This midsummer, what better company for Episode 10 of First Impressions than singer-songwriter and visual artist Jude Edwin-Scott? Jude’s work encompasses being at one with nature while never shying from the social issues at play in a world sharing the same heartbeat yet torn apart by social injustice. His highly original songbook is punctuated by traditional folk songs which he reinterprets with careful consideration of the original lyricists as they speak of worker repression and mining disasters, just as Jude documents in compelling words and melodies the fate of those subject to township living in South Africa, thrown to the wind as refugees or forced to relocate after being failed by the UK government in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire.
We also cover growing up in a musical family in rural Cheshire where Jude’s dad Geoff wrote thought-provoking plays and music, and he played and collaborated with brother Tom, mum Juliet and sister Tess as well. Tom’s former band Fish Pie share an appropriately funky song here. There is also a heavy metal sojourn courtesy of Jude’s revived band Hidden by Trees, a paean to The Raven Folk Club in Chester (now online and offering lockdown solace), and generous excerpts from Jude’s forthcoming EP Inequality Blues, which is available to pre-order on Bandcamp now and released across platforms on Friday 25th June.
The songs - Jude Edwin-Scott: Inequality Blues (1:24 and 34:34), Tell My Heart (6:51), Love Your Neighbour (8:28), Seagulls and Crows (14:28), Charlie’s Blues (19:37), Rambling Rose (29:20), Over the Banks (32:20), Little Princes (36:40), William Brown (41:20), The Gresford Mining Disaster (43:16) and Spinning Gold (52:45) // Tom Edwin-Scott/Jude Edwin-Scott: Crazy Days (10:50) and Shackleton’s Chair (45:46) // Fish Pie: Bad Karma (12:15) // Hidden by Trees: Good Mountain (26:55).
The links -
Jude Edwin-Scott – Inequality Blues EP (pre-order on Bandcamp)
Tom and Jude performing on stage together (London, 2016)
Hidden by Trees – Good Mountain (video with lyrics)
The Big Rock Room (heavy metal covers)
Underland by Robert Macfarlane (a ‘long-term exploration of landscape and the human heart’)
