Jackie Oates

BIRTHDAY COMPETITION

There’s still time to enter Jackie’s fabulous “Birthday” competition – get your entries in now by answering the following question:

When is Bjork’s birthday?

The prize is a very special one-off framed poster of the Birthday artwork including the prize winners name, signed by Jackie and artist David Owen. Just remember you must be a ticket holder to enter – email your answers to jackie_oates@yahoo.co.uk and include the name of the venue you’re attending on the tour. The competition closes at noon on October 31st.

Read Jackie’s post about the competition here.

And the remaining tour dates and ticket buying links are here.

NEW LIVE VIDEOS

If you missed the recent link, fret not because Jackie’s great live performance of Lavender Blue recorded recently for From The Shed can be viewed right here.

TOUR BLOG CONTINUES

Keep up to date with Jackie’s UK tour here.

Filmed in the gorgeous sunshine on the last day of Sidmouth Folk Week, Jackie talks about latest album “Hyperboreans”, her experiences of winning two BBC Folk Awards, her musical background and inspiration and what it was like working with brother Jim Moray on the new album.

I owe my version of “Past Caring” to Martyn Wyndham Read. During Autumn 2008 I was fortunate enough to play my violin for a few performances of “Down the Lawson Track”, a show compiled by Martyn. The show explored the work of Henry Lawson and the nature of life in Australia at the time through narrative, poetry and stories narrated by Shirley Collins and Pip Barnes, and songs sung by Martyn accompanied by The No Man’s Band. “Past Caring” was one of the songs featured and it struck a chord with me instantly. There was an eerie silence whenever it was performed. I was so taken with the song that I started singing it during a stretch of touring that I did with Reg Meuross earlier this year.

The poem is a desolate illustration of life women had in the Australian bush, and I find the vividness with which Lawson describes their hardships almost too much to sing. It was a last minute decision to include the song on “Hyperboreans” as I was concerned that the emptiness of the arrangement and bleakness would clash too much with the consciously more upbeat tone of the rest of the album. Hence its addition was very much down to Jim Moray, and I’m very pleased that he did persuade me and was so empathetic with his treatment of the production.

To accompany this live video performance of the title track of my new album, ‘Hyperboreans’, I thought I’d muse a little on its background. The song was written by master songsmith, Alasdair Roberts, who is a good friend of mine and one of my most favouritist performers. I would strongly recommend visiting his website: www.alasdairroberts.com.

The concept of Hyperborea and the Hyperboreans has fascinated writers, philosophers and artists across the centuries. They are a tribe of peoples who dwell in a northerly, utopian land beyond the north wind, where the sun shines virtually all year and there is no disease or warfare. Many Greek legends and mythologies have centred around the quest for reaching this land and becoming one of its kind, but it is hugely difficult to get there: ‘Never on land or by sea will you find the marvelous road to the feast of the Hyperborea‘ (Pindar, Tenth Pythian Ode).

Alasdair’s song is inspired by the accounts of Heredotus, and features shrovetide, which is a hinge time of year, as Boreas the north wind annually attempts to uproot the Hyperboreans from their dwelling.

To identify yourself as a Hyperborean is to suggest that you are in some way removed from the banality of the every day. I decided to use this as the title for my album, as I was drawn to the motivation behind the artists’ and writers’ obsession with Hyperborea. My album is a collection of songs which are full of pathos and sometimes, yearning. I have come to see the characters in the songs as collectively striving for something which was beyond the realms of life as it was when they were first collected or written.

I hope you enjoy the performance.

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