In the middle of the Lake District, there is an old Roman fort at the top of a fell called Hard Knott -we've been there a few times, and it's a pretty bleak and isolated part of Cumbria. It was garrisoned by 500 auxiliary soldiers who were taken from their homes on the shores of the Adriatic Sea after being conquered by Roman forces. This is a song about how we imagine these men might have felt at being stationed in the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire, during a time when invading barbarian forces and in-fighting at the Empire's heart was causing serious problems. Many troops in Britannia were being withdrawn to help strengthen the centre of the Empire -and we imagined that this might have given our 500 a glimmer of hope...

From the 'While the Blackthorn Burns' album.

Buy it here: http://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/#!shop/cfk5

The Sea

There's a long historical tradition across Europe of lighting bonfires on Midsummer's Day -sometimes in the high bits of land around a settlement. People would leap through the fire for good luck and sometimes lead their animals around it for the same reason. We just thought the image of people jumping across the fire at dusk was such a beautiful one and that the notion of living for the moment, before the hardships of the shorter days arrive, was one we could relate to. The real place we had in mind when we wrote this were the hills that surround the village of Corfe -one of which is our namesake hill: 'Ninebarrow Down'.

From the 'While the Blackthorn Burns' Song Book:
http://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/#!stories/cpnv

Buy the full album here:
http://www.ninebarrow.co.uk/#!shop/cfk5

Summer Fires

The inspiration for this song comes from a couple of places. The first was our old manuscript from which we took our 'Birdsong' lyrics. Quite a bit of 'Winter King' is inspired by the lyrics to another song in this collection, called 'Wren'.

The second bit of inspiration is the wren's position in British folklore. Until recently, it was a long-standing tradition to send 'wren-boys' into the woods on Boxing Day to hunt one of the birds and then parade it through the streets of the town or village. Being symbolic of the 'King of Winter', the death of the wren was seen as a celebration heralding the onset of longer days and the coming Spring. All well and good -unless you're the wren!

'Winter King' is a song inspired by this tradition, though we wrote it from the perspective of someone who hears the sweet call of her ‘Winter Lord' and hopes that he'll manage to escape...

Winter King

After their explosion onto the national folk scene during the last year, Dorset-based folk duo NINEBARROW are releasing their highly anticipated second album, ‘Releasing the Leaves’. Recorded in the duo’s own studio and mastered by Mark Tucker (whose other credits include Show of Hands, Fairport Convention and recent BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winners Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin) the album is being released independently on the 26th March 2016.


Dark Eyed Sailor

The Pinner

'It’s a little known fact that on March afternoons, as the days begin to get longer, male blackbirds start singing out loudly in a bid to mark their territory. We’ve long been fascinated with the folk traditions       associated with the changing of the seasons—the old pagan notion of the Winter and Summer Kings (represented respectively by the wren and the robin) has already provided us with inspiration on past albums. Having read about the longer days bringing about this ‘choir’ of blackbirds, we rather liked the image of these birds, choristers, celebrating the longer days and hailing the robin King of the Greenwood once more.'

The Waters and the Wild

The Hour of the Blackbird

Prickle-Eye Bush (Roud 144; Child 95)
This song is right up there with the inspirational songs which first got us into folk singing. Jon’s Dad had a copy of the 2005 and 2006 Folk Awards Box Sets – both of which made their way with Jon to Cardiff University when he studied there. Doing a degree in English Literature left him with, shall we say, an ample amount of time to explore his musical influences – and many of the songs on these two albums have been on repeat in our playlists ever since! Sometimes known as ‘The Maid Freed from the Gallows’, there are countless versions and it’s a well-known ballad in Scandinavia, Central Europe, Hungary, Romania, Russia as well as in the United Stated and British Isles. With SO many versions out there, we’ve tried to do something a little bit different – although the opening half is a bit of a homage to our favourite version by Spiers and Boden.

Prickle-eye Bush

'Birdsong' is a track that was inspired by lyrics found in an anthology of works entitled 'Bird Songs', dated 1910. The lyrics were credited to someone known merely as 'A.S.' We reworked some of the words and accompanied them to our own melody. Hope you like it!

Ninebarrow - Birdsong (Kingdom EP Version)

A Pocket Full of Acorns

Nestledown

NINEBARROW are a multi-award-winning folk duo, who are impressing audiences across the country with their innovative and captivating take on the folk tradition. Described by Mike Harding as sounding ‘damn fine’ by Seth Lakeman as ‘a fantastic duo’ and by Kate Rusby as ‘absolutely amazing’, Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere combine breath taking vocal harmonies and melodies, delivering songs that are inspired and rooted in the landscape and history of the British Isles. In 2015, Ninebarrow were announced winners of Fatea Magazine’s ‘Debut Album of the Year’ 2014; Shire Folk Magazine has predicted that ‘they will become a major force in English folk music’.

★★★★★ Maverick Magazine. 
★★★★★@TheEFDSS


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