Fairest Flower Of Womankind, The

Lindsay Straw, “the fairest flower of womankind”
Label: self released
Reviewed by: Kim Walter, August 2017

When I first saw this the title of this album, I thought that this was a bold statement for a woman to make about herself. Then I saw the rest of the title, which had obviously been cut off due to its verbosity (or, as Steven Colbert calls it, wordiness), and I suddenly liked the album much better. The full title is: “the fairest flower of womankind: songs of feminine triumph”. These are mainly traditional Scottish and English folk songs about strong women. Great individually, 13 in a row is a bit much…

1. slow/med – traditional Traveller’s (aka Gypsy) song- “The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter
2. slow/med – Frankie Armstrong’s style, common story of beautiful maiden on the shore
3. slow/med – Australian song about a woman hiding her identity and becoming a sailor
4. slow – a cappella, about “regular” people
5. slow – folk song about two sisters (somewhat of a rare theme in folk music)
6. med – more like folk rock – voice and guitar
7. slow – traditional tale common all over British Isles about a woman being her man’s savior
8. slow – very similar theme and style to #7
9. slow – voice and fiddle
10. med – snappy Scottish style
11. slow – traditional revenge ballad
12. slow/med – traditional English folk song
13. slow/med – similar to #10