Shirley Collins' collaboration with
the Albion Country Band for No Roses is considered a major event in the history of British folk and British folk-rock. For it was the first time that
Collins, roundly acknowledged as one of the best British traditional folk singers, sang with electric accompaniment, and indeed one of the first times that a British traditional folk musician had "gone electric" in the wake of
Dave Swarbrick joining
Fairport Convention and
Martin Carthy joining
Steeleye Span. The album itself doesn't sound too radical, however. At times it sounds something like
Fairport Convention with
Shirley Collins on lead vocals, which is unsurprising given the presence of
Ashley Hutchings on all cuts but one, and
Richard Thompson and
Simon Nicol on most of the selections (
Dave Mattacks plays drums on a few tracks for good measure). The nine songs are almost wholly traditional tunes with
Collins' arrangements, with perhaps a jauntier and folkier mood than that heard in early-'70s
Fairport, though not much. It's more impressive for
Collins' always tasteful smoky vocals than for the imagination of the material, which consolidates the sound of the more traditional wing of early-'70s British folk-rock. ~ Richie Unterberger