English folk music and the lute have been intimately bound up for as far back as anyone can determine and while solo lute music is filled with settings (some intricate, some simple) of folksongs and ballad tunes there are very few old vocal settings. There is a strong modern tradition (started by Alfred Deller) of performing folksongs to the lute in falsetto voice but why should countertenors have all the fun? Our idea was to look back to the 17th century when Charles II mistress Moll Davis' performance of "My lodging is on the cold ground" "raised her resting place from the cold ground to the royal bed" and Arabella Hunt sang Scots ballads with lute accompaniment to Queen Mary.