Exploring human stories and the musical history of the South West Coast Path, Saltlines is a vibrant collaboration between music and prose.
About Saltlines
Saltlines is a musical and poetic odyssey created by folk supergroup The Gigspanner Big Band and author Raynor Winn. Through rejuvinated folk music and original prose, it reaches into the rich and visceral history of the South West Coast to celebrate the area’s beauty and enduring traditions.
After Raynor Winn’s memoir The Salt Path emerged, the band approached her with an idea for a collaboration:
They had a suggestion… Their wonderful reimagining of traditional songs and tunes collected from the South West Coast Path, alongside some new words from me... How could I turn down the chance to work with names that light up the folk music world?
Raynor’s memoir recounted her journey along the South West Coast Path with her husband, Moth. The team felt that there were still more stories to be told from this historic and evocative part of the world. The well-trodden trail inevitably held other tales of loss, love and the natural world. The legendary music collector Cecil Sharp had travelled this path, gathering traditional songs of the South West. He captured songs that would have otherwise died out due to the fading of oral traditions in a post-industrial Britain.
Compositions in Saltlines are created from a mix of these traditional tunes and brand-new songs performed alongside soundscapes, spoken word prose, and poetry. The combination of storytelling and music lightly touches on social and environmental issues that face not only coastal communities but the world at large. It is a modern piece, thoughtfully and creatively delivered.
The Gigspanner Big Band
Formed by legendary Steeleye Span fiddle player Peter Knight, Gigspanner Big Band appeals to folk traditionalists and those with more experimental tastes alike. It features some of the most celebrated names on the British folk scene. The band began life as a trio, with Knight alongside percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack. They were then joined by multi-instrumental duo Edgelarks, Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin, as well as Bellowhead co-founder and melodeon extraordinaire, John Spiers. From then, they became the Gigspanner Big Band.
The group perform original music that is embedded in traditional folk sounds from around the British Isles. They are a celebrated and reknowned band that manages to balance new, energised sounds whilst maintaining beloved well-known tunes.
Before Saltlines: Raynor Winn and The Salt Path
In 2013 life was suddenly upended for Raynor and Moth Winn when they found themselves in a position they never imagined. Their family home and everything they owned was gone, thanks to a bad business deal, and there was tragic uncertainty surrounding Moth’s health. He had been diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease and given a prognosis of just a few years left to live.
These events led them on an epic, sometimes fraught, journey. Raynor decided they would walk the 630-mile route of the South West Coast Path, with some scant possessions, a tent and two thin sleeping bags. The ruggedly beautiful South West coast became their new home. Over two summers the couple made the trek from Minehead in Somerset around the Devonshire and Cornish coast, to Poole in Dorset.
Perceptions of Homelessness
The journey was not without difficulties. Their lack of resources placed the couple in a precarious position. Raynor soon discovered that in rural areas homelessness is more obscured and hidden but still very real. And the lack of visibility for homeless people in rural areas means the prejudice is brutal. They found that when people discovered they were homeless the couple were immediately perceived differently. When talking to the Guardian, Raynor said:
When you’re passing people on the path, inevitably you exchange a few words: where have you come from; are you going far? When we said we were going a long way, people would say: how come you’ve got so much time to walk so far? Initially, we’d say it was because we were homeless, we had nowhere to go. And they would physically recoil, draw the dog in on a retractable lead, gather the children.
She recounted tales of being physically and verbally harassed by members of the public. These strangers had made negative assumptions about them based on their appearance and their status as homeless people. It was something that diminished their sense of self and damaged their morale. However, the couple devised ways to deal with these negative interactions and get through the pain together. Soon, Raynor realised that what kept her going was the fact they were together.
Finding Home
Raynor has discussed how some situations they were in could have been gloomy and depressing – such as reaching Land’s End in awful weather. But the freedom of their journey, their newfound connection to nature, and their strength as a team were incredibly liberating. She felt like she had become part of something much larger and more important than having a roof over her head:
The wind affects the water, and the clouds … it’s like one big whole, and after being in it for a while I knew I was part of that big circular movement of molecules.
Where Raynor had previously thought of ‘home’ in the traditional sense, she now thought entirely differently. ‘Home’ wasn’t a space enclosed by walls, they had found their home in each other – in each other’s company, strength and love. As long as she was with Moth, she knew she was home.
The Salt Path
After their journey ended, Raynor wrote an article about their walk for The Big Issue, then wrote a memoir. It was to serve as a reminder to herself, and to Moth as his memory fades, of their inspirational journey together. Eventually, the memoir was published and became a best-selling, award-winning book. Their story has now been turned into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, which is due to be released later this year. It was thanks to Raynor’s poetic and epic account of their journey that she was put on the Gigspanner Big Band’s radar. From there, Saltlines has emerged and continues to take audiences by storm.
Saltlines will be at Worthing Pavilion for one night only, Tuesday 28th May before continuing their tour. Book now to be mesmerised and captivated by this evocative piece.
Q&A with Raynor Winn
We’re looking forward to bringing Saltlines to Worthing – so much of the show talks of our connection to the sea and I’m sure it will resonate strongly with the Worthing audience. Personally, this will be my first time in Worthing, so I’m hoping to squeeze in a walk down the pier and a quick tour of Cissbury Ring.
Saltlines has a powerful originality. By weaving music and song from the southwest with poetic storytelling, we take audiences on a very special journey – through the themes of nature and heritage, love and loss. It’s quite a stunning evening and something not to be missed.
Just days after we were served with an eviction notice from our home of 20 years, my husband Moth was diagnosed with a terminal illness. As we were about to leave our home for the last time, I saw a book in a packing case – a book about walking the South West Coast Path. In that awful moment, as we were about to become homeless, the idea of filling a rucksack and just walking seemed like the most obvious thing to do. The Salt Path is the story of that 630-mile walk and of the months we spent living wild on the headlands of the Coast Path.
Deborah Knight, Peter’s wife and manager of the band, had read The Salt Path and realised that such an enigmatic stretch of land and coastline must have inspired many musical compositions. The Band picked up the idea, exploring the musical history through resources such as Cecil Sharpe House, finding songs and pieces of music that originated from the southwest – some well-known, others long forgotten, but all drawing a thread of connection from the past to the future. Then they got in touch, asking me to join them by creating new words drawn from my own experience of that landscape. When you’re invited to collaborate with such diverse talented musicians as Gigspanner Big Band, you can’t possibly say no.
As an author I mostly work alone, so to work alongside the band in the development of Saltlines has given me a rare experience of artistic community and collaboration – a space in which to learn and grow. But to watch this group of musicians take a traditional song and lift it into the present, to transform it until it speaks of generations past and ones yet to come, through an almost unspoken passion and understanding of the music itself – well, that’s been the greatest privilege.
Writing prose for stage performance was a new experience for me, having previously written mainly in long form. Finding expression in a few lines rather than chapters made me think in completely different ways – artistically it was a challenge, but unexpectedly liberating. For the band the challenge was to combine words and music to create a completely immersive audio journey – something they’ve done, seamlessly.
It’s not very often that you have Gillian Anderson round for tea, or show her how to pack a tent, while Jason Isaacs sits on your worktop eating your burnt homemade scones. Surreal is a very over-used word, but in this case, I don’t think there’s any other word for it!
We do a sound check late afternoon, and then everyone does their own thing. The band are incredible professionals with the confidence of long careers as performing artists – for me it’s a completely different matter! I drink a lot of tea, run up and down the stairs, go for a walk, talk to strangers in the street, anything I can to keep the nerves at bay and my mind off the coming performance!
That would have to be on the first tour, when we performed at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall – an outdoor theatre cut into the cliffs just below the Coast Path, in the far west of the county. Saltlines speaks of the very essence of the coastline, so to perform it as the setting sun turned the sea into a myriad of colours, accompanied by the sound of waves breaking on the cliffs below and the gulls circling overhead, was perfect. Towards the end of the evening, as Hannah was singing her beautiful new Salt Song, it felt as if we were still walking the headlands with our rucksacks and had just stopped for one magical moment on the cliff – as if that journey had never quite ended. It was an unforgettable night.
Find the core of what you’re trying to express, but don’t tell me about it. Show me it in such a way that I can experience it with you – let me inhabit your space and feel what you feel.
Audiences have talked of leaving the show feeling ‘mesmerised’ and ‘transported’. I’d like them to leave Saltlines with a feeling that stays with them – the sense that part of them will always be walking ‘under a sun that’s always warm, by a sea that’s always blue, through air thick with salt…..’