The queen of hearts / Offa Rex.
Material type:![Music](/opac-tmpl/lib/famfamfam/MU.png)
- performed music
- audio
- audio disc
- Produced by Tucker Martine and Colin Meloy.
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
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Dr. James Carlson Library | CD | FOLK Offa Rex | Available | 33111009061199 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Confessed Anglophile Colin Meloy's affinity for U.K. folk music finally comes full circle on The Queen of Hearts, a meticulously crafted collaboration between the Decemberists and English folk artist Olivia Chaney. Comprising strictly traditional fare, the songs that make up Offa Rex's debut will be familiar to fans of the style, as many of their definitive versions have arrived via genre heavyweights like Anne Briggs, Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, Ewan MacColl, Fairport Convention, and Steeleye Span. The latter two acts figure most prominently on the 11-track set, with the supremely talented Chaney channeling Sandy Denny and Maddy Prior, delivering pitch-perfect takes on seasoned tales both bucolic and brooding. Meloy and company also adopt the Span/Convention template, fleshing things out with spindly electric guitars, fiddle, and lumbering drums -- the group's take on "Blackleg Miner" hews so closely to the 1970 Steeleye version that it almost verges on karaoke. The secret weapon here is Chaney, whose excellent 2015 debut, Longest River, rightly evoked comparisons to Joni Mitchell and June Tabor. Her command impresses throughout, especially on some of the more pastoral numbers like "Old Churchyard," "Willie o' Winsbury," and the knotty Dreamboat Annie-era Heart-inspired title cut, and her presence helps to even out some of the album's more distended offerings, like the doomy psych-rock outlier "Sheepcrook and Black Dog." All nitpicking aside, Queen of Hearts is as committed a piece of retro-leaning English folk-rock as one could hope for -- there's even some Morris dance music. Meloy and Chaney's genuine love for the source material is apparent throughout, and while it may not bring anything too new to the table, it still makes for a delicious spread. ~ James Christopher Monger
Title from disc label.
Performed by Offa Rex (Olivia Chaney, lead vocals, harpsichord ; Colin Meloy, acoustic twelve-string guitar ; Chris Funk, electric guitar ; Nate Query, electric bass ; Jenny Conlee, Rhodes piano ; John Moen, drums, Anna Fritz, cello).
Most selections arranged by Olivia Chaney.
Produced by Tucker Martine and Colin Meloy.
Compact disc.
Recorded September-October 2016 at Flora Recording & Playback, Portland, OR.
Performance notes inserted in container.
The queen of hearts (3:56) -- Blackleg miner (2:22) -- The gardener (4:59) -- The first time ever I saw your face (3:31) -- Flash company (4:15) -- The old churchyard (4:07) -- Constant Billy (Oddington) ; I'll go enlist (Sherborne) (1:56) -- Willie o' Winsbury (7:30) -- Bonny May (6:32) -- Sheepcrook and black dog (4:35) -- To make you stay (5:02).