Review by Sue Barrett.
RUTH HAZLETON – HERONBONES (Independent)
Australian musician Ruth Hazleton is celebrating 30 years on the folk music scene, with her new album, Heronbones.
In her early days in the music industry, Hazleton formed a folk duo with Kate Burke and recorded the album, The Bee-Loud Glade – bringing a refreshing and contemporary sound to such songs as ‘Wee Weaver’, ‘The Cruel Mother’, ‘Three Drunken Maidens’, ‘Cam Ye O’er Frae France’, ‘Old Coal Miner’ and Sydney Carter’s ‘The Crow on the Cradle’. And, as sometimes happened back then, ‘Tantz, Tantz Yidelekh’ was included as a hidden track on the CD.
Since then, Ruth Hazleton has toured the world and performed and recorded with many other musicians. In 2019, she released her debut solo album, Daisywheel, which was nominated for Best Folk Album at the Music Victoria Awards. Daisywheel included several songs written by Hazleton and contained a haunting version of ‘I Wish the Wars Were Over’. The album gave new life to old music, presented social justice issues in a framework of engaging sound and provided a space for quiet contemplation.
On Heronbones, co-produced with Luke Plumb, Ruth Hazleton tells stories through soundscape and word. She describes the album as drawing from deep wells of folklore and traditional song and also as being inspired by ‘90s downbeat, electronica and trip-hop.
In these times when “out of sight, out of mind” occurs all too frequently, Hazleton remembers Australia’s 2019-20 bushfires with ‘Letter from a Friend’. In ‘Tri-Coloured House’ (aka ‘The Elfin Knight’), Hazleton teams with Aoife Nic Dhiarmada to re-visit a song sung by Mary Kate McDonagh on Tom Munnelly’s collection, Songs of the Irish Travellers. And on ‘Foreign Shores’, Hazleton reflects on her experiences as an oral historian.
In addition to Ruth Hazleton (vocals, guitar, 5-string banjo, synthesizer, programming, sound design) and Aoife Nic Dhiarmada (vocals), Heronbones includes Hayato Simpson (violin, sound design, programming), Martin Penicka (cello) and Mattie Foulds (drums, percussion).
Heronbones is an album with many layers of meaning and with music which is old and new and full of interesting touches (including the ending to ‘Rufford Park Poachers’). It is an album to listen to (really listen to), then to listen to again.
Heronbones will be officially launched at the Brunswick Ballroom in Naarm/Melbourne on Sunday 29 March 2026.