Frankie Armstrong
Country of origin:
England
Type of music generally:
Political and traditional and contemporary folk
Status:
Most recent release, "What's She Got to Smile At...?": Songs of Brecht, Weill and Eisler (2017)
See also:
Frankie Armstrong's site
Wikipedia's entry on Frankie Armstrong
Comparisons:
If Ani DiFranco channeled Annie Briggs
Covers/own material:
Traditional, covers
General comments:
Frankie Armstrong is a strong and expressive vocalist, mostly doing interpretations of traditional material. Unfortunately, much of her repertoire, icluding my favourite album of hers, Out of Love, Hope and Suffering, has not been re-released since the original, long out-of-print, vinyl. (Neile)
Recommended first album:
I haven't heard them all, but Out of Love, Hope and Suffering is the one that I can't live without. (Neile)
Recordings:
- Lovely on the Water (1972)
- Songs and Ballads (1975)
- Out of Love, Hope and Suffering (1973)
- And the Music Plays So Grand (1980)
- I Heard a Woman Singing (1985)
- Ways of Seeing (1990)
- Till the Grass O'ergrew the Corn (1996)
- The Garden of Love (1999)
- Encouragement (2008)
- "What's She Got to Smile At...?": Songs of Brecht, Weill and Eisler (2017)
Release info:
1974—Bay Records—Bay 206
Availability:
Currently (2012) hard to find; never released on CD
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended for fans of trad folk of just fun songs
Group members:
Guest artists:
Rita Weill—autoharp, vocals (5)
Susie Rothfield—dulcimer, fiddle, viola, guitar
Sue Thompson—flute (3)
Eric Thompson—guitar, banjo (4)
Produced by:
Mike Cogan
Comments:
This album is a collection of powerful, amusing, and sometimes delightfully vulgar songs ("Nine Times a Night"), a version of the "Prince
Heathen" ballad, and a song about being a female engineer. Almost all the
songs are strongly feminist. The Ani DiFranco similarity is that she does a kind of shouting and singing at the same time that Ani occasionally does. This collection has delighted me for 20 years, and is likely to delight me for 20 more. (Neile)
Further info:
Frankie Armstrong's collaborations include:
- The Bird In The Bush (Traditional Erotic Songs) with A.L. Lloyd and Anne Briggs
- Nuclear Power No Thanks (1981) with Roy Bailey, Martin Carthy, Ron Elliott, Howard Evans, Chris Foster, Sandra Kerr, John Kirkpatrick, Alison MacMorland, Brian Pearson, Geoff Pearson, Leon Rosselson, & Roger Williams
- Tam Lin (1984) with Brian Pearson, Blowzabella and Jon Gillaspie
- My Song is My Own (1980) with Sandra Kerr, Alison McMorland and Kathy Henderson
- Let No One Deceive You—the songs of Bertold Brecht (1992) by Dave Van Ronk, The Red Onion Jazz Band and others.
- Fair Moon Rejoices (1997) with Joan Mills, Biddy Wells, Peter Stacey, Ben Lawrence, Geoff Haynes and Darien Pritchard
- Darkest Before the Dawn with Sarah Harman & Shanee Taylor
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