Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds - Singing It All Back Home review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month

The Guardian 80

(Dusty Willow/self-released)
Polished, spirited revisions of traditional Appalachian songs are joyfully and effortlessly rendered

Folk is fixed, staid and fusty, stuck in its ways. This reputation lingers, so shake it: the best of it has survived by being remixed and reborn. Take the work of Naomi Bedford (a one-time singer with Orbital) and Paul Simmons (of folk punks the Men They Couldn’t Hang). Now on their third album together, they are resolutely DIY, self-releasing and self-promoting, but their results are beautifully polished, what mainstream labels should be releasing: spirited revisions of traditional songs, rather than anodyne collections of aural chloroform.