A large part of na-mara’s ‘project’ in recent times has been to develop a repertoire from France and northern Spain and make it available to English speaking audiences for whom it is new and largely unknown. For a number of years we have been exploring these extremely rich folk traditions, finding tunes and songs which we make more accessible through translation into English. To be clear from the start, we do this with complete humility simply to open up the songs to audiences who otherwise might never get to hear them; it is not intended as any form of cultural colonialism! In all instances, we thoroughly recommend the songs and tunes be listened to in the original. In our view, there are some truly great talents working in these traditions who have been given far too little attention in the British Isles.

On this EP we have included two songs from our increasingly large repertoire of French and Breton songs, a tune from the Asturian tradition and one of our own compositions utilising a second tune from Asturias.

We hope you like the direction in which our music is developing and that you enjoy hearing our new songs and tunes.

Paul and Roberto, March 2008

1. Three Bonny Ships
2. Solo por Tres Meses
3. Anada pa Julia
4. When I Took My Horse To Water