witches' reel by Beccy Owen
Beccy’s latest single from her forthcoming new album PORTAL (out 19 Dec) is a dazzling song from 1591, a ‘witches’ reel’. Here Owen’s versatile and ever-maturing voice appears to be channelling other entities, and in doing so is allowed to wander into something more raw and shredded than we may have heard from her before.
The song is taken from transcripts from a real court hearing of a woman in the 1580’s, and expresses a cascading, gnarled roar of female defiance. It is a product of the wounded matrilineage of innocent women who were murdered by the state after being labelled as ‘witches’.
The piece should come with complementary travel sickness medication given its wildly incessant, dizzying effect. Prepare to be mesmerised, stirred and clarion-called in to action.
Tracklist
| 1. | witches' reel | 8:01 |
Lyrics
Cummer go ye before, Cummer go ye
If ye willna go before, Cummer let me
Ring-a-ring-a-widdershins
Linkin lithley widdershins,
Cummer Carlin Crone and Queen
Roun go we
Cummer go ye before, Cummer go ye
If ye willna go before, Cummer let me
Ring-a-ring-a-widdershins
Loopin' lightly widdershins
Kilted coats and fleein' hair
Three times three
Cummer go ye before, cummer go ye
If ye willna go before, cummer let me
Ring-a-ring-a-widdershins
Whirlin' skirlin' widdershins
De'il tak the hindmost
Wha'er she be
Earliest Scot’s Women song. Words from transcripts from a court trial from 1591
Cummer, carline, crone and queen - all different words for women. Sister, friend, familiar ‘women words’.
Widdershins is anti-clockwise.
Credits
Produced and engineered by Beccy Owen
Mixed by Beccy Owen
Mastered by Beccy Owen
Artwork by Beccy Owen
