Lavinia Blackwall dives deep into the folk-rock past with the title track of her second solo album since leaving Trembling Bells.

Listening to this song and (especially) watching the video you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d just stumbled across a deep cut from the late Sixties or early Seventies.

Something, perhaps, by Pentangle or Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention or The Incredible String Band. Or maybe an obscure English folk-rock group who never got to see their name in lights.

In fact it’s a brand new tune by a new-ish artist, Lavinia Blackwall.

A classically trained soprano, her voice has drawn comparisons with the late great Sandy Denny, and also to her contemporary Olivia Chaney.

For a decade from 2008, Blackwall shared the vocals (with Alex Neilson) in the far more experimental and psychedelic Scottish folk-rock group Trembling Bells.

The Making is the title track of her second solo album, a far more simplified affair, displaying elements of her previous career playing early music. 

Blackwall plays piano, organ and autoharp, while her partner, producer and collaborator Marco plays piano and guitar, bouzouki and mandolin. 

The band, unchanged from the line-up that recorded her 2020 solo debut Muggington Lane End, is completed with Jim McGoldrick on bass and drummer Seb Jonson.

She also performs in a duo called Wyndow with Laura J Martin, who plays flute and recorder on the new album, while Ross McCrae and Richard Merchant add trombone and trumpet respectively.