(Hudson)The ace duo confound with a folk album featuring not one song about death…
![Spiers & Boden: Fallow Ground review – a walk on the bright side](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9eb8fd393f1e4c6d95f66ab6b247b088cb1a53ac/0_205_7494_4496/master/7494.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTMucG5n&enable=upscale&s=4bc171f1ae786c9628ff34e77c974db8)
This is an album that, according to Jon Boden, “may well get us expelled from the English Folk Dance & Song Society” – the offence being that it contains no songs about death. Recorded during lockdown, when Boden and co-creator John Spiers were looking for “fun and light relief”, Fallow Ground is notable for its levity and, yes, joyousness. As its title suggests, the record marks a return to earlier times, when the duo – Boden on fiddle and vocals, Spiers on accordion – first made their name. Most of their energy has since been directed into folk big band Bellowhead, while Boden has delivered a dystopic prog-folk song cycle, Songs from the Floodplain, among a dizzying line of projects.
By comparison, Fallow Ground is archly traditional, its numbers drawn from antique sources, augmented by a clutch of originals. Many pieces are boisterous instrumentals – jigs, hornpipes, waltzes – with fiddle and accordion bleeding into each other and morris-friendly rhythms cannily captured. Elsewhere, Boden brings his usual intensity to songs ranging from the love call of the title track to Reynardine, which is death-free but laden with shape-shifting menace. It’s all exquisitely played – the pair are still the dons.