Full Circle is an album by Barbara Dickson

Barbara Dickson

Barbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...

.

Full Circle was Barbara Dickson's 2004 studio album which, as the title suggests, saw her returning to her first love - folk music. The album also marked the beginning of her musical partnership with Troy Donockley who arranged and produced the album. The album was critically well-received - The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

wrote:

Sifting through one of her father's old shirt boxes, where she habitually stored bits of paper with the words of songs she picked up while touring the folk clubs of the British Isles as a young woman, Barbara Dickson found the material for this return to her pre-Blood Brothers, pre-Band Of Gold roots.

It is no exaggeration to describe Dickson as a great singer. She stood out a mile among the Scottish folk singers of her generation, and she has consistently shown her class when performing for a wider public.

From the first notes of 'Garton Mother's Lullaby' to the last strains of 'Eriskay Love Song', Full Circle maintains those fine standards. Dickson takes each ballad in her stride, ably produced by Troy Donockley, who also contributes moody uillean pipes. The content is predominantly traditional, though the Everly Brothers' 'Living Too Close To The Ground' is a surprising exception, and it is easy to see why these songs, melodically strong and lyrically rich, caught Dickson's attention years ago. Without dismissing the work she has done in the other three decades of her career, this is Dickson at her most engaging.

Track listing

1. "Garten Mother's Lullaby" (Trad)
2. "The Sky Above the Roof" (Ralph Vaughan Williams
   Ralph Vaughan Williams
   Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
   
   )
3. "Across the Hills" (Leon Rosselson
   Leon Rosselson
   Leon Rosselson is an English songwriter and writer of children's books. After his early involvement in the folk music revival in Britain, he came to prominence, singing his own satirical songs, in the BBC's topical TV programme of the early 1960s, That Was The Week That Was...
   
   )
4. "The Unquiet Grave" (Trad)
5. "Faithless Love" (J.D. Souther)
6. "Westron Wynde
   The western wynde
   Westron Wynde is an early 16th century song whose tune was used as the basis of Masses by English composers John Taverner, Christopher Tye and John Sheppard. The tune first appears with words in a partbook of around 1530, which contains mainly keyboard music...
   
   " (Trad)
7. "Corpus Christi Carol" (Trad)
8. "Living Too to the Ground" (Everley Brothers)
9. "Singing Bird" (Trad)
10. "When I Am Laid to Earth (Dido's Lament)" (Henry Purcell
    Henry Purcell
    Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
    
    )
11. "Eriskay Love Song" (Trad)

Personnel

• Barbara Dickson - vocals
• Neil Drinkwater - grand piano
• Danny Thompson
  Danny Thompson
  Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist and businessman...
  
   - double bass
• Troy Donockley
  Troy Donockley
  Troy Donockley is an English composer and multi-instrumentalist most known for his playing of uillean pipes.- Early life and career :...
  
  - guitars, uilleann pipes, low and tin whistles, mandola, harmonium
• The Emperor String Quartet (Martin Burgess - violin, Clare Hayes - violin, Fiona Bonds - viola, William Schofield - cello)