"Another "folk celebrity challenge" ... Eight leading folk artists spent five days in March this year at a Herefordshire farmhouse creating, to a commission from Folk By The Oak and the EFDSS, new music inspired by facets of the Elizabethan age. The whole exercise was completed in just under a week, and the music was premièred immediately thereafter at a concert at Hatfield Old Palace. The roll-call comprised Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr, Bella Hardy, Jim Moray, John Smith, Hannah James, Rachel Newton and Emily Askew ... Showing true imagination in conception and execution, they readily absorbed the spirit of the era in their new compositions ... Each musician inevitably gets a turn in the spotlight, yet every track brings a distinctive air of white-heat creativity to the stage with its strong collaborative ambience".
