After decades of connecting the dots between traditional song and its newer incarnations with her strong, stark voice, Shirley Collins remains one of the most significant figures in British folk. As she prepares to release her next album later this month, the veteran singer will join us to answer your questions.
Growing up in Sussex, Collins’ interest in folk music started early. She began singing traditional songs with her sister, Dolly, through childhood and the pair performed together publicly as teenagers. Though they parted ways in their 20s, this early collaboration laid the foundations for a later professional pairing that would bear four albums, including Anthems in Eden and Love, Death & the Lady.
In the meantime, Collins headed to London to pursue a career in music. After establishing herself in the emerging folk revival, she recorded her first two albums, Sweet England and False True Lovers, in 1958, before travelling over the Atlantic to collect traditional music with the ethnomusicologist and folklorist Alan Lomax. The pair made field recordings of religious communities and chain gangs, as well as in prisons.
Collins continued releasing music and collaborating when she returned, notably with Davy Graham and the Albion Country Band. But after the release of For As Many As Will with her sister in 1978, Collins retired from music altogether, selling her equipment and instead taking up a string of public sector jobs.
After an almost four-decade hiatus, she sang publicly for the first time at a London show in 2014. Two years later, she released Lodestar, a collection of English, American and Cajun songs spanning from the 16th century to the 1950s, and the acclaimed album Heart’s Ease followed in 2020. She’s been awarded an MBE and two honorary degrees for her services to music and she holds a Gold Badge from the English Folk Dance and Song Society – its highest accolade.
Her long musical journey continues: now aged 87, she will release her next album, Archangel Hill, on Domino later this month.
So, maybe you’re curious about her experiences at the heart of the British folk revival and as a song collector in the US? Or perhaps you want to know what inspired her to start singing again and how it felt returning to the stage after so long? Post your questions below before 10 May, and Collins will answer as many as she can. Her answers will be published in the 19 May edition of the Guardian’s Film & Music section, and online.
