blackmailed & bereft are a collective that came out of the session scene in Kenmare, in the Kingdom of Kerry, on the Wild Atlantic Way on the west coast of Ireland.
Anita Heffernan, Chris Liddle and Gill Newlyn have played together twice a week for 15 summers, developing a close musical understanding that is evident on this collection of original and traditional songs and tunes. The band are brilliantly supported by lots of exceptional local musicians.
The name of the band comes from two words introduced to the English language by the Border Reivers in the 15th Century – blackmail and bereave. The first, black mail, was the original ransom letter and bereaved means the ransom wasn't paid, killed by The Reivers.
The Liddles were a Reiver family in the 1500s and 1600s.
Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. Their ranks consisted of both Scottish and English people, and they raided the entire Border country without regard to their victims' nationality. Their heyday was in the last hundred years of their existence, during the time of the House of Stuart in the Kingdom of Scotland and the House of Tudor in the Kingdom of England.
There are 11 tracks including traditional and brand new jigs and reels, polkas and marches, a slow air played on a tuned-down fiddle which was made by Remploy, and six songs. Five of the songs are original and one is an old traditional favourite.
The album was mixed and mastered by Josh Clark at Get Real Audio, Kate Rusby’s engineer of choice.
You can listen before you buy at the band's Bandcamp page by following the link: blackmailedandbereft.bandcamp.com/releases
The CD is only available from the band, via: paypal.me/blackmailedandbereft
Chris Liddle can be contacted for further information on dustbugging@gmail.com
