Take Route was recorded during 1983 in Manchester, and released probably in 1983 or 84. It was recorded by Alan Williams, Di’s brother, mostly at BBC Manchester. It was digitised in Edinburgh by Gerry Callaghan and myself. We have left some tape hiss on the tracks, partly for authenticity and partly because removing it took the edge off the music.
Here are all the songs, with credits. Lyrics coming soon.
On the lyric sheet she wrote:
I am a woman songwriter. I call myself a folk singer. The folk music world is ‘where I am coming from’ bu tit is only part of the picture. I live in a city that does not really have a living folk tradition. (I am excluding the thriving music of Irish and other communities here.) Folk music in Manchester is associated mainly with the lives of people in the industrial past. Few singers of my generation can give old songs an authentic reproduction – the old dialects are lost to us. This collection is not directly concerned with past traditions. The melodies and words are my own. I have a love of folk music, and have learned among songwriters and instrumentalists in many related fields. Folk today make new music.
Kept Silence
Immediately stating her links to the folk tradition, Di uses repeated lines to lead from verse to verse, lamenting the loss of traditional music and knowledge, and the loss of industry caused by the very recent Thatcher policies.
They name our thoughts – the words they use are wrong.
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Mandolin: Wilf Darlington
Sullen City
The denizens of the sullen city – Manchester, presumably, are waves of immigrants doing the labour unwanted by the native workforce and seeing their children, born and raised here, facing the unemployment that drove them to come here.
Ask the grudging mills for what work they give – the humblest public services just to live
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Fiddle: Di Williams
Lead guitar: Norman Lamont
Don't Look For Trouble
Di sings in this and other songs of being torn between the artistic life she wants and the expectations of – and loyalty to – her family.
It’s a fine wavy line between the leaders and the led – I’ve been walking that fine line a long time now
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Bass guitar: Norman Lamont
Percussion: Joseph
Gather
An extraordinary, long melody line, first on fiddle then sung impeccably. A thing of beauty, extolling passing things of beauty.
Gather me the summertime, mignonette and honeysuckle – who can I find to share with me these good things?
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Fiddle: Di Williams
Lead guitar: Norman Lamont
Sixteen Years After
This was written in the early 80s, when the punk ethos prevailed and the hippies of the 60s were seen as comical and naive. Di bravely writes this tribute to them, remembering that flower power was born out of protest and conscription as much as from psychedelics.
Not Nixon but Thatcher …We will not be drafted, sixteen years after
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Bass: Steve Greenmantle
Living In Two Houses
Another direct piece of autobiography, Di shifting between her parents’ cosy suburbia and a bohemian squat. The music is equally unsettling.
Often I begin to wonder – how am I going to get any work done, living between two houses?
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Bass: Steve Greenmantle
Keyboards: Alan Williams
Mentor
A warm recollection of an encounter with a friend who opens doors of possibility.Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Bass: Steve Greenmantle
The Last Leaves
A bleak and honest picture of a struggling artist, clutching at any straw of interest. This must have been devastating at her funeral.
I am called to sing and I am ready …
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Keyboards: Alan Williams
Legacy
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
No Canaan
The only song approaching rock, and a grim signoff for the album and for society, turned round at the end by a statement of adulthood and maturity.
No milk and honey, no promised land, we’re all going donw for the last time
Guitar: Dave Chisholm
Bass guitar: Norman Lamont
Percussion: Di Williams
