Two Ceremonies at the Border

Loth to say his Last Goodnight, Johnny Armstrong can rest easy in the knowledge that Peter Armstrong, folksinger and poet, has created a new and resonant framework for his story, taking him through the Fourteen Stations of his own Cross to rise
in the dark gospel
of a ballad.

He gives an equally profound resonance to the story of Parcy Reed, the Keeper of Redesdale, using the Catholic Mass to frame his brutal murder at the hands of a family against whom he had proceeded:

he sees

in the shiver of the heather
in the fells’
infinite slow flow

all his thrones and angels;
between the curlew and the lark
and the wind’s clamour

all his praises and hosannas
cry.

Not only has he given a new depth to these stories he has brought across the centuries, he has found a language for them that can hold its own against the refrains he quotes from the old ballads – and that’s no small achievement.
– Roger Garfitt