The joy of living

"A clutch of awards (including two BBC Folk Awards including the coveted Horizon award) and a string of critically acclaimed solo albums has seen [Jackie] emerge as one of her generation's most gifted interpreters and performers of traditional song. Her albums have been graced by illustrious collaborators (including Alasdair Roberts and her brother Jim Moray) and she is an integral member of folk super-project The Imagined Village. She has come to embody much of what is good about the co-operative, democratic approach to making music that happily still dominates the British folk scene. "The Joy Of Living" is her seventh album. It is the most personal yet, and perhaps the most emotionally charged ... One of the most striking things about the album is the range of songs Oates has chosen. Traditional numbers rub shoulders with old favourites by Ewan MacColl and Lal Waterson, as well as more surprising picks, from William Byrd to John Lennon".

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"This rather beautiful album, recorded in [Jackie's] own kitchen, with baby daughter in attendance, making occasional contributions (...), was made in the aftermath of her own illness and the sudden death of her father, the effect of which is poignantly reflected in closing track "Rolling Home", Jackie accompanying a recording of her dad singing the John Tams song ... The emotional counter is high throughout. With John Spiers' accordion to the fore, "My Shoes Are Made Of Spanish" is a lovely piece of nonsense reflecting the exhilaration of new life, an integral element of the album underlined by the children's rhyme "Rosy Apple", to gurgling accompaniment ... Melancholia is never far from the surface, especially in tracks like Davey Steele's "The Last Trip Home" and Ewan MacColl's title song ... We even get a typically dark and obscure Lal Waterson song "The Bird", while Jackie's whispery cloneness brings out the full engrossing mystery of Bill Caddick's classic "Unicorns" ... An album she will surely come to regard with bitter sweetness, but for the rest of us, we can but admire the rawness of its emotion and the striking contrasts of feelings it evokes".