Website [Release date 19,02.26]

When I first put this album on I thought you’ve got to be joking, its just a bunch of nursery rhymes sung by a little girl.

But then I thought of Ivor Cutler, a strange old man in the 70’s with a euphonium who wrote funny ditties about all sorts of things in a nursery rhyme kind of way. He was championed by John Peel, and I bet if he were still alive he would champion Amy Hopwood, who is releasing her fourth album Gone To The Flowers

So let’s start again, any album which starts with a tuba going ooompph oooomph has got me on board. And then look at the lyrics, (and the lyrics all the way through) – a song about what object you want to be left to remember you by when you are dead, whether a headstone, a mausoleum,, thrown to the sea as ashes, or in Amy’s case a wooden bench overlooking the sea.

Amy uses a lot of field recordings on her songs, and on track two uses her fans voices to whisper sayings they had heard their family saying, and on track three she got people to write in to her with their thoughts on getting older which she turned into the song I’d Rather Be Older Than Dead.

On It Doesn’t Matter Now she borrows the melody from Hank Thompson’s Wild Side Of Life, whether intentionally or not I don’t know. But it’s got some great fiddle on it and is song of love gone wrong, when you thought it was all going right.

A more traditional English folk melody inhabits All Shall Be Well. A Capella song accompanied by bodhran I would say, it features 21 layered vocal parts. Track eight finds some of her field recordings – somebody walking on gravel and her cat purring, to illustrate Igor Potemkin Meets Bayum The Cat.

Hopwood does all the vocals and they are really quite complex harmony parts, and on Like A Leaf she demonstrates this to great effect. Again sparsely backed, a ukulele possibly and a couple of percussion bits, but it’s clever stuff, even crossing into Tom Waits territories, but without one eyed drunken dwarfs and sung with an angelic voice.

Never Said, features children playing in a playground with a simple recorder playing a melody over a single guitar note, with a song about hearing things which were not said and believing them, leading to detrimental consequences, and then she incorporates a babbling brook and bird calls into River And Fish, with just vocals.

The Closest Thing To Holding Hands, a song about hoarding things from your dead relatives which others might throw away, to keep their memory going. Meaning nothing to anybody else, but treasure to the person holding on. I know what she means, I have an old yellow chipped cullender which used belong to my mum, just so every time I take it out and use it I think of her.

Of course she features some wind and some wind chimes on In The Whistling Of The Wind, and an owl on East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon. And I’m sure I can hear a euphonium on this and other tracks but it’s maybe wishful thinking.

Amy plays most of the instruments on the album including tenor guitar, accordion, fiddle, banjo and percussion, and her words do make you think of things you may not always think of. Some deep and unusual subjects are covered on this album, and if you like your folk served up with quirk and charm then look no further.

I’m not sure I’ll listen to it many times, but who knows, I’m already thinking about it now it has finished, some things just get under your skin. I didn’t listen to Ivor Cutler many times but I still remember him forty years later. Here’s one for you John Peel wherever you may be. ***1/2

Review by Andy Sharrocks

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Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions,

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February 15
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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. This “Best of 2025 reviewer choices” show was first broadcast on 21 December 2025.

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Power Plays w/c 12 January 2026

THE DEADMANS Nice Kid (indie)
THE 69 EYES I Survive (BLKIIBLK)
MAGIC WANDS Sacred Mirrors (Metropolis Records)
KATHARINE PRIDDY Hurricane (indie)
AVALON STONE Mirage (indie)
CODE:WORDS Limerence (The Artery Foundation)
ROBBEN FORD Make My Own Weather (Mascot)

Featured Albums w/c 12 January 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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