Legendary English folk singer Shirley Collins recently announced that she’ll be releasing a new album called Heart’s Ease on July 24, and today she has shared a second single from it called “Sweet Greens and Blues”. The song was originally penned in the 60s by her first husband Austin John Marshall, who encouraged her to collaborate with Davy Graham, another influential figure in the folk scene of the time. While Collins never recorded a proper studio version of the song, she recently “came across a tape among the hundreds I have got – and there was me singing it in the Sixties, with Davy Graham playing guitar” on a version of “Sweet Greens and Blues”.
Now having been into the studio to record a proper version of the song, Shirley Collins brings this slice of the 60s to the present day – and it sounds as glorious as ever. A treatise on the joys of humble family life with young, curious children, “Sweet Greens and Blues” sounds even more heartfelt in Collins’ slightly more weatherbeaten voice, which has not lost its sparkle and grace.
You can listen to “Sweet Greens and Blues” via the visualizer below or on your preferred streaming service.
Shirley Collins’ new album Heart’s Ease is out July 24 via Domino. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
