page_title: Witness (Show of Hands album)
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Witness (Show of Hands album) / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: Miranda Sykes; Show of Hands, Harberton Village Hall, 20th May 2009
context_page_description: Witness is the twelfth studio album by British folk duo Show of Hands. The album was recorded in January 2006 at Presshouse Studio, Colyton, Devon, and was produced by Simon Emmerson and Simon ‘Mass’ Massey from the Afro Celts, who helped to incorporate elements of traditional African, ambient and electronic dance music with the duo's characteristic folk style. It was the band's first album in twelve years to use a rhythm section. Lyrically, the album addresses communal and heritage values, and was described by the duo's lead singer Steve Knightley as a "cinematic style journey of the West Country." The album features unofficial third member Miranda Sykes on ten of its twelve tracks.
  It was released in May 2006 on the band's Hands on Music label, with the catalogue number HMCD23. Although some fans were perplexed by the duo's new direction, many welcomed it and it received a positive reception from critics. Mojo Magazine ranked Witness at number 10 on their best folk albums of 2006 list. The album became the band's best-selling to date. To promote the album, "Witness", "If I Needed Someone" and "Roots" were singles.
context_section_description: The album marks a departure for the band, featuring the usage of bass and percussion, the second time the band had experimented with them–the first being Beat about the Bush (1994). The album incorporates elements of traditional African, ambient and electronic dance music with the duo's characteristic folk style. Steve Knightley noted "every original song on the CD is a first person narrative or testimonial. Incidents and events are witnessed and recorded and every narrator is a different character. It's really a series of scenes from a cinematic style journey of the West Country." The band's website refers to the album as "the most innovative" studio album the duo had recorded to date, noting the album is Show of Hands "as you've never heard them before". One commentary noted that the album "exemplifies how the digital recording techniques contribute to hybrid musical styles". Phil Beer of the duo said "It's cutting and pasting. You can take something from somewhere and put it anywhere else … so in a chorus of a song if a word sounds funny in one place but fine in another chorus, you cut and paste and see if they dovetail together". [Emmerson] spent hours and hours and hours agonising over where to lay a bell beat: do we put it there or a nanosecond earlier? Because it matters, it actually matters where it falls". The album features numerous guest musicians. Miranda Sykes appears on ten of the album's twelve compositions and features in the album photographs, whilst Massey appears on nine of the tracks, where he is mostly responsible for percussion and drum programming.
  The album opens with "two punchy, driving songs" which lyrically have been described as "archetypal Steve", both concerning "the intentional desecration of English life of one kind or another". The first song, "Witness", refers to the desecration of life in a commune, whilst the following song "Roots" is an impassioned defence of England's musical heritage and identity, with both songs having been described as showcasing Knightley "venting his anger in lyrics of venom and guts while as ever preaching more tolerance of perfectly reasonable ways of living which just happen to be unorthodox." "Roots" has also been described as being about a "search for identity" "which questions a lot about cultural values, leaving the listener to infer the answers," and as one of Knightley's "acerbic epics". The song was triggered by minister Kim Howells’ comment that his idea of hell was listening to "three Somerset folk singers in the local pub". The chorus of the song is performed by Port Isaac-based shantymen group The Fisherman's Friends. Contrasting the two songs is the third track "The Dive", an "uptempo global workout" about the West Country coastline that has been compared to the Afro Celt Sound System. The song features sounds of the sea at West Bay, Dorset.
  "The Falmouth Packet/Haul Away Joe" is a "foot-stomping", "beat-bedecked shanty" sung by Phil Beer. The first part of the piece, "The Falmouth Packet", is an instrumental composed by Beer and recorded originally for his collaborative album The Fiddle Collection (1999). The second part, "Haul Away Joe", is a traditional song arranged by the duo with "ancillary voices" performed by The Fisherman's Friends. "Undertow" is a "bleak tale of hopes and aspirations in small time-life". Beer plays an EBow on the song, giving an "eerie" feel to the song. Massey plays a shaker on the song. The duo's cover of the Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" was originally recorded in 2005 for the BBC Radio 2 show and album Rubber Folk, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' Rubber Soul  album. Featuring a distinct Indian music influence, it features British-Indian percussionist Johnny Kalsi playing tablas, shakers and the mazhar. "Innocent's Song" is the duo's "dark" arrangement of Johnny Coppin's musical version of Charles Causley's poem of the same name. "Union Street" was described as "striking" and "sparsely-textured", "telling poignantly of the last letters between a Marine and his wife". The song fea
caption: Witness is the first Show of Hands album to feature major contributions from Miranda Sykes (pictured).
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