Hey Hey Hippy Witch is an articulate, thoughtful collection of songs that features O’Donnell’s mature and powerful voice framed in a varied and melodic set of musical frameworks that are both contemporary and classic. The songs avoid lyrical cliché and, like the best albums, Hey Hey Hippy Witch creates a vivid and real alternative landscape that is engaging and informed by an ethereal atmosphere that is of its own. Just as the songs are lyrically original, musically the album draws on a variety of unusual textures – touches of sitar, deft tonal colourings of Hammond organ, elements of funk guitar – all bleed into the patina to add atmosphere and grain to O’Donnell’s unusual lyrical forays.
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The story of this release goes back to a brief exchange between Owl Service main man Steven Collins and Alison O'Donnell (of the legendary Irish prog-folk group Mellow Candle) on a social networking website in the Spring of 2007. "The Fabric of Folk" is a collision between two ages of folk-rock; Alison was intrigued by the sound of The Owl Service, Steven had been in awe of "Swaddling Songs" for many years and so a collaboration seemed inevitable. "Fabric..." contains two original Collins/O'Donnell compositions (one with lyrics penned by Dominic Cooper of the Straw Bear Band), a short instrumental interlude, and two traditional reworkings. The original songs bookend the EP in perfect fashion and Alison's treatment of the traditional material in between is masterful. From the ominous opening track "The Wooden Coat" to the epic finale "The Fabric of Life", the listener is taken on a journey through themes of life and death, all handled with a pathos and poignancy so rarely heard in modern folk music. "A Fabric of Folk" was released on CD by Static Caravan and on vinyl in February 2009 by Midwich Records.

O'Donnell's naturally otherworldly delivery allows her to pick up Drake’s haunting and sentimental 'Day Is Done' and make it her own;
…the almost inimitable Nico's 'Frozen Warnings' is positively dripping with icy darkness that fills the grim but somehow mellow depths of the piece with more superb vocalisation set against the drone of Cale-esque tones and timings.
O'Donnell can hold her head high in the knowledge that she did herself and Drake and Nico proud with her scintillating versions of their songs.
Pete Brown aka Toxic Pete

…a brace of remarkable re-appraisals, whose intention it seems is to have you all a swoon…a caressing ghostly hue woven from the subtle dash of softly shimmering and hauntingly hushed psyche intonations …captures perfectly the fragile almost chilling monochrome appeal of the original and frames it within a darkly hollowing ethereal soft psyche folk mantra like bewitchment that's both statuesque in deliverance and enchantingly epic in appearance. Indescribably essential.
Mark at Losing Today

…a more powerful rendition of the original without losing any of the feel lyrically that does no harm at all to Nick Drake's, or for that matter, Alison O'Donnell's continuing legacy…
…takes Nico's stark message and drops the temperature further with an intense and hypnotic performance…Quite harrowing…Nico would have loved this!
Nick Leese at Heyday Mail Order, London

Icy stuff!
Stuart Maconie BBC Radio 6 'Freakzone'

…adds an extra darkness and starkness to the already tragic originals…if you think Alison O'Donnell's best work is behind her - think again.
Rough Trade, London

…genuine, black, shimmering and positively medieval in its menace. Winter bleak...Drake is generally pure class and this is a cover that adds lustre…the fractured oscillations wrapped by sneaky percussion makes it all something that a sinister Syd Barrett would be doing for his dominatrix.
Unpeeled

"deliciously haunting"
Fran Ashcroft, Happybeat Studios