Here is a new interview with Neill and Kathryn, published by The Guardian UK.

Intimate strangers

When two solo folk stars found themselves 'terrifyingly alike', the result was an album and a national tour. Jude Rogers meets the pair

Jude Rogers
Friday February 29, 2008

Guardian

You're two acoustic singer-songwriters about to go on a national tour together for the first time, so here's a nice idea for a warm-up: a tiny, four-venue jaunt around the Scottish Highlands and islands, playing venues the size of postage stamps, practising your batch of sweetly shy, recently-written songs in front of small, folk-loving audiences.

That was the theory, anyway. "That was before we had to take ferries on raging seas, and board tiny planes in gale force winds!" The gossamer-voiced, Mercury-nominated Kathryn Williams swings her legs up on the sofa, and looks at her new writing partner and laughs, recounting their journey from a paint-your-own-pottery cafe in Fort William, to a theatre in Inverness, to a woodlands centre on the Isle of Lewis. "I know the two of us needed to bond because everything's so new, but bloody hell, this was ridiculous. The plane flapping above the sea, both of us staring at pictures of our children, and me going, helpfully, 'We're all going to die!'"

Lounging opposite Williams, in stitches, is Neill MacColl, her co-writer on their new album, Two. His name may well ring a bell: he's the eldest son of the folk music pioneers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, half-brother of the late Kirsty, and a composer and producer in his own right. Together, Williams and MacColl are like lifelong friends or siblings despite the 15-year age gap (she is 33, while he is "ugh, 48, thank you very much"). They're now in the tiny harbour town of Ullapool, where their warm-up tour finishes, a place MacColl used to travel to alone as a teenager.

The pair met at 2005's Daughters of Albion concert in Cork, and played together again the following year at the Barbican. Williams was heavily pregnant at the time with her first child, Louis, and had chosen to sing Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. She was nervous about covering it as it had been done so many times before, and even more so when she was paired up with the songwriter's son.

Strangely, though, Neill MacColl was even more worried. "I was wary because everyone else who's covered it has murdered it. If you ever get the chance to hear Elvis's version for instance ..." He bristles at the very thought. "God, it's monstrous. But as soon as Kath started to sing it, in that lovely understated way that she does, I understood exactly where she was going. I could follow her easily, and she could follow me. And given that song meant so much to me anyway, it was like coming home." Williams felt similarly. "I'd never had that sort of experience before with music, to trust someone straightaway. It was like a light going on."

Until then, Williams had been a staunch solo artist. Although she had a spell on a major label after her second album, Little Black Numbers, was nominated for 2000's Mercury music prize, she took her projects back home, running her own label, Caw Records, from her Newcastle home with her husband and manager Neil le Flohic. MacColl lived, as he still does, with his journalist wife and two teenage sons in London, writing music for films and occasionally producing albums, but also touring as a seasoned session musician with the likes of David Gray.

"We have a running joke about that," Williams interjects. "Well, about David's posh touring commitments anyway. I'll buy Neill a coffee, and then go, 'Ooh, but would David Gray buy you a latte from Caffè Nero? Ooh, no, I thought not. I'm much nicer.'"

It took a long time for them to meet up and write, given the birth of Louis and MacColl's own commitments, but they kept in touch "writing silly haikus over email like a pair of right nutters", says Williams. Then, in April 2007, MacColl headed to Newcastle, where they pitched up in Williams' garage and tuned up their guitars. The songs, they both say simultaneously, poured out of them. And when they went to record later that year, they recorded 21 in six days.

"We found out we were very similar musicians," says Williams. "Both of us are very hard on ourselves. Neill covers it up by being quiet, and I cover it up by being this joker shouting 'tits and arse', but once we were eye to eye it was terrifying how much we were alike." She smiles broadly. "This is a strange analogy I know, but the whole experience was the musical equivalent of standing naked in front of the person you love and wanting them to like you."

Two, the result of their efforts, is incredibly intimate, full of early-morning songs that whisper softly in your ear. It's not folk music, grumbles MacColl, although Williams doesn't mind that description ("Let's be folk people, Neill! Folk people are nice!"). The tracks include 6am Corner and Blue Fields, two of the first songs Williams wrote. "I could never make them work myself, which says a lot, obviously." They recorded them in a countryside studio lent to them by Kimberley Rew, guitarist in Katrina & the Waves. "And people would just wander in and sit down and listen to us as if that was normal behaviour," says MacColl. "Which was strange, but it made us realise that we were making something special."

The album also includes a version of Tom Waits' Innocent When You Dream, which MacColl was singing as he tuned his guitar one morning. "And I said, Neill, you've got to sing that out loud, but he wouldn't. He was so shy about his singing." Williams adds that she fluffs the very first line of the song on the record, but MacColl was adamant they shouldn't change it. He still is. "Who made the rule that said you can't allow a ***-up on a record? To my mind, the best records show you their vulnerabilities." Williams puts this even better. "So much music these days is tucked or streamlined and it sounds bloody awful. It's like plastic surgery for music. It's much better to say, look, this is me, this is who I am." She gurns daftly. "So that's what we did."

The 23-date tour proper starts in mid-March and, yes, one of those dates involves the pair supporting David Gray in London. Williams is taking her husband and son along for the ride, just as MacColl was taken on tour by his parents. "It was normal life for me then. I thought everyone's parents were folk singers." His own family dynasty is expanding quickly, too - his 18-year-old son Jamie plays guitar in the NME-approved Bombay Bicycle Club, while 13-year-old Tom is drumming for teenage post-rockers Lo-Fi Culture Scene, who recently played at London's Astoria. "Something for Louis to look up to!" Williams laughs gently.

You feel that the bond between these two will never weaken, and a recent event in Williams's life makes this even stronger. Moving some boxes around a back bedroom, she found a long-forgotten reel-to-reel player that she picked up in a Liverpudlian market many years ago. She'd never looked at its tapes closely, but this time she did. "And they were BBC tapes from folk clubs in the early 60s, some of the ones that have been lost forever, with Neill's mum and dad singing on them." She's given them to MacColl now.

"It's funny, isn't it, Neill?" Williams smiles, winking at him across the room. "All those years we didn't know each other - and you were under my bed all along."

· Two is released on Caw on Monday. The Kathryn Williams and Neill MacColl tour starts at Brighton Komedia on March 16. Box office: 01273 647100.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

 

Neill MacColl's and Kathryn Williams' new album "Two" is out now!

BBC online published this awesome review of the album:

Kathryn Williams & Neill MacColl

Album "Two", Review

 

by Michael Quinn
29 February 2008

It just isn't possible that there will be a sweeter, more sincere album released this year than this plaintively bittersweet collection of duets from adopted Geordie songstress Kathryn Williams and scion of a venerable English folk-music family, Neill MacColl.

Written, recorded and mixed in a little over two weeks, Two is a miniature marvel, the sort of album you want to keep jealously to yourself but feel compelled to tell complete strangers who catch your eye in the street about. Just do it. They’ll thank you for it.

Nominated for the Mercury Music prize in 2000 for the equally but differently exquisite Little Black Numbers, Williams has carved out a singular niche for herself across a six-album career and courted comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Dylan and the Velvet Underground. All very flattering but all failing to quite encompass the delicious individuality of the soft-as-the-finest-Eiderdown pillow voice and a musical sensibility of bewitching sensitivity.

Add the rippling summer brook-voiced MacColl ­– think Clifford T Ward crossed with Sandy Denny (I know,I know!) – to the equation and the combination of the two becomes completely spellbinding.

''Small, sketchy pieces, not Big Art'', Williams says of her songs and that's exactly the appeal of them. They’re personal, private statements, intimate and confessional, honest and uncluttered by musical affectation or poetic posturing. Which is precisely why they sing out so deliciously.

Opening track 6am Corner is gossamer perfect, the single Come With Me a wistful invitation not to be refused, Before It Goes steals the melody from Neil Young's Only Love Can Break Your Heart to make it its own, Armchair imbues love with a to-be-wished-for domesticity and Blue Fields transports you into a bucolic reverie not to be lightly surrendered.

MacColl occasionally disappears into the background but makes his presence felt as useful descanted ballast in a cover of Tom Waits' black-edged ballad Innocent When You Dream.

If Phill Brown's discretely eloquent production, gently infused with cello, double bass and percussion, relies a touch too much on understatement throughout (there's nothing here to quite match the emotional intensity of 2006's Leave to Remain or Old Low Light from 2002), Two is none the worse for that and remains a disc that is to be cherished from first note to last.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/8wrg/

Thanks for the revue of Sheffield and also for this.  Shame they are not support at Manchester.

Are you at Manchester tomorrow?  Any idea what time David expected on stage? I have friends who are not going to be able to get to the Apollo until about 9 do not want them to miss any of him as its their first time.

Happy q'ing., hope Apollo are on the ball.

Enjoy, look forward to reviews

Maz

Picked up the album in Edinburgh and listened to it late this afternoon, I fell asleep but that is more a compliment than anything else, will have to listen to it more times to let you know what I think about it but the sound is very natural and relaxed. Just go and get it !

Marcel.

Hi Maz,

got back home from England around midnight and therefore haven't had a chance to listen to the album yet but will definitely do so tonight. I am very much looking forward to seeing Neill and Kath supporting David in London.

No, I won't be able to see the next few gigs as I need to get some work done for a change. Lol. I will be back next week though.

David got on stage between 8.50 and 9.00 pm at the previous shows so tell your friends to hurry up a bit. It will be well worth it, the acoustic part should not be missed. Your friends will have a great time. Seeing him for the first time is such a mind blowing experience...

Enjoy, the lot of you

Rena

Morning folks

Feel like a child on xmas day!!! counting the hours till I can go get in the q at the Apollo, think I may go out and buy a new hat scarf and gloves in case I'm stood there for ages. May decide to throw them instead of other item of clothing (much smaller less chance of inflicting damage!!!)

Take care all and enjoy

Maz

I am short on time as Preston is waiting still I wanted to say something on Neill's new album.

I have listened to the album although due to a lot of work haven't been able to give it due attention, much to my regret. It has a quiet, intimate touch. Emphasized by Kathryn's voice and of course by Neill's always brilliant guitar. This is the album you'd want to listen to in the small hours of the morning, when sitting down with a good glass of red wine. Just lean back, relax and enjoy.

Good news for all fans of Kathryn and Neill! Recently they added some new tour dates:

daughters of albion shows

Neill and Kathryn have announced two tour dates in Scandinavia; this is taken from their website:

2 scandinavian shows just announced- nalen, stockholm on 4th june and a free show as part of the spot festival at musikcafeen in aarhus on 6th.

4 Jun 08	STOCKHOLM	NALEN	+46 8-505 292 41
06 Jun 08	ARHUS- free show!!	MUSIKCAFEEN	+45 86 760 344

So here are the festival dates; quoted from Kathryn's newsletter that got out last night:

got some festivals with neill over the summer... glastonbury (park stage) on the 29th june, belladrum (scotland) on 8th august, summer sundae (leicester) on the 10th, beautiful days (devon) on 15th and sound sanctuary in kent on 21st september, as well as our full band show at regents park on 17th august.

Forgot to mention that they are going over to Aarhus in Denmark to take part in a co-writing week - whatever that  is supposed to be but it sounds very interesting. I hope we are going to hear some of the results. They are also going to appear on breakfast tv in stockholm when touring there.

Go and see them at one of the festivals or in Scandinavia; it will be well worth it.  

Here is a website with some nice pics; folkimages.com. 

On seetickets tickets are still available for the concert in Regent's Park in London. Beautiful music in what sounds like a beautiful setting so this should not be missed.