The Ecology of Song

I gaze deep, deep and far,

Shadows, hedgerows, fields of wild.'

Ros Brady

Seventy years ago John Steinbeck’s book ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ spoke of an apocalyptic world, soil eroded into dustbowls, ecological destruction, livelihoods lost. Now we hear similar stories every day, stories of storms, floods, droughts and financial collapse. In the UK despite rural initiatives, bio-scientists still predict a rapid loss of species of flora and fauna. Though the nest is breaking the bird still sings. The breath is after all a force of nature.

Ros Brady has travelled the deep lanes of England, the sandy loams, clay soils, and resonant caverns writing songs from the heart of a peopled land. Her recent tours with BaronBrady have led her on to write a host of beautiful, raw, haunting songs. Among the many are lyrics based on correspondence and interviews with individuals passionate about the future: a world-famous inspirational ecological thinker, a young Worcestershire beekeeper, a scientist measuring the melting glaciers of the Antarctic, alongside a chorus of those who remember the older ways before industrial farms and supermarkets plotted the path of the plough.  

Ros began writing songs with farmers in the same way that Ewan McColl did 40 years ago with the Radio Ballads. McColl sought to comment on social upheavals taking place in his time by writing songs through interviews with ordinary people, ‘setting their emotional memories in full flight’. Picking up this idea Ros wrote with farmers and fishermen, orchard growers and masters of rural trades in the South Devon where she lived but she has also developed the method in order to write with thinkers and visionaries of our time; this work brought her a profound sense of place and love of the county.  

While talking to the older generation, those who remember the traditional ways of land use which have proven to be sustainable over time, Ros found that her passion for songwriting was bringing her to rich and controversial ground.  She says, “Hopefully in an unselfconscious way, my songs speak of the deflowering of the landscape, a change that has taken place through a systemic change since the First World War. But they also speak of a possible future.   Where should we go from here?  It doesn’t have to be like this. It feels like we’re swinging back and forth between two poles. But there is a place in the centre, a place of balance, of harmony. It is this place that I aim to write from.”

Whether from the hedgerow flowers, the ploughman’s toil, the small-holder’s vision, the orchard’s weight of fruit, or the love shown by those who work with hope for change, Ros Brady draws her thread and stitches together tender and poignant songs in which we may see a world on the brink of change, and a map for a brighter future.

 Ros is working on this project with fellow musicians Ken Nicol (of Steeleye Span), Flossie Malavialle, Nick Hennessey, and Luka Bloom.  She is hoping to make a recording of the project as a precursor to a heavy horse and caravan tour for which she is currently applying for funding.

Published Writings:

 Rosalind has had an essay about her life and work featured in an anthology Published by Green Books, with other contributors such as Hunter Davies, Penelope Lively, Brian Pattern.  She has had work published in wildlife magazines and has been touring the UK for 3 years with duo BarronBrady.     

BarronBrady Reviews

“Terrific...I kept hearing lots of stuff, Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, John Martyn and yet at the same time their music is very much their own”  Mike Harding BBC

        “Beautiful music” Bob Harris BBC