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Acclaimed folk musician and songwriter Jim Causley leads a traditional wassail ceremony amongst the apple trees in Cecil Sharp House’s walled garden singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year, alongside an album launch show for The Georgic.2025 marks 20 years since the release of Jim Causley’s debut album Fruits of the Earth. The Georgic will be his 12th solo studio album.
The catalyst for this new collection of songs came through Jim’s involvement in artist Simon Pope’s ‘Here’s to Thee’ project which set out to create a brand new wassail ceremony to honour the "unseen" elements of traditional cider-making; the yeasts, bacteria, lichen, mould and fungi. Jim first composed The Halstow Wassail for this new custom which was held on Halstow Farm in Mid-Devon where the Gray family have been making traditional farmhouse cider for over 400 years. Jim went on to compose two more seasonal songs for the cider-making year on the farm: one for rogation or beating-the-bounds and another for the apple harvest in the autumn.
The rest of the album is made up of songs about the trials and tribulations contemporary rural life told through a folk idiom. From the hardship of farming in the 20th century, the loss of native species to the housing crisis affecting rural working class people. This album is as raw and earthy as the subject matter is represents but also uplifting, moving and poignant in equal measure.
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2 Regents Park Road, London, NW1 7AY, United Kingdom
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