Bella Hardy - Songs Lost & Stolen

The third album by the much acclaimed, BBC Folk Award nominated singer songwriter Bella Hardy, is a stunning, ambitious step forward.Having made a name for herself in traditional English music with her debut album Night Visiting and its follow-up In the Shadow of Mountains, it was clear that Bella was more than just a fine interpreter of folk songs. Having been nominated for a BBC Folk Award for the self-penned Three Black Feathers (later covered by Jim Moray on his award winning album Low Culture) Bella's next record featured much more of her own work, including the Lennon & McCartney-esque 'Sylvie Sovay', a re-imagining of folk's eponymous highway-woman as an abused wife on the brink. It was described by English Dance & Song magazine as destined for classic status.Songs Lost & Stolen combines the traditional styles and ballad forms that have always been at the centre of Bella Hardy's work with an added gift for poetry and Angela Carter-inspired twisted tales. Consisting of 12 self-written songs that touch on both the fantastical, storytelling elements of Kate Bush and the lovelorn songwriting craft of Carole King, her lyrics range in subject matter from fairytales to English working class history via childhood nostalgia, myths, murder and the human condition. At the centre of all this is Bella's soaring and captivating voice, inhabiting her characters and spinning her stories with an equal balance of strength and sensitivity.

More than a new generation folk revivalist�.her potential is massive. - --MOJO