CD Reviews - Odd Collection

"On the exceptional Odd Collection, Peggy offers up 18 original songs - and one spoken word performance - that reveal her to be a perspicacious commentator on both personal and political issues and a gifted composer, lyricist and singer . . . While I'd be hard pressed to come up with a weak song in this bunch, I will call attention to a few of the best. 'It's a Free World' is a hilarious tale of a woman's direct action in reforming an unrepentant smoker from imposing his toxins on everybody else . . . 'Old Friend' is a moving tribute to the late Ralph Rinzler, on which Peggy's guitar and voice are backed up by the autoharp and harmonies of her brother Mike . . . A couple of the songs speak directly to Peggy's own family life. 'On This Very Day' celebrates the common date on which she met her husband and partner - the late Ewan MacColl - and on which their son got married 38 years later. 'Lost' lays bare the emotions that Peggy felt at MacColl's death."

Mike Regenstreif, Sing Out! Vol. 41 no. 2

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"The muse who inspired Ewan MacColl's 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' has produced a body of work that is unparalleled in its vehemence and remains a fountain of inspiration in a sea of bogus political correctness. Many of her songs are genuinely, sometimes uncomfortably, challanging and with all but four of the 19 songs hitherto unreleased, An Odd Collection delivers an abundance of themes, ranging from a tribute to the folklorist Ralph Rinzler to wife-battering. Easy listening this is not but, if difficult, it is difficult only in a stirring sense."

Ken Hunt, Q Magazine, London, England