleo Annandale and Katie Foster.
And in true seasonal fashion, there’s a Christmas themed gig in Manchester next week – Toria Wooff’s A Somewhat Gothic Christmas, The Castle Hotel, Manchester – Wednesday 18 December 2024
Toria Wooff online: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Bandcamp / Youtube
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Categories: Single Review
