Hack-Poets Guild debut album 'Blackletter Garland'
Themes From The Broadsides
With Hack-Poets Guild coming to Hull in just 12 days, we are reflecting on the themes from their debut album release Black Letter Garland, inspired by England’s historic broadsides.
Broadsides are daily song sheets sold for pence from 16th to 20th centuries. This project brings them vividly to life and offers a rare insight into our country's heritage.
The artists spent time at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, diving into the archives to find inspiration through the themes from the broadsides, which now come to feature in the tracks on the album and that you’ll hear sung about at the gig at Social on 19th March.
Sound UK filmed a great discussion between Lisa Knapp (in Hack-Poets Guild playing voice, fiddle, autoharp) and Steve Roud (historian at Bodleian Printing Workshop), giving opportunity to explore more about Broadside Ballads ‘Cruel Mother’, ‘The Troubles of This World’, ‘Birds of Harmony’ and 'Daring Highwayman’, the songs that Lisa Knapp leads on the album.
If you’re interested in reading more about songs led by the different members of the project, you can read Sound UK’s original blog here. Listen to Hack-Poets Guild’s latest single from the album by tapping the button below.