Search - Silly Sisters (June Tabor and Maddy Prior) :: No More to the Dance

One of the best recordings to come out of the folk revival

Liz Milner (lizmilner@juno.com) | Washington, DC area | 12/10/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Silly Sisters features the imaginative harmony singing of Steeleye Span's Maddy Prior and the deep, soulful vocals of June Tabor. The album blends a wide array of influences (Bulgarian-style harmonies and Irish Sean Nos ornamentation) with traditional British Isles Folksongs. The album offers the cream of the British Folk Music Revival: guitar gods Martin Carthy and Nic Jones, Irish Mandolin virtuoso Andy Irvine, and a host of other great musicians on uillean pipes, melodeon, hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, bombard, whistles, etc.The mood of the recording is joyful. This is an album that will enchant you and make you smile."

The Fairest Flowers of Womankind

Ribbly | NL | 11/11/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fresh from the success of Steeleye Span's "All Around My Hat" album, Maddy Prior returned to a much more grassroots folk sound with the talented June Tabor as 'the Silly Sister'. This album's got everything English folk has to offer: playfulness, heart-wrenching emotion and a thumping, colourful instrumentation that compliments the girls' voices to a tee.

And what about those voices? Well, Prior is an acquired taste- the shrill timbre and muddled dialect can be a little irksome, but the sheer power of her voice makes it one of the most important in British trad. Tabor is far more accessible, especially on the standout track, "Geordie", where Tabor's charged, blue alto perfectly captures the ecstasy of love regained.

Not a glamorous album, the production on 'Silly Sisters' is dusty and naive, keeping the provincial feel of the songs very much alive.

All in all, classic trad that anyone who appreciates the genre should investigate."