Following on from last month’s premiere of ‘Watt’s Reel‘ by Granny’s Attic, Worcester’s foremost folk fandanglers are back with another video. We’re delighted to give ‘Considerate Birders’ its first airing right here on Tradfolk.
While the tune isn’t traditional, as with its predecessor, it sounds like it may have come from centuries ago. George Sansome, the tune’s composer, explains, “I wrote ‘Considerate Birders’ for my friends Abi and Hep, who got married in lockdown in October 2020. They have an Instagram account where they share their beautiful bird photography. It’s a joy to follow. During lockdown, when we couldn’t get out so much, it was lovely to see some great photos of local wildlife. Once I’d finished the tune, I wrote it out, gave it to my housemates Wren and Lucy, and together we recorded a home performance for Abi and Hep. It was really lovely to share the tune, and after talking with Lewis and Cohen [Sansome’s band members in Granny’s Attic], we realised we wanted to do more to put our music in the hands of other musicians for them to play as well as listen to.
“We ended up putting together a digital tunebook with all the tunes (both traditional and our own tunes) from our album, The Brickfields, and invited people to send us any recordings of themselves playing the music. We ended up with some really lovely contributions, and it was great to hear how different people interpreted the tunes. We’ve also had some people come up to us at recent gigs and say that they’ve been playing the tunes themselves, which is nice. It does mean we’re under more pressure to play the right notes at gigs though!
“We filmed a live performance of this at Evoke Studios in Leeds with Will Killen, back at the start of May. It’s a tune that has a lot of space in it, so it’s really nice to perform live and just get a bit lost in the music while we’re playing it.”
The last time we caught up with Granny’s Attic, they were heading out on the first leg of a lengthy tour. The release of this new video marks the second stage of their outting, as the band and their audience head into a long summer. Sansome continues, “We’ve got some really lovely gigs lined up this month and beyond, and it’s great to be heading into festival season. We’ve been singing some brand new songs too, and all our audiences have been absolutely great. Looking forward to sharing more music with people.”
Granny’s Attic – Brickfields Summer Tour
You’ll find the Attic out on tour over the coming months in the following places…
- 01/06 – Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham
- 03/06 – Minchinhampton Market House, Gloucestershire
- 05/06 – St John-in-Bedwardine Parish Church, Worcester
- 11/06 – Gower Folk Festival
- 12/06 – St Neots Folk Festival
- 14/06 – The cornerHOUSE, Surbiton
- 15/06 – Philleigh Folk, Cornwall
- 16/06 – Stratford Play House, Warwickshire
- 17/06 – Folk At The Barlow, Lancashire
- 18/06 – Nettleham Village Hall, Lincolnshire
- 19/06 – East Riding Theatre, Beverley
- 01/07 – Pound Arts, Wiltshire
- 02/07 – Kimpton Folk Festival
- 06/07 – University Of Leeds
- 09/07 – Ely Folk Festival
- 15/07 – Stainsby Festival
- 16/07 – Sesiwn Fawr, Dolgellau
- 21-24/07 – Warwick Folk Festival
- 29-30/07 – Sidmouth Folk Festival
- 12/08 – Saltburn Folk Festival
- 19/08 – Moira Furnace Folk Festival
- 20/08 – Just So Festival
- 26/08 – Greenbelt Festival
- 29/08 – Cornwall Folk Festival
For more on Granny’s Attic, head to grannysattic.org.uk.