Myth and Folkery: Jackie Oates, John Spiers and the gothic glory of macabre lacemakers
Songs and squeezeboxes, craft and... corpses?
I first discovered folk singer Jackie Oates while watching Charlie Cooper’s marvellous Myth Country winter solstice special on BBC 3. The show ended with a track from Jackie’s recent Christmas album A Midwinter’s Tale that was so beautiful that it had me sprinting to Apple music. In all honesty, I haven’t stopped playing it since (yes, yes, I know it’s technically spring but like Scrooge I like to keep at least a little Christmas in my heart all year round) and, as I continue my delve into all things folk, have plunged headfirst into the Staffordshire-born singer’s back catalogue.
Back in December, Clare and I attended our first folk concert — the blissfully melancholy Unthanks at the Bristol Beacon — and wanted more, so I was pleased to see tickets for Jackie’s first performance of 2025 with long-time collaborator John Spiers. And what a wonderful evening it was, Jackie and John taking to the stage in the intimate surroundings of the Irving Studio Theatre at the Everyman in Cheltenham. The duo kept us spellbound for two hours, with Jackie on fiddle and recorder and John on a seriously impressive selection of squeezeboxes.
The darker side of lace making
One of the highlights of the concert was learning about lace tells, songs lacemakers used to sing to help them concentrate as they braided long into the night, their bobbins moving in time to the music. Apparently the lacemakers were a macabre bunch, with many of the dark ditties veering into horror-tinged territory.
Our haul from the merch table. The homemade candles were a nice touch – complete with codes for album downloads on the other side of the label
Jackie and John treated us to two gothic delights: 'Death and the Lady' which recounts the story of an unfortunate maiden who meets the Grim Reaper and has to bargain for life and 'There was a Lady All Skin and Bone' that ends with these delightfully visceral verses:
And she walked up and she walked down,
And she saw a dead man upon the ground;
And from his nose unto his chin,
The worms crept out and the worms crept in.
Then the lady to the sexton said,
“Shall I be so when I am dead?”
And the sexton to the lady said,
“You’ll be the same when you are dead.”
Those creepy, crawly worms! I love them!
If you want to learn more about Oates and Spiers (as well as hearing them perform 'A Lady All Skin and Bone') then I recommend popping on their episode of the Folk on Foot podcast which we listened to on the drive back to Bristol. You’ll also be able to hear more about Jackie’s fascinating work as a music therapist and why she believes folk music resonates so much from generation to generation..
PS: The track on Myth Country was ‘The Halsway Carol’, in case you're wondering. Go give it a listen!
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