Ian Kearey adds: вЂњEven if youвЂ™ve got a big budget and youвЂ™ve got the studio for a week or whatever, thereвЂ™s still going to be that feeling of вЂThis is studio time.вЂ™ And for Shirley particularly, coming back to it after this, the last thing she wanted was any feeling of time constraint.вЂќДЄlso in place from the beginning were the albumвЂ™s key contributors. вЂњWhat I didnвЂ™t want this time was to have to go into the studio,вЂќ she says, вЂњbecause I thought: whatвЂ™s going to happen is that weвЂ™re going to be faced with an engineer whoвЂ™s never heard of me, doesnвЂ™t know my situation and what I do, and is going to think вЂWhat the hellвЂ™s this old lady coming in here thinking she can sing?вЂ™ I knew I couldnвЂ™t cope with that at all, so we decided to do it at home.вЂќ

Photo: Ossian BrownA decision that was taken early on was to record the entire album in Shirley CollinsвЂ™ small cottage, in the Sussex town of Lewes. Ian Kearey acted as musical director, and played many of the instruments on Lodestar. The project was overseen by musical director Ian Kearey, a close friend of Collins and a former member of Oysterband and the Blue Aeroplanes, with turns from a number of guest musicians. Both are former members of the pioneering industrial band Coil, and have continued to explore extreme sound worlds in Current 93 and their current project Cyclobe.

So, if the fact of Collins recording a new album at the age of 80 wasnвЂ™t surprising enough, the leading role played by Ossian Brown and Stephen Thrower might be. In the years since the release of For As Many As Will, however, Shirley Collins has also gained the appreciation and admiration of a new generation of artists - not all of them easily pigeonholed as folk musicians. Following a bitter divorce, she then lost her singing voice thanks to a condition called dysphonia, and her sister and longstanding musical collaborator, the composer Dolly Collins, died in 1994. Though she has long been the most important living figure in English traditional music, Collins last made an album in 1978. The 21st Century has seen some unlikely musical comebacks, but Shirley CollinsвЂ™ return to music-making trumps most of them. Shirley CollinsвЂ™ album Lodestar has been a long time coming.

Shirley collins no roses rar