Art, Music & Poetry Collide In Spell Songs’ Man Vs. Nature ‘Bramble’ Video (Out Now)

Folk music supergroup Spell Songs released its ‘Let The Light In’ album on December 10th. Since then, the album reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Modern Folk Best Sellers chart, No. 4 on the Folk & Songwriter Best Sellers chart, and earned a 5/5 star review from The Guardian as well as praise from Folk Alley, No Depression and others. Today, Spell Songs celebrates the album’s U.S. physical release and the start of its UK winter tour with an enchanting new video for “Bramble.” 

Watch the “Bramble” video, here: youtu.be/bHJDtVcpSCs

Sung by Spell Songs’ Karine Polwart, a 7x BBC Folk Awards winner, “Bramble” tells of a dystopian man vs nature scenario in which the rough and prickly vines of a bramble bush have overtaken a city, leaving the citizens to shut into their homes — an all too familiar feeling from the pandemic. It’s also a metaphor for finding the beauty in the seemingly distressful situation. Brambles are riddled with thorns, yet, they hold the ripest blackberries. 

"The Bramble spell presages the first COVID lockdown in an unnerving fashion, with its images of snarled cars, locked doors and closed shutters,” says Polwart. “Me and my daughter spent much of Spring 2020 excavating the thorny nether regions of our back garden, where the vast coiling bramble briars were thick as fifty pence pieces in places. We picked fruit all through that summer and into autumn too, not only brambles but raspberries, elderberries, sloes and sea buckthorn. There are such gifts in the tangle of it."

The “Bramble" video showcases live performance artwork from renowned artist Jackie Morris, a Kate Greenaway Medal nominee, as she creates a beautiful chalk illustration of the bramble branches to coincide with the music. This is one way that Spell Songs uses music and art to inspire humans to build a connection with nature, and understand and protect the environment around them.

UK fans can watch Morris paint live during Spell Songs performances on the UK Winter Tour which kicks off January 27th at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Scotland. For more information, visit thelostwords.org/spell-songs.

SPELL SONGS ON TOUR:

Jan 27 | Glasgow Royal Concert Hall – A Celtic Connections performance | Glasgow, Scotland

Jan 28 | Perth Concert Hall | Perth, Australia

Jan 29 | Sage Gateshead | Gateshead NE8 2JR, United Kingdom

Jan 30 | Birmingham Symphony Hall | Birmingham, England

Jan 31 - Feb 01 | Cadogan Hall, London (with Special Guest Robert Macfarlane) | London, England

Jul 17 | Folk by the Oak Festival | Hatfield, England

Jul 30 | Cambridge Folk Festival | Cambridge, England