Darren Hayman is back, with a second volume of songs resulting from his Thankful Villages project. The twelfth village is Stretton En Le Field, Leicestershire.

Stretton En Le Field, Leicestershire – Thankful Village #30 from Darren Hayman on Vimeo.

I’d been researching songs at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University and the Vaughan Williams library at Cecil Sharp House.

‘A Dark Girl Dressed in Blue’ seems to have its root in Leicestershire, though not specifically the area of Stretton En Le Field. I was drawn to the song because it dealt with a journey from Leicestershire to London whereas I was doing the opposite.

Often on my Thankful Villages project I write and record the basic song in situ but add parts later at home. In Stretton En Le Field I recorded the entire song and made the video on an app on my iPad.

You can watch each track being recorded in each window of the video.

I crouched by the side of the road and played a toy piano in the light rain. I stared at sad-looking pumpkins and watched removal trucks taking a family out of the village.

Everything was to and fro.

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Thankful Villages Vol.2 is out now on Rivertones. You can buy a copy here, or listen on Spotify.

Previous Thankful Villages posts on Caught by the River/ Darren Hayman on Twitter