Innocent Hare - The Windings of Their Wandering Song

Innocent Hare is Cloe Middleton-Metcalfe (fiddle, harp, recorder and vocals), Jake Middleton-Metcalfe (concertina and vocals) and Andrew Metcalfe (fiddle, guitar and vocals), a Milton Keynes based family folk trio active since 2014. Their latest album The Windings of Their Wandering Song is a celebration of musician, composer, poet and shepherd John Clare (1793-1864).

This is a collection of poems and tunes by this versatile figure from Northamptonshire, each performed with passion and intensity. However, the trio take some freedom in their interpretation and the result benefits from their choices. Opener England’s Glory immediately sets the tone for the whole release with its enchanting spoken word core, delivered with finesse on a harp driven background.

Highlights include the beautiful Clare’s Bugle, a set of two tunes in which the harp takes centre stage with a lullaby. The concertina joins later for the more upbeat The Montrose Reel, and the lyrical Legalaw, also known as Jackson’s Lodge in the Morning; but also sets including evergreens like Grinders, Sham Peter and Speed the Plough.

Poems, songs and instrumentals alternate in a varied patchwork of refined storytelling and traditional sounds; the overall effect is halfway between delicate nostalgia and whimsical innovation. The fact these three artists can play a great variety of instruments makes it even more compelling, as the atmospheres can sometimes suddenly change in many tracks when a new voice enters the mix.

The Windings of Their Wandering Song is a heartfelt tribute to a multifaceted figure, a compelling homage to the true soul of folk music, the material composed or noted by people of the middle and working class.