Bellowhead founding members John Spiers and Jon Boden mark their 10th anniversary as a recording duo with the release of ‘The Works’. Featuring a stellar supporting cast that includes Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Andy Cutting, Maddy Prior and Martin Simpson among other folk luminaries, the album revisits a selection of the most significant songs and tunes that have accompanied them through the last decade.
Spiers & Boden released their first album 'Through and Through' in 2001 and its joy and vibrancy not only made deep inroads into the existing scene, it offered the first clue that Spiers & Boden had the energy, commitment and talent to introduce a whole new audience to that scene. Following a period where our intrepid duo also featured as part of Eliza Carthy's band the Ratcatchers, they released 'Bellow' in 2003, plundering more morris tunes and attacking some well-known songs with remarkable zeal and imagination. By this time the pair were accumulating awards (a BBC Folk Horizon Award in 2003 was followed by Best Duo in 2004 and 2006).
Following more time on the road with Eliza Carthy, they released two albums simultaneously, 'Tunes' and 'Songs'.
Although one might have assumed that the first full-blooded outbreak of Bellowheadmania that followed these releases would have swallowed up the duo incarnation of Spiers & Boden, this proved to be far from the case. Far from being overwhelmed by the big band, their two-piece persona was enhanced by the new horizons they saw in front of them.
Their 2008 album 'Vagabond' (their first for Navigator Records), a thematic collection depicting stories of ruffians and rebels, proved that, far from being distracted by their other activities, they were actually energised by them.
And suddenly, they’ve been recording for 10 years and have played more than 1,000 gigs together. It would have been far simpler for them to mark the occasion by cobbling together a straightforward compilation of their original tracks. That would have been good, as their back catalogue stands up well. But instead they decided to re-examine their own past and incorporate the various developments embraced along the way, and by doing so they’ve achieved something fresh and good as new. For while this latest album ‘The Works’ is one of landmarks, it’s also the clarion call of an important, remarkable and constantly evolving musical partnership…and a colourful selection of music that is excitingly evolving with them.
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