Beth Orton releases remastered Trailer Park

February 24, 2009 by Alan Pedder in Blog

Delayed Legacy Edition out next month

Originally scheduled to coincide with Heavenly Records’ 18th birthday celebrations last September, the Legacy Edition of Beth Orton’s 1996 debut Trailer Park will finally come out on March 9th. Although it contains absolutely zip in the way of unreleased archive material, it does a more comprehensive job of gathering together the era’s B-sides than the Pass In Time ‘definitive’ collection released in 2003, along with the obligatory tracks from the Best Bit EP. The perk, then, is that all the songs on both discs have been newly remastered, while the expanded booklet contains new photographs and liner notes written by journalist Miranda Sawyer.

“Folk was the music that came most naturally to Beth, writing songs on her acoustic guitar,” says Sawyer in her essay. “She wanted to capture the purity of its traditional sound. Having grown up around British folk musicians, she often wondered why British folk was not revered in the same way as the roots music of America…Trailer Park is a collection of stories, a moment in time, a humble offering with far-reaching effects, a musical experiment gone right, a small jewel that glitters differently as you turn it in your hand. Even today, it’s still open enough to let your own moods and desires take the songs where you want them to go…For Beth, writing and recording songs is the best feeling in the world. The equivalent of true love, she calls it. Time for us to fall in love all over again.”

Beth is reportedly hard at work on her fifth album, the follow-up to 2006′s Comfort Of Strangers (and the first since she became a mum), expected later this year.

Trailer Park: Legacy Edition bonus disc
01 Safety
02 It’s Not The Spotlight
03 Galaxy of Emptiness [live]
04 Pedestal
05 Touch Me With Your Love [instrumental]
06 It’s This I Am Find
07 Bullet
08 Best Bit [early version]
09 Best Bit
10 Skimming Stone
11 Dolphins [feat. Terry Callier]
12 Lean On Me [feat. Terry Callier]
13 I Love How You Love Me

Alan Pedder