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Tamsin Elliott sits in partial shadow with her many instruments around her in a publicity shot for her album, FREY
Tamsin Elliott. Photo credit: Kate Griffin

Tamsin Elliott – Old Wax Jacket // A Coat of Sawdust

Tamsin Elliott releases 'Old Wax Jacket // A Coat of Sawdust' ahead of her debut album, FREY, out on June 30th.

We’re very excited to be sharing with you this wonderful live video of ‘Old Wax Jacket // A Coat of Sawdust’, a tune set taken from Tamsin Elliott’s forthcoming album, FREY, out on June 30th. The tunes are performed by Elliott, Rowan Rheingans and Sid Goldsmith, and the session was recorded and filmed at Dylan Fowler’s Stiwdio Felin Fach by Alex Garden.

While non-traditional, the tunes sound as though they’ve fallen from a lost manuscript, imbued with fresh zest by these young musicians. “They are influenced by my English folk roots”, explains Elliot. “I grew up at sessions in Suffolk and my folks run a Molly side.”

Indeed, the forthcoming album shows hints of the same. It’s a joyful example of what can happen when traditional music is so embedded in the musician’s psyche that it can’t help but spill out into original creations. Mix in the echoes of Elliott’s time in Egypt, and you have something both familiar and unexpected – spellbinding, either way. But more on that in our coming review.

Tamsin Elliott playing the accordion during sessions for her debut album, FREY.

Of the ‘Old Wax Jacket // A Coat of Sawdust’ tune set, Elliott tells us, “It is a mixolydian jig which arrived in my hands out of the opening air of the album, ‘Uma’s Song’. I play around with slightly irregular phrasing and a darker harmonic structure in the B part, but really it’s a nostalgic tune that takes me back to the pub sessions of my teens. Indeed, the name refers to the smell of a childhood friend’s tatty wax jacket. ‘A Coat of Sawdust’ is a three-parter that I wrote in the shed-like lean-to out the back of my house after sawing and sanding some new shelves. 

“We recorded the set in Dylan Fowler’s beautiful Stiwdio Felin Fach in Abergavenny last summer, with Alex Garden (The Drystones) at the controls and on the camera. Rowan’s fiddle and Sid’s cittern really lift the tunes up and it was a joy to record with them both.”

‘Old Wax Jacket // A Coat of Sawdust’ is out today, and it has gone straight to the top of our Latest Folk Music Favourites Spotify Playlist. For more on Tamsin Elliott, head to tamsinelliott.co.uk. To pre-order FREY, head to tamsinelliott.bandcamp.com. Photo credits: Kate Griffin.

Tamsin Elliott on tour