The Furrow Collective

The Traverse Theatre, 6/5/2026

The Furrow Collective, Alasdair Roberts, Rachel Newton, Lucy Farr, Emily Portman

The Furrow Collective is an Anglo-Scottish group which draws on the traditional song of both cultures. Deploying an interesting range of instruments they create atmospheric backdrops for lyrics which portray the chiaroscuro of a pre-industrial and occasional mystical world of shepherds, noble knights and wronged lovers. In keeping with that vibe they illustrate a couple of the songs not with fancy digital backdrops but hand-made and hand-operated crankies.

The band’s most recent recording has a lunar theme. The opening number, ‘The Moon Shines Bright’, weaving together Alasdair Roberts’ arpeggiated electric guitar, Rachel Newton’s electro-harp, and Lucy Farr’s musical saw, provided the first vehicle for Emily Portman’s outstanding voice, clear and true. The moon pops up again on ‘The Moon Shined On My Bed Last Night’, a song of separated lovers, enhanced by banjo and viola, learned from the great Scottish traveller singer, Jeannie Robertson.

It was pleasing to see space given to some of the great ballads, including the immortal ‘Barbara Allen’, an epic ‘King Henry’, and ‘Hind Horn’ with its rare happy ending and a tongue-twisting refrain which the audience joined in with partial success. More successful from that point of view was ‘I’d Rather Be Tending My Sheep’ which produced a full-throated response from the capacity crowd.

All four members take the lead on different songs and they harmonise beautifully as well. Gaelic and Scots are given their place too, Alasdair Roberts applying his idiosyncratic tenor to his favourite Burns song, ‘Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast’ and joining with Rachel Newton on a gentle ‘Griogal Cridhe’.

They saw us out by changing direction and mood completely with a rollicking American song, ‘Wild Hog in the Woods’, a fitting ending before their a capella encore ‘Oh Watch The Stars’ and its reminder to ‘remember to look up’. This was an uplifting evening with plenty of light and shade, where even the darkest songs were never allowed to descend to the dismal.