In 1967, Shirley Collins was most famous for her 1964 Folk Roots, New Roots, which was an exploration of traditional folk music with guitarist Davey Graham. With her own banjo she had also recorded two albums in the late 1950s and a 1963 EP, but it was by teaming up with sister Dolly Collins that she was able to move into her prime as a singer of the most beautiful traditional songs.Dolly, via research into traditional instruments, came up with a pipe organ with the air electrically pumped in to accompany shirley’s deep, beautiful voice to greater power than possible with stringed accompaniment on “All Things Are Quite Silent”, “Spencer the Rover” and “The Streets of Derry”, all of which sound much darker than her work with Graham. Her throaty vocals are an amazing contrast to Anne Briggs’ (equally good) rendition of that song, and “Brigg Fair” compensates for the marginally slight “The Cruel Mother” and “Polly Vaughan” where Collins shows she is not Hedy West at accompanying herself on the banjo. “Higher Germanie”, however, is so stark that its beauty outdoes any rendition of that song, and “Down in Yon Forest” is really otherworldly with shirley taking on a less throaty tone, whilst the classic singing of “The Magpie’s Nest” is remarkably sensual and so personal as if Shirley really was in the woods along the river.Collins’ 1963 EP “Heroes in Love” is included in the middle of this reissue of “The Sweet Primeroses” and is spare, dreamy and dark, notably on the dulcimer-based “Locks and Bolts”, which despite its title is a classically romantic ballad.All in all “The Sweet Primeroses” was a major part of Shirley Collins’ development into the masterpieces of The Power of the True Love Knot and the incomparable Anthems in Eden. There are a few miss-steps, but the best parts are wonderful.