Can you dig it? Win a free CD!

A departure from the books this month, how about some music to listen to while you garden?  Can You Dig It? is a CD by Jo Stephenson and Dan Woods, self-described as “two of the UK’s worst allotment holders” who immortalise their gardening exploits and frustrations in song.

Can You Dig It are based in London but as yet don’t seem to have made it this far south yet, with “Tour Dates” over the next few months taking them around village halls from Leicester to County Durham. But if you like the sound of what they do you can listen to some of their songs on their website, or you can enter this month’s prize competition and win their CD!  Absolutely free – all you need to do is write a short poem or limerick about Allotments or gardening – we’ll publish them on the website – and our favourite gets the CD.

You don’t need to write much – I picked up these from their twitter feed as examples:

Tomatoes are red. Potatoes are white. Mine have gone black. Do you think I have blight?

Violets are blue. Roses are red. Here comes an aphid! My roses are dead.

Or perhaps the limerick is more your genre?  Or maybe a Haiku – whatever it is – start sending them in! The winner will be decided at our AGM on March 19th.

Anyway – back to the review:

About the CD: A professional looking cd with 16 songs – all with a distinctly horticultural theme. The music could best be described as “gentle comedy folk”, and features Jo on the ukelele and vocals and Dan on accordian and vocals. Styles range from Country to rap via music hall and more!

The Good: The lyrics are definitely the king here. There will be something everyone can identify with from To whoever stole my Giant Marrow, and Rap Battle – Gardener vs Slug, to my favourite Shove off John – the story of the plotholder next door who’s always got a better crop. “He thinks he is being nice, when he gives me all that advice. When I hear his familiar cough, can’t help wishing John would shove off….”.  Oh haven’t we all been there!

Music with clever, witty or silly lyrics always gets me, and I can imagine they put on an excellent show peppered with their stories and anecdotes that gave them the inspiration for their songs. There’s a bit of something for everyone from the dreamy soft rock love song Alan “You were fiddling with a water feature, all I knew is that I wanted to meet ya, and gaze into your crinkly eyes, though I’d have to bend down cos you’re half my size” (can you guess who she’s talking about?” to Greenfingers (the man with the fertile touch),the James Bond parody.

The Bad: Well this isn’t going to be your thing if you are a music snob – not that they don’t play well, but this is about character and comedy more than musical genius.

The Ugly: Corny (no pun intended!), and not the sort of thing to play to get people dancing at your next house party.

Overall if you like your gardening and you like a little bit of silly surreality I reckon you’ll like Can You Dig it? The CD is £12 and can be purchased direct from their website.

If you like them let me know – you never know we might manage to persuade them to come down to Brighton to entertain us!

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