We are fairly shy when it comes to talking about ourselves, so would like to put a couple of truly kind reviews here for you to read and get to know us better.

Secret Eye is a label you can trust to release excellent albums and when
they released the first album by ‘The Big Huge’ in 2004, I bought it without
hesitation. The band’s name taken from the album by Incredible String Band
implied a connection to folk deeper than some new artists. Whereas many new artists are following an experimental route, The Big Huge make excellent traditional sounding folk with very slight psychedelic touches. They are a
band who deserve far more attention and will endure when fashions move on
from the ‘new folk’ phase we have now.   Their first album was reviewed here
and found to be a fantastic example of how to make a traditional folk sound in a contemporary way.

Hearing the first song ‘Will I Follow You To The Sea’ the listener is
charmed immediately with an Irish sounding vocal over soft chiming guitar
and dulcimer and accordion. It is beautiful, simple acoustic music with an
air of wonderment and joy. There is a quiet generation of similar artists
not worried about fashions making music with similar love of simple folk be
it The Kitchen Cynics, The Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree, Daniel Patrick
Quinn , Josephine Foster  and many others.

In particular fans of the Deserted Village Collective would find a huge
amount to enjoy here and it should surely be an essential purchase, one
you’ll return to more than some formless experimental noodling. It is a
short release of about twenty minutes, it flashes by and is gone far too
quickly. It would be wonderful to hear a full-extended set from them. But
there is more passion and talent here than on many a seventy-minute release.

Many people connected to the delirious acoustic folk in The Wicker Man
because it seemed so ancient and stark, connecting to a way of living that
was lost. That same feeling is evoked here, that intuitive understanding of
nature and our connection to it infuses the songs. ‘Wrapped In The Cloth Of
Heaven’ is a simple and refeshing direct acoustic folk song whilst ‘A
Crickets Call Came One and All’ is a stepping mountain tune. ‘The Ballad of
North Haywood’ for example brings together a lullaby melody with a fantastic
performance and provides an example of the band’s quality. It is music such
as this which drew me to folk music and keeps my faith in it as strong as
always.

Afterwards we come to ‘A Subtle Tune’ with its toy glockenspiel melody, then
ever closer to traditional folk in a vibrant form on ‘Weep Not Wandering
Willow’ and the final James Yorkston-like accordion folk of ‘North Country’.
This is music that manages the alchemy of being more than the sum of its
parts, from only a few instruments on a few short songs, a joyous magic is
communicated.

-The Unbroken Circle

Micah Blue Smaldone has recorded at the Cerberus Shoal house a wonderful
moody recording of this duo. This sound is a perfect and suitable ballad
like music, for a kind of unique warm sphere during an evening in a nice
folk bar. Drew Nelson plays guitar, dulcimer and sings and is accompanied by
Michael Lambright, accordion, ukulele and glockenspiel. The label describes
this as the American answer to Alasdair Roberts which gives indeed some clue of what I mean. An improvement since the debut, and a perfect listen.

-Psychedelicfolk.com

Artists such as Devendra Banhart and Josephine Foster are very busy with the rediscovery of British folk from the sixties. In that period for example
Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins’ beautiful work  has been brought out and
until recently it  seemed as if this period of music history was almost
forgotten. The Big Huge has been clearly influenced by the music from this
period and especially by the Incredible String Band. On a Woven Page of
Silver Light you will hear substantial effects of these links. The name The
Big Huge has been even borrowed from one of their albums.

The voice of Drew Nelson proves to be very well arranged for this music.
Dulcimer, banjo, accordion and ukelele make the sound complete. ` A Crickets Call Come One and All ' and ` a Subtle Tune ' especially makes the link of all those influences really its own sound. The Big Huge takes you along the path to times in which living was simple. After seven numbers it has however unfortunately expired and leaves you with both legs in the 21st century.

-Kinda Muzik

This band of three members is from Baltimore in the US but has on the whole a distinctly English folk sound. Perhaps this is to be expected as their band name is of course drawn from the excellent album of the same name by The Incredible String Band from 1968. This Incredible String Band reference is carried forward too into the music which is simple but effect folk song with some psychedelic elements occasionally woven in.

'Lows at the Highland Game' starts with bell chimes before a moodily atmospheric acoustic guitar refrain which leads us into the quite gorgeous guitars and vocal of 'Harbor To A Hill'. We have here direct folk song of the highest order, reminding of the simpler Dr Strangely Strange songs. The sound is very specifically English which is surprising given the band are from the US. 'Sweetest Lily' is a stark scrubbed banjo song with a wonderful melody. 'Slumbering Lioness' uses accordion drones that brings us towards James Yorkston's sound whose fans would enjoy this album greatly. Melodically the shifts between notes in the lead vocal hint back to the Incredible String Band influence.

There is a feeling of playing in a garden, delicate and part of the air on the next 'Autumnal Hymn'. After a solo vocal 'Bonnie Boy' we go into accordion and acoustic instrumental 'A Lofty Hill, A Shady Nook'. Next 'Dogwood and Sky' is again a vocal song with clapped hands and a sustained air of expectation. 'Atop A Secret Mountain' has musical percussion and a song that really does sound like late period Nick Drake without being slavish to that great artist, indeed it sounds like Dulcimer of the late 60s. Penultimate song 'Willie of Winsbury' is a traditional song also done in the last couple of years by Kate Rusby here done starkly on banjo. 'A Fond Farewell' rounds off the album nicely with an instrumental restatement of one of the musical themes on the album and then a vocal song which bids us farewell.

This has a been a very soft, exploratory album that has strong performances and one the band can build even further upon for subsequent releases. It's a great discovery and one of the more directly folk releases of the recent era. They deserve your support.

Reviewed by Mark Coyle
-The Unbroken Circle

The Big Huge weaves a stark folk pop spell on "Crown Your Head With Flowers, Crown your Heart With Joy," a bittersweet confessional of home spun acoustic pop that's worthy of comparison to Neutral Milk Hotel, Will Oldham and sounds a lot better than Bright Eyes. I mean Mr. Oburst no harm. I just think there’s something dramatically wrong when my elder father calls me up asking me if I’ve heard the new Bright Eyes, saying “it’s like Dylan gone flake!” I quickly set the old man straight and got off a copy of this sad warm folk pop confessional and reminded him that emotional directness and heartfelt songcraft doesn’t have to grate the senses. Especially on the second half Drew Nelson and his trio weave some truly poetic folk pop magic from guitar, banjo, dulcimer, ukulele, recorder, accordion and more. Tracks like “Atop a Secret Mountain” and the epic story-folk of “Willie of Winsbury” will stay with you long after their vibrations fade. Speaking of the next Dylan… 8/10

Reviewed by LJ
-Foxy Digitalis