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Bridget Hayden and the Apparitions: Cold Blows the Rain review | Jude Rogers' folk album of the month

Hayden’s traditional songs unfurl at a glacial pace, as heavy as the sodden moors at midnight

Based in the West Yorkshire cosmic mecca of Todmorden, known for its alternative music scene as much as its wild weather, Bridget Hayden and the Apparitions start the year with traditional songs as heavy as the sodden moors at midnight. In moments in Blackwater Side (well known from versions by Anne Briggs, Sandy Denny and Bert Jansch), Hayden conveys well the sleepy, post-coital pleasures of the “best part of the night” when her protagonist and “the Irish lad I spied” did “sport and play”. Weft by Blue Lake(Tonal Union), the moniker of artist and musician Jason Dungan, is a lovely instrumental balm, comprising four tracks of nylon-string guitar, piano, flute and clarinet and a dazzling three-minute finale on his 36-string zither.

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