Ashley Hutchings with special friends Becky Mills & Blair Dunlop : "A Midwinter Miscellany" (CD) (2020)

Ashley Hutchings MBE joins forces with BECKY MILLS & BBC Folk Award Winner BLAIR DUNLOP to release "A Midwinter Miscellany".

This wintry but warm-hearted seasonal meditation is ready to soothe listeners weary of all that a tumultuous year has brought.

The trio contribute a hand-picked collection of songs, newly-composed by Becky, Blair and Ashley, with accompanying spoken word pieces exploring all manner of topics from hibernation to snow to ancient Midwinter customs.

The album opens as c.18 English Poet Christopher Smart's beautiful meditation on crocuses gently eases into a tender reworking of Becky's 2019 solo composition of the same name. Other highlights include Becky and Blair Dunlop duetting on the brand new Mills composition "Sweet November", a tender framing of Kenneth Grahame's "Animal's Carol", and special guest Judy Dunlop breathing life into Thackeray's poem "The Mahogany Tree".