Rattlebone and Ploughjack is a fabulously unusual album by Ashley Hutchings. This is one of a few "Documentary Albums" that he has recorded. Other albums like this are "An hour with Cecil Sharp" An Hour With Cecil Sharpe and...and the "Morris On".Morris onand the complete Dancing Master The Compleat Dancing MasterIt is a concept album. The concept being a celebration of the Morris Dance Tradition. There are two parts to the album. Rattlebone and Ploughjack. Rattlebone begins with spoken word and a cylinder recording of a hornpipe. It is a recording made by Cecil Sharp at the beginning of the 20th Century. Then there is a spoken word piece from an elizabethan pamphlet that is read out with the tune of "jack of the green". Then "Bromsberrow heath", reel, is followed by a carol. This is followed by another spoken work extract from another Elizabethan pamphlet about morris dancing. The next piece is from a village called Brimfield in Hereforshire. Then dances from shropshire, Much Wenlock and Brosely. There is a reference from puritans at Much Wenlock about Morris dancing and two border tunes on bagpipes from Worcestershire. The whole thing is performed on a variety of instruments including fiddle, bagpipes, accordian and whistle. And the final part of "Rattlebone" concludes with a rousing stick dance with instruments including electric guitar and drums."Ploughjack" continues the same sort of presentation with a "bird dance" and more narration and music reminding us that the Hi ninny now nee chant was meant to simulate the sound of the "nags". Then after another dance there is a spoken word account by a William Palmer about the Molly Dance on Plough Monday. After that two more dances and then plough play quotes to the sound of bagpipes. Finally there is the broom dance, the cottage hornpipe and Morris dances.Molly dancing is most associated with Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany. Tradition has it that as a way of filling the gap between Christmas and the start of the Spring ploughing season, the ploughboys would tour around the village landowners, offering to dance for money. Those who refused would be penalised in various ways. (Trick or Treat has its roots here).Border Morris are local dances from villages along the English side of the Wales-England border in the counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. They are part of the Morris dance tradition and usually done in winter for fun and a bit of money. There were different variations from place to place. The common features are the short sticks and sometimes a stick and handkerchief version of the same dance, also usually a high single step akin to the local country dance step. Molly dancing is a form of English Morris dance, traditionally done by out of work ploughboys in midwinter in the 19th century By the 1930s these traditions were almost lost. But thanks to Cecil Sharp and folk song collectors and subsiquent "folk revivalists" much has been saved. There has been a moderate Morris dance revival.This glorious album celebrates these traditions and it will be interesting to anyone who likes Traditional English Folk music. It is an unusual album but one that is rich in sound and texture and a tribute to its subject matter.