U3A Banner

Folk Roots Tracks

Feb 2020

 

ARTIST/S

 

 

SONG

 

CD

 

NOTES

 

Christy Moore

Well Below the Valley

Live at the Point

Traditional, Child 21, alt version the Maid and the Palmer.

References to incest & infanticide, the woman is usually blamed ….

O’Hooley and Tidow

Gentleman Jack

The Fragile

Theme song for drama of same name on BBC TV 2019 about early C19th Yorkshire lesbian gentlewoman. She was called gentleman Jack by residents of Halifax.

Maddie Southorn

The Murder of Maria Marten

The Pilgrim Soul

One of the most popular murder ballads in the English tradition, based on true story of the murder in the Red Barn, which caused a public sensation in 1827/28.

Rhiannon Giddens & Dirk Powell

Julie/Freedom Highway CD

Celtic Colours International Festival here

Album inspired by book The Slaves’ War by Andrew Ward.

The Union Army is about to liberate a plantation during the Civil War.

Fairport Convention

The Hanging Song

Babbacombe Lee

1971 concept album following life story of John Lee, a servant convicted of killing his employer. But the gallows failed 3 times and the death sentence was never carried out.

Granny’s Attic

The Highwayman

Wheels of the World

Roud 490. Song found in various forms and under numerous titles, but in all cases celebrates the life of the rogue highwayman.

Tom Russell

Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall

Wounded Heart of America

2007 album. Referrence to George W. Bush era attempts to erect fence along US/Mexico border.

The Askew Sisters

Goose and Common

Enclosure

Shortened version of traditional C17th protest song against enclosures of common land in England. Hazel’s tune and Emily added cello part.

Malinky

Billy Taylor

Handsel

Roud 158, alternative titles (e.g. Bold William) and versions by many . Should really be called after the woman who initiates all the action ! Pages of notes on Mainly Norfolk…

June 2018

TRACK NAME

ARTIST

Billy O’Shea

Fisherman’s Friends

Down in the dandelions

Siobhan Miller

Listen to the grass grow

Seckou Keita & Catrin Finch

A place called England

The Young ‘Uns

London Blues

Ferris & Sylvester

Fergie McCormack

Daiori Farrell

Windward away

Julie Fowlis

Iraq

Mary Gauthier

House in the country

The Albion Band

Jacku

Rumillajta

On Raglan road

Sinead O’Connor

The boy in the gap

Martin Hayes Quartet

Time has told me

Joan Shelley

Prodigal son

Martin Simpson

 

Feb 2018

ARTIST/S

SONG

CD

NOTES

David Jones

Us Poor Fellows

From England’s Shore

Also included in ‘The Transports – 2004’

Sung by Henry Cabell Snr

Joel Griffiths

The Robber’s Song

‘The Transports – 2004’.

Sung by Abe Carmen, who has chosen crime as his career

Martin Carthy

The Humane Turnkey 1 & 2

Peter Bellamy’s ‘The Transports – 1977’.

A humane jailer makes sure that Susannah, her baby, and Henry Cabell are reunited and not separated when Susannah is transported

Cyril Tawney

Roll Down

Peter Bellamy’s ‘The Transports – 1977’.

Shanty telling the story of the voyage from Plymouth to Botany Bay

Sam Kelly

Little Sadie

The Lost Boys

Well-known American song, reworked many times, some versions going back to early C20th.

Here it’s an upbeat rocker about a senseless murder…

Cara Dillon

Hill of Thieves

Hill of Thieves

Original song, by Cara and Sam Lakeman.

Refers to Glenshane in N Ireland, named after a (? Jacobite) outlaw who became a notorious highway robber in C17th

Maddy Prior, Hannah James & Giles Lewin

Lock the Door Larriston

3 for Joy

Lyrics by James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, song from the English/Scottish border, about the lawless centuries of the Border Reivers and their robbing and burning.

Show of Hands

The Bristol Slaver

Dark Fields

The Captain of a slave ship sings of his crimes. An African point of view is presented towards the end of the song.

Johnny Cash

Folsom Prison Blues

Johnny Cash with his Hot and Blue Guitar

Combination of  ‘the train song’ with ‘the prison song’.

Another senseless murder .

Faustus

Prentice Boy

Broken Down Gentlemen

Upbeat version of a traditional song (Roud 263). Original version  thought to be a broadside from late C17th called The Wittam Miller.

Cruel murder of a young pregnant woman, other versions The Oxford Girl, The Butcher Boy, Hanged Shall I Be.

Emily Smith

The Cruel Mother

A Day Like Today

Also known as Greenwood Sidey, the Lady of York – Roud 9.Seems to be of Scottish origins, Roud knew of 325 versions !

Old Blind Dogs

The Bonnie Earl o’Moray

Four on the Floor

Popular Scottish ballad, perhaps dating from C17th. Child ballad 181.

Based on the true story of the murder in 1592 of this popular Earl by his rival Huntly (who wasn’t punished by the King, James V1 of Scotland).

Terry Lehns

The Ballad of Glencoe

Far Away From Home

Written in 1963 by Jim McLean about the Massacre of 1692

Nina Simone

I Shall be Released

To Love Somebody

Dylan song covered by many artists, influenced by Gospel music and ides about being released from sin.

Lucie Jones & Seth Lakeman

The Ballad of Midsomer County

Digital single 2015, later CD from TV series Midsomer Murders, and on video

Vocals by Lucie, music by Seth.

Role reversal here !

Faustus

While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping

Death and other Animals

Version of Roud 363,  ‘a well loved and often sung country song’.

Also sung by June Tabor, a very English song.

 

Dec 2017

SONG

ARTIST

CD

Sandra

All on a Winter’s Night

Johnny Coppin

All on a Winter’s Night

Jill

The Snows

John Renbourn and Robin Williamson

Wheel of Fortune

Fran

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Simon and Garfunkel

Bookends

Debbie

Winter Singing

Imagined Village

Bending the Dark

Sue

Scotland’s Winter

Siobhan Miller

Flight of Time

Mike

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

John Fahey

Video Clip

David

Hinge of the Year

Emily Portman

Hatchlings

Sandra

Boar’s Head Carol

John Kirkpatrick

Carols and Crumpets

Jill

Winter/Tourdion

Emily Askew Band

Alchemy

Fran

Down in Yon Forest

Barbara Dickson

Debbie

Cold Haily Windy Night

Imagined Village

Bending the Dark

Sue

Winter

Hilary James and Simon Mayor

Mike

On a Christmas Day

Leadbelly

Video Clip

David

The Parting Glass

Emily Smith

Songs for Christmas

Nov 2017

Oct 2017

Sept 2017

PLAYLIST NO

ARTISTE

SONG

ALBUM

NOTES

1

Mawkin

I can hew

The ties that bind

The Mawkin website reads:

“With a host of rebel rousing folk songs and instrumentals the band modernise traditional folk material with their own touchand have since excited audiences with their artillery of loud, boisterous, foot stomping live sets. Critics of the album suggested that Mawkin might fill the ‘Bellowhead shaped hole’ so it seemed only natural to support them on their farewell tour of 2016 amongst a flurry of key festivals and UK tour dates.“

2

Jake Bugg

Lightning Bolt

Jake Bugg

Jake Bugg is only 23 – he took the late Sunday afternoon slot and played with just his guitar.

His main influences are Don McLeanOasisDonovanThe BeatlesJimi HendrixJohnny Cash, and the Everly Brothers; he also says  that the American heavy metal band Metallica was a huge influence. On 28 June, Bugg performed an afternoon set on the Pyramid Stage at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival, making him the first artist that has moved from the BBC Introducing Stage to the Main Pyramid stage in successive years

3

Loudon Wainwright III

I had a dream

single

Try and get on YouTube. LW says

“Initially I didn’t want to write a song about Donald Trump but, sometimes, in the course of human events, things get so weird that you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, especially if the horse has a real mouth on him”

4

Oysterband

A river runs

Diamonds on the Water 2014

The band formed under the name Oyster Ceilidh Band and played purely as a dance band at first. The name Oyster comes from the group's early association with the coastal town of Whitstable in East Kent, known for the quality of its oysters.

5

Sharon Shannon

Blackbird

A woman’s heart

Sharon Shannon is at the head of a list of Irish musicians spearheading a broadening of traditional music horizons. Thoroughly versed in Irish music, she has not been afraid to mix different styles into her playing.

This one’s an instrumental.

6

Beoga

Dolans6a.m

How to tune a fish

This one’s also an instrumental.  `Beoga’s sound is firmly rooted in the Irish traditional genre. Beoga made their Glastonbury debut on Sunday night as they joined Ed Sheeran on stage during his headlining set. The five-piece have previously collaborated with the award-winning singer on his latest album 'Divide' - producing two tracks with the star, Nancy Mulligan and Galway Girl.

7

Fay Hield and the Hurricane Party

The Lover’s Ghost

Orfeo 2012

Fay is also a lecturer in Ethnomusicology and Music Management at the University of Sheffield. She assembled The Full English Band, pulling together half a dozen of the top talents on the English folk music circuit for an evening of songs and tunes drawn from these unique collections. They include legendary players Seth LakemanMartin SimpsonNancy KerrSam SweeneyRob Harbron and double bassist Ben Nicholls.

Her longstanding band, The Hurricane Party, expands to include members of The Full English, including fiddle, concertina, banjo, guitar, percussion and bass

8

Lau

Save the bees

Race the Loser

Lau is a British folk band from both Scotland and England, formed in 2005. Named after an Orcadian word meaning "natural light", the band is composed of Kris Drever (guitar, vocals), Martin Green (accordion, piano, electronics) and Aidan O'Rourke (fiddle). To date, the band has released four studio albums and a live album. Their arrangements constantly leap and dip in unexpected contours, with sharp mood swings and subtle nods to rock, jazz improvisation and other areas beyond the beyond.

9

The Eskies

Fever

After the sherry went round

A folk quintet from Dublin, The Eskies have done things the traditional way; hitting the road in a clapped-out van in search of adventure, playing countless shows around Ireland and Europe. They've been surprising audiences with their witty lyrics, banter, and a quirky, quizzical, frolicking approach to songwriting. It's one that joyfully marries 1920’s woodwind interludes with guitar feedback, and jailhouse memorandums that refuse the salvation of the lord. “After many years of deliberation we've settled on a description of us as 'sea-soaked gypsy-folk' but you really have to listen for yourself”

10

Frank Turner

The next storm

Positive songs for negative people

From East Meon – now 36

He spent eight years building a cult following on the back of his earnest folk-punk rebel songs (covering such topics as atheism, drinking himself half to death and the emancipating power of rock'n'roll), To me it’s debatable whether Frank Turner is “folk” – he says that punk was more of an influence on him. 

Whatever- he was a very enjoyable act, standing in for Olivia Newton John (???).

“You’re the one that I love” got everyone joining in

11

Bokante

Zye Ouve, Zye Feme

Strange circles

They are a newly-formed international music ensemble. Rich in the sound of both delta and desert, the unusual but evocative instrumentation blends musical worlds to convey an urgent message of social awareness against the rising tide of exclusion and human indifference. The word bokanté means “exchange” in Creole, the language of vocalist Malika Tirolien’s youth growing up on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Now living in Montreal, she stands among 8 musicians from 4 continents, each one accomplished in their own right .

12

Cara Dillon

The parting glass

Hill of thieves

Born in County Derry in 1975,  Cara has risen to become one of the finest exponents of traditional Irish song anywhere in the world. Possessing a rare and unique voice that has been lauded since her very beginnings winning the All Ireland singing trophy aged only 14. Together with her husband and musical partner, Sam Lakeman, she has successfully steered an eclectic musical path defying the typical pigeonholes that hinder most artists in her genre. Celebrated for entwining traditional and contemporary elements she has earned both commercial success and astonishing critical acclaim. Recent years have seen her return wholeheartedly to her Irish roots creating fresh interpretations of traditional standards with stunning results.

Aug 2017

July 2017

May 2017

Song

Singer

Source

Cluck Old Hen

Andy

Turkey in the Straw

Andy

Corpus Christi Carol

Mara

Images

The Magpie’s Nest

Shirley Collins

Sweet Primroses

The Blackest Crow

Tim O’Brien, Dirk Powell, John Herrman

Songs from the Mountain

White Birds

Altan

The Widening Gyre

The Kookaburra laughs

John Ashe

Australia Our Land, Our Music

What Did the Buzzard say to the Crow?

Hobart Smith

Hobart Smith In Sacred Trust

Echo mocks the Corncrake

Ossian

Ossian

Follow the Heron

Karine Polwart

Scribbled in Chalk

Waxwing

Olivia Cheney

The Longest River

The Necklace of Wrens

The Gloaming

The Gloaming

Little Birdie

Sarah Jarosz

Sing me home Silk Road Ensemble

The Grey Cockerel

Salsa Celtica

Folk Awards 2007

Wild Goose

Kate Rusby

Sleepless

Lark’s march

Martin Hayes

Martin Hayes Under the Moon

Red Kites

Spiers & Boden

Through & Through

April 2017

March 2017

ARTIST/S

SONG

CD

NOTES

Leveret

The Rising Sun

In the Round

Sam Sweeney, Andy Cutting and Rob Habron ‘rediscovering and re-imagining tunes from archive sources…a massage for the ears’.

Bella Hardy

The First Light of the Morning

With the Dawn

A reflective song from this creative and original singer songwriter.

Ben Walker and Josienne Clarke

The Banks of Sweet Primroses

YouTube

Sung live at BBC2 Folk Awards 2015. Traditional song, Roud 586, many versions of lyrics  but tune remains much the same.

Battlefield Band

The Yew Tree

Anthem for the Common Man

Written by Brian McNeill, song about the longevity of the yew tree and the sights it has witnessed.

Martin Green, (Becky Unthanks, Adam Holmes)

Strange Sky

Flit

A collaboration Between Green and many artists including Karine Polwart. Work inspired by experiences of human migration  and refugees around the world. Performed at Celtic Connections 2017.

Julie Fowlis

Blackbird

Cuilidh

Sung here in Scots Gaelic but to commemorate anniversary of Beatles White Album

Emily Portman

Grey Stone

The Glamoury

A haunting song of the natural and supernatural worlds, its focus on the seashore.

The Gloaming

Samhradh, Samhradh

(Summer, Summer)

The Gloaming

Iarla O Lionaird sings of the coming of summer in a reimagined  version of a traditional Irish Song

Drams Ceilidh Band

Strip the Willow

YouTube

A traditional country dance , originating from Scotland.

Tom Russell

Bucking Horse Moon

Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs

Evocative song of a man reflecting on his past life and love in the American West. Full of images from nature.

Show of Hands

The Oak

Best of Show of Hands

Steve Knightley’s lyrics celebrating the oak tree and its important place in our culture

The Full English

Linden Lea

The Full English

Folk-inspired classical music by Vaughan Williams re-absorbed into the folk idiom.

Bob Dylan

Thunder on the Mountain

Modern Times

There had to be one track referring to the wildness of nature, even if metaphorically…

June Tabor & Oysterband

The Leaves of Life

Ragged Kingdom

Roud 127, an English spring time carol ballad referring to the Crucifixion, collected by Cecil Sharp and later Vaughan Williams. Also known as the 7 Virgins.

Jan 2017

VIRTUE

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

Chastity

My Thing is my Own

Isambarde

Living History

A bawdy ballad, from around 1700

Patience

Pledging my Time

Bob Dylan

Blonde on Blonde

A man is willing to wait and hope!

Kindness

Witch of the Westmorelands

Barbara Dickson

From the Beggar’s Mantle

Kind animals help a wounded knight

Temperance

Brightly Beams/Pull for the Shore

Fisherman’s Friends

Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends

Re-working of an old Methodist Hymn

Prudence

Beware, Oh Take Care

The English Country Blues Band

Unruly

Never Trust Men!

Justice

The Sky Above, the Mud Below

Tom Russell and Rambling Jack Elliot

The Wounded Heart of America

Chilling tale of two horse Thieves

Faith

Nsalamo

Namvula

Shivezwa

Song about Namvula’s great-grandmother, sang in the Lenje language

Courage

Jack Crawford

Bob Fox and the Hush

Dark to the Sky

A local hero, who ‘nailed his colours to the mast’!

Humility

Don’t let it Trouble Your Mind

Rhiannon Giddens

Tomorrow is My Turn

An unselfish lady offers to end a relationship

Diligence

Billy Far Out

Andy Irvine and Rens Van Der Zalm

Parachilna

Car trouble!

Charity

King Henry

Steeleye Span

Below the Salt

Can the King meet all the creature’s wishes?

Hope

Pendle Hill

Merry Hell

Blink…and you miss it

Never give up

 


Dec 2016

December 2016 – Songs We Like

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

David

If I Lose

Martin Simpson and Dom Flemons

A Selection of Ever Popular Favourites

American versions of English songs and English versions of American songs

Sue

Little Sadie

Martin Simpson and Dom Flemons

A Selection of Ever Popular Favourites

Mike

It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

Joan Baez

Baez Sings Dylan

She helped kick-start his career and they were briefly lovers.

Fran

First Happiness of The Day

Francoise Hardy

The Real Francoise Hardy

Love song by the French singer-songwriter

Debbie

Song of Welcome

Live

Sung by the staff at camp in West Africa

Malcolm

Ramble Along the Viking Way

David and Julie Everdson

A Ramble On the Viking Way

Sandra

Merrily Kissed the Quaker

Mervyn Mewis

Heartwood

Music played on a handmade hammer dulcimer

David

Manchester’s Improving Daily

Edward the Second

Manchester’s improving Daily

Folk/Reggae version of Manchester broadside ballads

Sue

Painted Lady

Jon Boden

Painted Lady

Solo album

Mike

Si Tu Dois Partir

Fairport Convention

Unhalfbricking

French/Cajun style version of the Bob Dylan song

Debbie

Something in the Ether

Fish and Bird

Something in the Ether

Canadian group

Malcolm

The Fowler

Patti Read

Voices

Version of Molly Bond

Fran

I Never Will Marry

Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt

Simple Dreams

Traditional song with many versions

Sandra

The Wrong Bus

Bob Fox

War Horse

Jez Lowe song set in WW1

David

I Want You

Burma Orchestra Sang Wang

Another world – a Tribute to Bob Dylan

Exotic and unusual! There are two versions of the song on the CD.

Mike

Song To Woody

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

To Woody, Cisco, Sonny & Leadbelly to.

Mike

Tangled Up In Blue

Bob Dylan

Blood On the Tracks

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for Dylan!

 

Nov 2016

Artist

CD

From

Song name

Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabete

BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2006 (1)

Mali

Ai Ga Bani

Femi Kuti

Day by Day

Nigeria

Day by Day

Amadou and Mariam

Dimanche à Bamako

Mali

M’Bifé

Simentera

Essential Guide to  Africa 2

Cape Verde Islands

Oxi Nao

Angelique Kidjo

Logozo

Togo

Sénié

Tony Allen

Awards for World Music

2003 (2)

Nigeria

Eparapo

Fatoumatou Diawara

Fatou

Mali/Cote d’Ivoire

Clandestin

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

Jama Ko

Mali

Moustafa

Nuru Kane

Think Global West Africa unwired

Senegal

Toub

Djeli Moussa Diawara and Bob Brozman

Think Global West Africa unwired

Guinea/USA

Kanun

Dobet Gnahore

The very best of West Africa

Ivory Coast

Youne

Ishmael Lo

The Balladeer

Senegal

Rero

ET Mensah

Rough Guide to West African Gold

Ghana

Ghana Guinea Mali

Kasse Made Diabete with Toumani Diabete

Awards for World Music

2003 (1)

Mali

Fununésaya

Orchestra Baobob

Awards for World Music

2003(2)

Senegal

Jin Ma Jin Ma

King Mensah

Simply World African Moves

Togo

Biova

 

Oct 2016

SEA SONGS

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

Mingulay Boat Song

Richard Thompson

Rogue’s Gallery

Composed originally by Hugh Richardson of Glasgow in 1938 as a choral work

Billy O’Shea

Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends

Proper Job

Pressgang song written by Canadian singer/songwriter Bill Hawkins

Lord Franklin

A.L.Lloyd

Sailors’ songs and Sea Shanties

True story of expedition which disappeared in Baffin Bay in 1845 on search for the North West Passage

Sir Patrick Spens

Martin Simpson

True Stories

Scottish maritime disaster of late 13th century still remembered

Grey Funnel Line

Maddy Prior and June Tabor

Silly Sisters

Song by Cyril Tawney about life in the modern navy

Ballina Whalers

Paul Sartin, Saul Rose, Benji Kirkpatrick

Faustus

Whaling from Australia. Written by Harry Robertson from personal experience

Little Pot Stove

Nic Jones

Penguin Eggs

Freezing existence of the men who maintained the whaling fleet. Also by Harry Robertson

Bonny Ship the Diamond/Egyptian Reggae Medley

Walking With Ghosts

Fresh Handmade Sound : From Source to Sea

Old Scottish song remembering the whaling fleet lost in Melville Bay in 1830

Pay me my money down

Bruce Springsteen

Seeger Sessions

Pay the stevedores before you leave port!

Hog-Eye Man

Martin Carthy

Rogue’s Gallery

Shanty of negro origin about river boatmen in America. Deep-sea sailors added obscene verses, now censored!

John Kanaka

Fisherman’s Friends

One and All

Hawaiian sailors in Pacific all called “Kanaka” (Hawaiian man) as English could not pronounce their names

Essequibo River

Jackie Oates and Belinda O’Hooley

Fresh Handmade Sound ; From Source to Sea

Originally a negro riverboat song. Essequibo River is in Guyana, so the song is probably from West Indies

Coast of High Barbary

Joseph Arthur

Rogue’s Gallery

Song about defeating pirates, sung by American singer-songwriter who performs as a one-man band incorporating looping and distortion techniques.

Lowlands Away

Rufus Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Rogue’s Gallery

Sailors sang about the supernatural, mermaids and ghosts.

Donkey Riding

Great Big Sea

Road Rage

Donkey riding refers to ships being pulled through the Panama Canal by a steam donkey engine

Boston Harbour

The Watersons

Sailors’ Songs and Sea Shanties

Very popular song in 1860’s, with a “Bow Wow” chorus borrowed from a music-hall song

Rolling Down to Old Maui

Todd Rundgren

Son of Rogue’s Gallery

Traditional sea song, about a whaling ship returning to Hawaiian island of Maui after a season in Kamchatka Sea

 

Sept 2016

Track

Song title

Artist

Album

1

Roots

Show of Hands

Witness

2

I Drink

Mary Gauthier

Mercy Now

3

Carey

Joni Mitchell

Blue

4

John Barleycorn

Imagined Village

Imagined Village

5

Three Drunken Maidens

Steeleye Span

Harvest of Gold

6

Moonshiner

Bob Dylan

Bootleg Series V. 1 – 3 1961 -1991

7

Drunken Angel

Lucinda Williams

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

8

Rare Old Mountain Dew

Kick Up The Dust

Heroes Of The Ships

9

Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off

Joe Nichols

III

10

Am I Drinking Enough

Mad Dog Macrea

Sophisticated Hat Manoeuvres

11

All For Me Grog

The Watersons

Early Days

12

WhiskyYou’re The Devil

Bella Hardy

Battleplan

13

Drunken Mouse

Uiscedawr

Everywhere

14

Whiskey Is The Life Of Man

Bellowhead

Pandemonium – The Essential Bellowhead

 

July 2016

June 2016

ARTIST/S

SONG

CD

NOTES

Karen Matheson

Canan Nan Gadheal (Language of the Gaels)

Vol 1 Original Transatlantic Sessions Bain/Ungar

A song to celebrate the survival of the Gaelic language in the lands of the west.

Martin Hayes

The Lark’s March/Kilfenora Jog

Under the Moon

Traditional tune played by Irish fiddle virtuoso.

Karan Casey/James Taylor

The King’s Shilling

Vol 1 Transatlantic Sessions  4 Douglas/Bain

Traditional sounding song written by Scots folk musician Ian Sinclair in the 1970s.

Bella Hardy

The Herring Girl

Songs Lost and Stolen

Song about the lives of the herring girls who were famous for their speed and skill in the fishing industry of 19th and early 20th.

Eliza Carthy and the Ratcatchers

Gallant Hussar

Rough Music

Traditional, from various parts of England. Will there be a happy ending for the Maid and the Hussar ?

Oysterband

A River Runs

Diamonds on the Water

Old Blind Dogs

Lads o the Fair

The Gab o’ Mey

About a traditional fair at Falkirk in Scots English. About the weavers, farmers, peddlars , dames and lassies who travel miles to the fair.

The Full English/Seth Lakeman

Stand by your Guns

The Full English

Traditional/Lakeman. Depicts a battle at sea, played out verse by verse. Text included on broadsides found across the country in 1800s.

Chieftains and Carolina Chocolate Drops Pretty Little Girl with the Blue dress on Voices of Ages Vintage  Appalachian string band music from the Smithsonian archives.
Kathryn Roberts and Kate Rusby The Queen and the Soldier Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts

Version of Suzanne Vega’s song.

Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker Anyone But Me Fire and Fortune

A spurned lover sings a dark yet beautiful song.

Award winning duo at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015
Lynched

Father had a Knife Salonika (anti recruiting song in WW1)

Cold old Fire Dublin band, originally on the punk scene. A semi- nonsense song learnt from a Traveller activist, Jasper Derby Smith. Many versions of the song from 1830s onwards. Performed 2015 on Jools Holland’s Later. Also at Sidmouth 2015.
Nordic Fiddlers Bloc Un-named Shetland Reel Recording made at Shetland Folk Festival 2014 Trio from Sweden, Norway and Shetland

Kathryn Roberts and Sean

Lakeman
Tomorrow will Follow Today Tomorrow will Follow Today Voted best duo in BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2013
The Furrow Collective Hind Horn At Our Next Meeting Many variants of this song in Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Based on medieval romances about the legendary King Horn.

May 2016

 

SONG

ARTIST

CD

Fran

May Song

Martin Carthy

Because it’s There

Down With May

Clype

Clype

Flowers of May

Bella Hardy

Songs Lost and Stolen

Sue

Swinton May Song

Brass Monkey

Folk Awards 2005

May Song

New Scorpion Band

Folksongs and Tunes from the British Isles

Cambridgeshire May Carol

Shirley Collins

The Sweet Prim-Roses

Malcolm

Spring theme

Beethoven

Pastoral Symphony

Spring

Vivaldi

Four Seasons

Sandra

Broomfield Hill

Bellowhead

Hedonism

‘Twas on One April Morning

Show of Hands

The Long Way Home

Padstow

Steeleye Span

Tempted and Tried

Mike

Love and Affection

Joan Armatrading

The Very Best Of

Shake Sugaree

Rhianna Giddings

Tomorrow is my Turn

It Ain’t Me Babe

Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny

David

Summer is a-comin’

Merry Hell

The Ghost in our House and other stories…

Wild Mountain Thyme

Edward II

Zest

Gallop Hey

Oysterband

Before the Flood

 

April 2016

SEASON

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

All Year

Barleycorn

Tim Van Eyken

Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves

An allegory for the farming year

Winter

The Jolly Ploughboy

Sproatly Smith

Times is ‘n’ Times Was

(Download only)

A ploughman’s lot is a happy one

Spring

The Hills of Greenmore

Steeleye Span

Hark!  The Village Wait

A hare hunt

Spring

Summer is Icumen In

Richard Thompson

1000 Years of Popular Music

The Cuckoo brings in the Spring

Spring

I’d Rather be tending My Sheep

The Furrow Collective

At Our Next Meeting

A Shepherdess  looks after her flock

Spring

Searching for Lambs

John Jones

Rising Road

A Shepherdess meets her true love

Summer

Tractor Girl

Helen Dorothy

Watching Ghosts…and other Stories

A day in the life of a driver of an agricultural vehicle

Summer

Rosebud in June

Steeleye Span

Below the Salt

Time to work and play

Summer

Harvest Song: When we gets up in the Morn

Watersons

Frost and Fire

Harvest Time – sound the horn!

Autumn

The Nutting Girl

Morris On Band

Morris On

Be careful when out nutting…

Autumn

Hallows’ Eve

Show of Hands

The Long Way Home

Time to remember those who have gone before

Winter

Cob A-Coaling

Watersons

Voices: English Traditional Songs

Celebrate Bonfire Treason Day!

Winter

The Wassail Cup Carol

John Kirkpatrick

Carolling and Crumpets

Drink this before wassailing!

Winter

Old Mother Eve

Emily Portman

Hatchlings

Subversive version of the Adam and Eve story – apparently an apple wassailing song from Somerset

March 2016

Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band

‘O For a 1000 Tongues To Sing’

Sing Lustily & With Good Courage

Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band

‘How Firm A Foundation’

Sing Lustily & With Good Courage

Big Bill Broonzy

‘This Train’

Club Montmartre 1956 Vol. 1

Staple Singers

‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’

Freedom Highway

Pete Seeger

‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’

American Favourite Ballads

Professor Johnson

‘Give Me That Old Time Religion’

Le Gospel (1939-52)

Alison Krauss

‘Down To The River To Pray’

O Brother, Where Art Though?

James Shorty, Viola Congregation

‘Jesus On The Main Line’

Roots of Drone

The Carter Family

‘Keep On The Sunny Side’

Can The Circle Be Unbroken

Blind Willie Johnson

‘You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond’

The Complete Blind Willie Johnson

The Highwaymen

‘Michael Row The Boat Ashore’

The Complete Hits 1961

Dorothy Love Coates & The Original Gospel Harmonettes

‘Get Away Jordan’

Gospel With Dorothy Love Coates

Hank Williams

‘I Saw The Light’

Forever Hank Williams

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

‘Didn’t It Rain’

The Best of Rosetta Tharpe

Rhiannon Giddens & The Carolina Chocolate Drops

‘Up Above My Head’

Tomorrow Is My Turn

 

February 2016

Title

Artist

From

Wiyathul

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunufingu

Gurrumul via YouTube

Selection

Spooky Men’s Chorale

YouTube

Waltzin’ Matilda

Inishkea

The Music of Australia

T.I Blues

Seaman Dan

Putumayo presents Australia

The Ballad of Cobb and Co

Lionel Long

Australia Our Land, our Music

Down Under

Colin Hay

Putumayo presents Australia

Marwurrumburr

(Native Cat)

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunufingu

Putumayo presents Australia

Nine Miles from Gundagai

The Wild Colonial Boys

Australia Our Land, our Music

Leaving Australia

Jim Moray

Low Culture

South Australia

Bushwhackers

Australia Our Land, our Music

The Streets of Forbes

Mara

Australia

The Rails

James Walbourne and Kami Thompson

Australia

Past Caring

Mara Kiek

Mara LP

The Crow Flying backwards

Chad Morgan

Australia Our Land, our Music

Changes, Changes

Bobby Alu

Putumayo presents Australia

Leatherman

The James Brothers

James Fagan and Jamie McLellan

The James Brothers

 

 

January 2016

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

Sailor ain’t a sailor

Fisherman’s Friends

Port Isaac’s

Fisherman’s Friends

Life as a sailor is very different nowadays!

Hangin’ Johnny

Great Big Sea

Road Rage

Hanging on lines to haul them in. Johnny lists the people he would like to hang

Sally Racket

A.L. Lloyd

Sailors’ Songs and Sea Shanties

Typical call and response song for hauling lines

Away haul away

Stan Kelly

Sailors’ Songs and Sea Shanties

Another call and response song

Paddy Doyle

Ewan McColl

Sailors’ Songs and Sea Shanties

Bunt Shanty for reefing sails, sung in unison

Blood Red Roses

Sting

Rogue’s Gallery

Hauling song from the whaling fleet – the roses refer to Redcoat soldiers

Little Sally Racket

Bellowhead

Hedonism

Musicians having noisy fun

Haul Away Joe

Fisherman’s Friends

Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends

A hearty hauling shanty

Boney was a Warrior

Jack Shit

Rogue’s Gallery

Napoleon’s life story

The Wild Goose

Kate Rusby

Ten

Sea shanty turned into an evocative love song

Santy Anna

A.L. Lloyd

Sailors’ songs and Sea Shanties

Capstan shanty celebrating the Mexican general Santa Anna who fought the Americans in 1847

General Taylor

Richard Thompson, with Jack Shit

Son of Rogue’s Gallery

Capstan shanty about the opposing U.S. general, who won the battle in 1847

Roll the Old Chariot

Stan Hugill

Tape recording

Catchy song with a runaway chorus, sung when raising the anchor

New York Girls

Cyril Tawney

Nautical Tawney

Warning about sailors being tricked by the ladies of the night

Rio Grande

Michael Stipe and Courtney Love

Son of Rogue’s Gallery

An outward bound song

Shenandoah

Fisherman’s Friends

Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends

A river boat song from North America adopted by the British sailors

Poor Old Horse

Albion Band

Rise Up Like the Sun

Sung at a ceremony after one month at sea

Leave Her Johnny

Stan Hugill

YouTube clip of festival performance

Final song of the voyage, sung while bringing the ship into harbour

 

December 2015

SONG

ARTIST

NOTES

Haika Mutil

Mikel Laboa

Song from Basque country

Danzas Vascas

Basque dances – Jota (similar to Morris) and Sardana

Music from Navarra

Pamplona bull running festival

Cumpanero dame tira

Nuberu

Protest song from miners of Asturias

Cantar del home solu

Anabel Santiago

Song about mining from Asturias

Dama d’Arago

Catalan folk song

Canto del averan que perdio la guerra

Llan de Cubel

Things disappearing from Asturias

Xota la punta

Tejedor

Young group singing traditional songs

Tu gitana

Luar na Lubre

Group from Galicia liked by Mike Oldfield

Triste y sola

Tuna

Group of University students serenading the ladies

Quimera

Paco Pena

Andalucia- flamenco and gypsy heartland- fusion of flamenco music and dance with African slave rhythms

Triana

Miguel Poveda

Traditional flamenco

Canta los Poetas album

Paco Ibanez

Poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca put to music

El Amor Brujo

Manuel de Falla

Film by Saura- wedding peasant song and grandmothers’ dance

La Saeta

Joana Jiminez

Lament sung during Holy Week parades in Seville

November 2015

October 2015

October 2015 - Arrivals and Departures

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

Standing At My Window

Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman

Hidden People

An unwelcome visitor is expected

April Come She Will

Simon and Garfunkel

Sounds of Silence

A summer love affair

Tonight We Ride

Tom Russell

Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs

Jailed cowboy sings of the old days, and plans to escape

Bury Me Naked

Merry Hell

Head Full of Magic, Shoes Full of Rain

A funeral plan

In Heaven there is no Beer

Brave Combo

Polkas for a Gloomy World

Speculation?

Hind Horn

The Furrow Collective

At our Next Meeting

Traditional song from 13th Century, with a happy ending (for some!)

No Man’s Mama

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Leaving Eden

Happy song about divorce

The Postman’s Knock

The Albion Band

Rise Up Like the Sun (2003 re-issue bonus track)

Jolly song with a Morris tune, vocals by John Tams

It Was Only a Gypsy

Jake Thackray

The Very Best of Jake Thackray

A policeman and his wife discuss their day

Kiss and Say Goodbye

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

A welcome visitor is anticipated

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Richard Thompson

Action Packed: the Best of the Capitol Years

A girl, a boy, and a very special motorbike

The Final Trawl

Emily Smith

Echoes

The final day’s work of a fishing boat

The William Patel Overture

The Mrs Ackroyd Band

Oranges and Lemmings

Les Barker suggests a way to get rid of unwelcome visitors

 

September 2015

September 2015 Bringalong

SONG

ARTIST

CD

Jill

Learn to Hambo/Eric Stevenson of Crookhill

Andy May Trio

About Time

David

The Baker’s Daughter

Merry Hell

The Ghost in our House and other stories….

Fran

Donal McGillavry

Silly Wizard

Best of Silly Wizard

Sue

The Scarborough Settler’s Lament

Barluath

At Dawn of Day

Yvonne

Without Blame

Ismael Lo with Marianne Faithfull

Jammu Africa

Sandra

We’re Here

Spooky Men’s Chorale

The Spooky Man in History

Jill

Six Months in a Leaky Boat

James Brothers

James Brothers

David

Me and my Sister the Moon

Miranda Sykes and Rex Preston

Sing a Full Song

Fran

Hamnataing

Fiddlers Bid

Hamnataing

Sue

Bonnie Susie Clelland

Rachel Hamer Band

Rachel Hamer Band EP

Yvonne

What he Wrote

Laura Marling

I Speak because I can

Sandra

Early Air/Tullochgorum

Kathryn Tickell and the Side

Kathryn Tickell and the Side

 

July 2015

SCOTTISH FOLK

ARTIST/S

SONG

CD

NOTES

Aly  Bain & Phil Cunningham

Western Lilt

Spring the Summer Long

Traditional dance tunes arranged and played by 2 of Scotland’s finest folk musicians

Lori Watson/Rule of Three

Maggie

      “3”

Lyrics from a poem written by the Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg

Fiddlers Bid

Yellow Stockings

Hamnataing

Set of traditional Shetland Tunes

Old Blind Dogs

Johnny o’Braidislee

Five

Scottish traditional song, a poacher meets his doom.

Claire Mann & Aaron Jones

Fortune’s Wheel

Secret Orders

Modern take on a traditional song by Scots based duo

Maggie MacInnes

Leaving Mingulay

A Fagail Mhuighalaigh

Tune by Celtic harpist and Gaelic singer from isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides

Jim Reid

The Norland wind

I saw the wild geese flee

Setting of a Violet Jacob poem about longing for one’s homeland .

Capercaille

Coisich a Ruin

(Come on my love)

Dusk til Dawn

A ‘waulking’ song, work song for the beaters of the cloth making Harris Tweed

Karine Polwart

Tinsel Show

Traces

Unexpected beauty of the light show produced by BP petrochemical plant at Grangemouth inspired this song

Duncan Chisholm

Lorient Mornings

Farrar

Another of Duncan’s beautiful tunes inspired by his love of  his homeland in the Highlands

Silly Wizard

The Queen of Argyll

The Best of Silly Wizard

Often mistaken for a traditional song, written in early 1980s by Andy M. Stewart

Julie Fowlis

Turas san Lochmor

Cuilidh

Song from Uist, Outer Hebrides

Aly Bain, Jerry Douglas, Phil Cunningham

Loch Katrine’s Lady

Transatlantic Sessions, S6, V2

Tune by Phil, part of celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Walter Scott’s poem, The lady of the Lake

Emily Smith

A Day Like Today

A Day Like Today

Emily’s song of love betrayed, yet defiant

Eddi Reader

Brose and Butter

Sings the Songs of Robert Burns

Burns’ adaptation of an old Ayrshire ballad, full of bawdiness and innuendo!

Lau

Butcher Boy

Lightweights and Gentlemen

Traditional folk song with modern arrangement

 

 


June 2015

SAD LOVE STORIES

Norma Waterson

April Morning

Bright Shiny Morning

Topic

Brian Peters/Jeff Davis

Earl Brand

Sharp's Appalachian Harvest

Pugwash

Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson

The Nightingale

The Gift

Topic

Christy Moore

Bogie's Bonnie Belle

Common Ground

EMI

Sinead O'Connor

On Raglan Road

Common Ground

EMI

Brian Kennedy

As I Roved Out

Common Ground

EMI

Brass Monkey

Riding Down to Portsmouth

The Complete Brass Monkey

Topic

Ed McCurdy

Josie

Constant Sorrow

One Day Music

Niamh Parsons

A Kiss in the Morning early

Heart's Desire

Green Linnet

Nic Jones

Billy Don't You Weep for Me

Folk Awards 2007

BBC

The Blue Sky Boys

The Banks of the Ohio

American Murder Ballads

Not Now Music

Bryony Griffiths and Will Hampson

The Constant Lovers

Lady Diamond

Selwyn Music

Spiers & Boden

Courting too slow

Bellow

Fellside

Norma Waterson

Once in a Blue Moon

A Woman's Voice

Topic

 


May 2015

Cattle Call : Early Cowboy Music and its Roots

Cattle Call

Tex Owens

Blue Yodel Blues

Ray Whitley

Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie

Carson Robinson

Cool Water

Sons of the Pioneers

I’m an Old Cowhand

Tex Ritter

Cowboy Blues

Jean-Jacques Miteau

Oklahoma Hills

Jack Gutherie

Cowboys Lament

Burl Ives

When I was a Cowboy

Leadbelly

Ghost Riders in the Sky

Roy Rogers

Tie a Knot in the Devils Tail

Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee

La Cucaracha

Los Panchos

Little Joe the Wrangler

Jules Verne Allen

Lone Star Trail

Ken Maynard

When the Cactus is in Bloom

Jimmie Rodgers

Chisholm Trail

The Tex-I-An Boys

Tumbling Tumbleweed

Roy Rogers

Home On the Range

Roy Rogers

Cowboy Camp Meeting

Sons of the Pioneers

Cigareetes, Whusky and Wild, Wild Women

Sons of the Pioneers

Dear John

Hank Williams

Tex-i-An Boys

Tex-i-An Boys

I Want to be a Cowboys Sweetheart

Patsy Montana

Na He Hee

Sons of the Pioneers

Tennessee Waltz

Les Paul & Mary Ford

Sourwood Mountain

Carolina Chocolate Drops 

 


March 2015

‘1649 AND ALL THAT’

DATE

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

1649

The World Turned Upside Down

Oysterband

The Shouting End of Life

The Civil War: The Diggers

1932

You Can(Mass Trespass 1932)

Chumbawamba

A Singsong and a Scrap

Kinder Scout mass trespass

1830

Captain Swing

Roy Bailey

Coda

The Swing Riots

1973

Part of the Union

Strawbs

Bursting at the Seams

Industrial relations in the 70s

1985

Hearts of Coal

Albion Band

Happy Accident

The miners’ strike

1649

Bonnie Bessies

Eddi Reader

Freeborn John (concept album by Rev Hammer)

The Civil War: The women’s protest against the imprisonment of John Lilburne, leader of the Levellers

1700…

Jewel in the Crown

Fairport Convention

Jewel in the Crown

The building of the British Empire

1707

Rogues in a Nation

Old Blind Dogs

Five

The Act of Union with Scotland – Scottish folk song from a poem by Robert Burns

1880s

Stand by Your Guns

The Full English

The Full English

A sea battle, from a broadside ballad

1797…

The Isle of France

Ian King

Panic Grass and Fever Few

A transportation song with a happy ending

1415

The Grey Goose Wing

Ray Cooper

Tales of Love, War and Death by Hanging

The Battle of Agincourt: 600th Anniversary this year

 

February 2015

ROGUES AND VILLAINS

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

The Black Freighter

Steeleye Span

Gale Force Ten

A servant fantasizes about being a villain

Three Jolly Burglars

Vin Garbutt

Street Cries

A break-in goes wrong

The Unwelcome Guest

Billy Bragg and Wilco

Mermaid Avenue

An American Dick Turpin

Mc Pherson’s Rant

Ray Cooper

Tales of Love, War and Death by Hanging

A time change seals his fate

Geordie

Anais Mitchell and Jefferson  Hamer

Child Ballads

His wife arrives too late

Jesse James

Bruce Springsteen

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

The murder of a folk hero

Jack Hall

Sam Carter

The No Testament

Gallows song written by himself

The Ups and Downs

Steeleye Span

Parcel of Rogues

Beware of drover lads!

Dick Turpin

Pete Morton

Trespass

A rich man is deceived and robbed

Australia

Tim Van Eyken

Stiffs Lovers Holymen Thieves

An ineffective highwayman is led astray by a woman

While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping

June Tabor

Airs and Graces

A poacher is successful

Poppy Day

Steve Knightley

Cruel River

A drug dealer on the M4 corridor

Smugglers

The Men They Couldn’t Hang

Tales of Love and Hate

A rousing song about everyone’s favourite rogues!

 

 

January 2015

John Ball

Norma and Lal Waterson

Topic A True-Hearted Girl

1381

The World Turned upside Down

Dick Gaughan

Topic Handful of Earth 1981

1649

Digger’s Song

Chumbawamba

Topic English Rebel Songs 1381-1914.

1988

Jerusalem

Bob Davenport

Topic The Common Stone 2004

1804

The Rich Man and the Poor Man

Bob Miller

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

We Shall Be Free

1932

Joe Hill

Paul Robeson

Voice & Vision

1956

Strange Fruit

Billie Holliday

The Essential Billie Holiday

1938

This Land is Your Land

Woody Guthrie

The Very Best of Woody Guthrie

1940

Uncle Sam Says

Josh White

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

We Shall Be Free

I’m on my way

Ernie Lieberman

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

We Shall Be Free

Jim Crow

The Union Boys

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

The House I live in

1944 By Seeger and Hays

Freedom Road

Josh White

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

The House I live in  

Unity Rhumba

Goodson & Vale

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

The House I live in  

Hammer Song

Weavers

Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman.

The Little Red Box of Protest Songs

We Shall Be Free

1949

Dominion of the Sword

Martin Carthy

Right of Passage 1989

1686

Blezamuo

Aznach Ensemble

Songs of Defiance: Music of Chechnya

The Troubles of Erin

Vin Garbutt

Word of Mouth

1999

Country Life

Show of Hands

Country Life

2003

Has Been Cavalry

John Boden

Songs from the Floodplain

2009

So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You

Woody Guthrie

The Very Best of Woody Guthrie

1940’s

December 2014

Tracks Played on PLACES Theme 2

Alabama Bound

Leadbelly

American Folk & Blues Anthology

Wild Rover

Belshazzar’s Feast

Find the Lady

London

Thea Gilmore

Don’t Stop Singing

Memphis Tennessee

Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny Studio Outtakes

Jotabé

Susana Seivane

Susana Seivane

The Humours of Tullycrine

Threepenny Bit

Cartography

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Harry McLintock

O Brother Where Art Thou?

Follow the Heron

Karine Polwart

Rough Guide to Scottish Folk

Baker Street

Gerry Rafferty

City to City

Mouse on a Hill

Warner Williams and Jay Summerour

Classic African-American Ballads

Ismael Drame

Toumani Diabeté

Toumani Diabeté

The Leaving of Liverpool

The Dubliners

Dubliners Essential Collection

Dirty Old Town

Ewan McColl

Black & White : Definitive Collection

Full Moon Down Under

Wendy Stewart & Gary West

Rough Guide to Scottish Folk

Rangoon

Kan

Nina Wara

Rumillajta

Hoja de Coca

Palaces of Gold

Martin Simpson

Voice and Vision

As Joseph was a-walking

Annie Lennox

Christmas Cornucopia

San Francisco Bay Blues

Jesse Fuller

San Francisco Bay Blues

November 2014

‘PLACES’ theme   November 2014

SONG

ARTIST

CD

COMMENTS

Venezuela

Rita Connolly

Rita Connolly

A beautiful song about a sailor ashore.

Jacku

Rumillajta

Hoja De Coca

Music of the Andes

Mauritania

Laye Sow

Acoustic Africa

Music from Senegal

Bound for Botany Bay

John Doyle

Shadow and Light

Will ye go to Flanders?

Karine Polwart

Fairest Floo’er

The Whole Wide World

Bad Shepherds

Yan, Tyan, Tethera Metheral

Folkie version of Punk classic

Yeovil Town

Show of Hands

Cold Frontier

A really bad experience!

Girl from the North Country

Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

Rocky road to Dublin

Chieftains

Long Black Veil

Traditional but with the Rolling Stones

Lisdoonvarna

Christy Moore

Ride on

Newcastle

Richard Crouch

Stepping out

St. Olav’s Gate

Tom Russell with Nanci Griffith

Tom Russell Anthology Veteran’s Day

Nordic re-make of ‘Brief Encounter’?

Yarmouth Town

Nic Jones

Unearthed

Sometimes the natives are friendly!

Padstow

Steeleye Span

Another Parcel of Steeleye Span

Annan Water

Kate Rusby

Hourglass

A tragic song from the Scottish Borders

Portobello Terrace

Tom Robinson

Cooking Vinyl Sampler 1993 Vol 2

Lady of York

Bryony Griffith with Will Hampson

Lady Diamond

Chinatown

Hot Club of Cowtown

Swingin’ Stampede

A swinging finale!

October 2014

October meeting : Folk & Roots on Radio, TV and Film

The Weavers   Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Award 2013

Music documentary

Pete Seeger / Sony Terry / Brownie McGhee    

Rainbow Quest TV Series 1965/6

‘Rock Island Line’

Rev. Blind Gary Davis  1967  TV footage

‘If I Had My Way’

Tom Paxton & Pete Seeger 

Rainbow Quest TV series 1965/6

‘Rambling Boy’

Bob Dylan  at Newport Folk Festival 1964 with intro. by Pete Seeger

‘Mr. Tambourine Man’

Dave van Ronk  guitar playing video tutorial

‘Green, Green Rocky Road’

Woody Gutherie BBC Children’s Hour interview in1944

Sonny Boy Williamson  1963 onwards, US Folk, Blues & Gospel Tours

‘Keep It To Yourself’

Sister Rosetta   1964 US Folk, Blues & Gospel Tour

Manchester railway station concert

‘Didn’t It Rain’

Paul Simon   1986 Graceland Concert – South Africa

‘Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes’

Madeline Peyroux   JoolsHolland ‘Later’ TV

‘Careless Love’

Joni Michell    BBC TV concert

‘California’ / ‘Big Yellow Taxi’

Ian Campbell Folk Group   Pathe News 1964 Christian Aid Week

‘Were You There’

Martin Carthy / Davy Graham / Rory McEwen

1964ATV Hullabaloo

‘My Girl’  

Long John / Davy Graham 1969  ATV Hullabaloo

‘Carless Love’

Fotheringay with Sandy Denny  1970  Music promo video

‘Memphis Tennessee’

Steeleye Span      Record promo video   1975

‘All Around My Hat’

 

September 2014

ARTIST/S

SONG

CD

Jack the Lad

Sailed the Seven Seas

Rough Diamonds

Frogmorton

Shipwreck (Roll Along)

Grace Darling

At Last

Jeremy Taylor

Jobsworth

(You Tube)

Bushwackers Band

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Brenda Wooton    

Cornish folk song

Crowdy Crawn

Five Hand Reel

My Love is like a red red rose

 Earl of Moray

Fred Wedlock

Handier Household Help

Frollicks

Ralph McTell

From Clare to Here

Right Side Up

Bert Jansch

Yarrow

Moonshine

Lindisfarne

Lady Eleanor

The Charisma Years, Disc 1

Gryphon

The Ploughboy’s Dream

Midnight Mushrumps

Martin Carthy with Dave Swarbrick

Byker Hill

Byker Hill

Steeleye Span    

The Wife of Ushers Well

All Around My Hat

Silly Sisters

The Game of Cards

Silly Sisters

July 2014

WORK PROGRAMME NOTES

  • School Days over  Time to don the moleskin trousers and go to work down t’ pit.
  • Blackleg Miner  Trad C19th song from Northumberland
  • The Blacksmith/ Black Smithereens  Really just an opportunity to play Planxty
  • Jolly Tinker  Instrumental version without the somewhat saucy lyrics
  • The Lazy Farmer  A ribald tale about a work-shy agriculturalist
  • Love on a Farmboy’s Wages  Pop meets folk; this reached no 50 in 1983’s singles chart
  • The Barley & the Rye  A silly old cuckold, a rampaging wife & a young rake
  • Jolly Waggoner  and
  • The Molecatcher  2 trad songs from the excellent ‘The Liberty to Choose’
  • The Old ‘Arris Mill Song local  to the girls at a Manchester mill
  • Doffin’ Mistress  She who oversaw the young factory girls in the spinning sheds as she changed (doffed) the bobbins, ready to be sent to the weavers. Possibly originating in N Ireland.
  • Eli the Barrow Boy  A rather sad contemporary song with a trad feel from an indie Oregon band
  • Vulcan/Steelos  2 songs of the steel by John Tams
  • Compliments of your Waitress  Treat your waitress kindly or beware the consequences!

 

June 2014

SIN

SONG

ARTIST

CD

NOTES

VARIOUS

The Seven Deadly Sins

The Kipper Family

Fresh Yesterday

Practice makes perfect!

JEALOUSY

Cold Kisses

Richard Thompson

Action Packed – The Best of the Capitol Years

Not a wise choice of boyfriend!

ANGER

Lord Maxwell’s Last Goodnight

June Tabor

Ashes and Diamonds

Courtly lyrics tell of a bitter and bloody feud

GLUTTONY

J Edgar

Ry Cooder

My Name is Buddy

A very hungry pig (apparently)

LUST

Maud and Cecil

The Cecil Sharpe Project

The Cecil Sharpe Project

An entertaining little ditty with no basis in fact!

PRIDE

A Truckload of Art

Terry Allen

Lubbock on Everything

Pride comes before a fall!

GREED

Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

Show of Hands

Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

Bankers and politicians in the firing line.

SLOTH

Why Don’t You Do Right?

Carthy, Hardy, Farrell, Young

Laylam

A lazy man will not do right!

ALL EXCEPT SLOTH

Mr Bad Example

Warren Zeevon

Mr Bad Example

A Serial Deadly Sinner!

BONUS TRACK

Closing Time

Fairport Convention

Jewel in the Crown

Will they be capable of doing any sins?

 

May 2014

Artist(s)

Track

Album

Label

1

An Seisiun

The Star of the County Down

In Session

Barking Spider

2

Danu

County Down

The Road Less Travelled

Shanachie

3

Paul Brady

Sergeant McBride

Andy Irvine & Paul Brady

Mulligan

4

Martin Hayes

Bill Malley’s Barndance

Under the Moon

Green Linnet

5

Sean Keane

Man from Connemara

All Heart, No Roses

Cross Border

6

Kevin Crawford

Season of Mists

Irish Music –

The Rough Guide

World Music Network

7

Mary McPartlan

As I roved out

The Holland Handkerchief

McP Productions

8

Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin,

Michael McGoldrick, Jim Murray

Billy in the Low Ground

Tunes

Daisydiscs

9

Colum Sands

Tandragee

Live in Concert

Spring Records

10

Niamh Parsons

The Flower of Magherally O

Blackbirds & Thrushes

Green Linnet

11

Michael Mc Goldrick

Freefalling

Folk Awards 2011

Properfolk

12

Donal Maguire

The Star of Sunday’s Well

The Star of Sunday’s Well

Rossendale Records

13

The Gloaming

Hunting the Squirrel

The Gloaming

Brassland

14

Altan

An Feochan

The Best of Altan

Green Linnet

15

Kathleen O’Sullivan

The Bold Rogue

Born on St Patrick’s Day

LoLa Records

16

The Fureys & Davey Arthur

Love is Pleasing

The Best of the Fureys and Davey Arthur

Music Club

 

 

April 2014

ARTIST

SONG

CD

NOTES

High Spen Sword Dancers

Sword Dance 1929

DVD: Here’s Health to the Barley Mow

Bacup Coconut Dancers

Coconut Dance 1930

DVD: Here’s Health to the Barley Mow

Coconut Dancers

Coconut Dance

YouTube

Loreena McKennitt

Beltane Huron Fire Dance

YouTube: Parallel Dreams

Inspired by Huron festivities and Gaelic Beltane celebrations

Beltane Border Morris (South Devon)

Beltane Fire Dance

YouTube

Performed at Teignmouth Folk Festival 2013

Gjallarhorn

Lille dansa (Dance a little)

Sjofa

A frisky polska from Sweden

Oysterband

The Old Dance

Step Outside

Trouble in the Garden of Eden!

Steeleye Span

The Dark Morris

Wintersmith

Collaboration with Terry Pratchett of his book ‘Wintersmith’

Peter Bellamy

Slip Jigs and Reels

Wake the Vaulted Echoes

Julie Fowlis

Puirt-a-Beul set

Cuilidh

Mouth Music

Kerfuffle

Dance Little Maid/Monster of Polska

Kerfuffle K2

Swedish Dance music

Chumbawamba

Dance, Idiot, Dance

Folk Against Fascism 

fRoots magazine compilation

Norma Waterson

On Friday he’s Fred Astaire

The Very Thought of You

The Legend lives on!

The Shee

Tom Paine’s Bones

Different Season

Spiers and Boden

Rochdale Coconut Dance

The Works

Not the same tune as the coconut dances above!

Fiddler’s Bid

Seven-step Polka

Naked and Bare

A Shetland Dance

3Mustaphas3

Maramures Zydeco

Play Musty for Me

Romano-Hungarian dance tune travels to Louisiana for an inter-continental knees-up!

 

March 2014

MUSIC OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS

 

ARTIST

SONG

CD

NOTES

The Hush

Here’s the tender coming

Dark to the Sky

Press gangs were taking men for the Navy

Barbara Dickson

Recruited collier

From the Beggar’s Mantle

The Army was recruiting with equally dubious methods

John Tams

Spanish bride

John Tams- the definitive collection

Ladies were not only left behind in England

Chumbawamba

Learning to love

A Singsong and a Scrap

Perhaps some of the ladies were not quite so heartbroken

Steeleye Span

The Victory

Storm Force Ten

1805 – Nelson wins and dies at Trafalgar

Nic Jones

Warlike lads of Russia

Unearthed

1812 – Napoleon makes the mistake of attacking Russia

Watersons

Bonnie Light Horseman

For pence and spicy ale

A lament for the soldier fallen in battle

Mrs Ackroyd Band

Unigate Milkman

Yelp!

A lament for the milkman fallen in battle

Jim Moray

18th Day of June

Skulk

1815 – Battle of Waterloo

The Wilsons

18th Day of June

Voices

A rousing a capella account of the battle

Little Johnny England

Plains of Waterloo

Tournament of Shadows

Will loved ones return now the war is ended?

Bellowhead

Spectre Review

Matachin

Is Bonaparte really gone for good?

February 2014

 

ARTIST/S

SONG

CD

NOTES

Joan Baez

 

Sagt mir wo die blumen sind

 

Farewell, Angelina

 

Pete Seeger song from 1955. Inspired by Cossack folksong, quoted in Russian novel. Translated into numerous languages. (Where have all the flowers gone)

 

Richard Walley

 

Ethnic  song with Digerido

YouTube

 

Richard is one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal performers, also involved as writer, director, designer with stage and TV productions.

Susheela Raman

 

Bolo bolo

 

Salt Rain

 

Hindi song in praise of Shiva , from a British Indian musician.

Kodo

 

Spirit of Taiko

 

YouTube

 

Japanese drumming troupe who also sing and play flute and other instruments. Perform worldwide.

 

Louis Armstrong

 

Go Down Moses

 

Louis and The Good Book

 

American Negro spiritual, also associated with support for runaway slaves in 1860s.

London Bulgarian choir

 

Ei Muri Ruzhke

 

Alyana Galyana

 

Acapella  choral folk music from Bulgaria

 

Angelique Kidjo

Sedjedo

Acoustic Africa

(Putumayo World Music)

Kidjo, from Benin originally, sings to encourage women’s self esteem in the Fon language .

 

 

Swap

 

Midsommarvisa

 

Du da

Traditional Swedish ring dance song, collected in C19th and here arranged by Swap – Anglo-Swedish band. Carina Normansson sings in praise of summer.

 

Maddy Prior with Hannah James and Giles Lewin

 

An Undoing World

 

3 For Joy

A Klezmatics song describing the plight of the dispossessed Jews of Eastern Europe fleeing to North America from the pogroms in Europe.

Relevant to refugees anywhere.

 

Joan Baez

 

Pajarillo Barranqueno

 

Ring Them Bells

 

Traditional well-known song from Mexico.

 

 

Simon and Garfunkel +

Los Incas

 

El Condor Pasa

 

Bridge Over Troubled Water

 

Peruvian composition based on traditional Andean folk tunes. Probably the best known Peruvian song known worldwide because of the popularity of this version.

 

Scott Walker

 

Amsterdam

 

Scott

 

Jacques Brel’s dramatic but unromantic depiction of sailors’ onshore leave in Amsterdam.

 

January 2014

RICHARD THOMSON CONCERT DVD

1000 Years of Popular Music : Tracks  Selected

 

Summer Is Icumen In   (c 1260)

So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo  (16th – 17th C.)

Blackleg Miner  (Early 19th C.)

There Is Beauty In the Bellow of the Blast  (1885)

Java Jive (1940)

Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee (1946)

Orange Coloured Sky (1950)

A-11   (1963)

See My Friends  (1965)

Oops! … I Did It Again  (2000)

 

December 2013

Our Christmas meeting was spent listening to seasonal songs and carols and included the following tracks –

ARTIST

SONG

CD

NOTES

Imagined Village

Winter singing

Bending the Dark

Folk/World Music group celebrate the British winter

Joglaresa

Cold, haily, windy night

In Hoary Winter’s night

The wild weather persuades the girl to let her lover in, but she curses it when he proves unfaithful.

Home Service

Snow falls

Home Service Live 1986

Keep looking forward to Spring!

Paul Simon

Under African skies

Graceland concert

Not everyone has snow at Christmas!

Ian Campbell Folk Group

The Snow is Falling

The Times they are a’ changing

Popular 60’s Folk group bring back memories

Hradistan                Cymbalon Band

Co se stalo prikodilio

Czech Christmas song

Hradistan Spiritual Kvintet

Bim Bam

Vanocni Koncert

(Christmas concert)

Czech version of “He comes from the Glory”

Annie Lennox and the African Children’s Choir

As Joseph was a walking (Cherry Tree Carol)

A Christmas Cornucopia

Verses celebrate and emphasise the lowliness of the birth “of Christ the Heavenly King”

Terry Allan

Xmas on the Isthmus

Salivation

Bored, homesick soldiers spending Christmas on duty

Watersons

Sound, sound your instruments of joy!

Frost and Fire

Eighteenth century Christmas anthem

Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band

On Christmas night (Sussex Carol)

A tapestry of carols

Traditional carol from Gloucestershire and Sussex

The Weavers

Go where I send ye (One for the itty bitty baby)

The Weavers at Carnegie Hall

Gospel favourite from 50’s American folk group

Erin Bode

Coventry Carol

A cold December night

Lullaby from a medieval  play

John Kirkpatrick

Chuckling hens

Carolling and Crumpets

A defiant and irresistible call for Christmas charity

Blind Joe Death

Santa Clause is coming to town

Christmas Soli

John Fahey aka ‘Blind Joe Death’ was a pioneer of American blues & folk.

Karine Polwart

Merry Xmas Everybody

Merry Xmas Everybody – download single

A beautiful version of the well-known Slade anthem

Coope Boyes and Simpson

While shepherds watched

Fire and Sleet and Candlelight

The “sweet chiming Christmas bells” version.

Coope Boyes and Simpson

Drive cold Winter away

Fire and Sleet and Candlelight

A grand finale to the afternoon!

Fairport Convention & Co. Playlist November 2013

Fairport Convention, a folk-rock group formed over 40 years ago and still going
strong, are one of the best-known and loved British groups on the folk music
scene. They have had an interesting history and numerous personnel changes and
off-shoots. This programme followed the group from its formation in 1967 to
Richard Thompson's departure in 1971 with examples of Fairport's own songs and
those of individual members and their bands such as the ever-popular Steeleye
Span. Part 2 to follow later in next year!

TRACK GROUP ALBUM

1. If I had a ribbon bow (Single)

Fairport Convention

White Bicycles

2. Jack o’ Diamonds

Fairport Convention

Cropredy Box Set

3. Mr Lacey    

Fairport Convention History of F.C.

4. Hen’s march to the middens

Dave Swarbrick

Rags,reels & airs

5. Crazy Man Michael           

Fairport Convention

Liege & Lief

6. Blackleg Miner

Steeleye Span            A stack of Steeleye Span

7. My girl in the month of May

The Bunch     

Rock On

8. The Nutting Girl    

Morris On Band        

Island Folk Box Set

9. Late November

Fotheringay   

“2”

10. Sir Patrick Spens 

Fairport Convention By Popular Request

11. The poor ditching boy

Richard Thompson

Henry the Human Fly


In October 2013 David presented a set of tracks on the theme of 'Journeys'.

                                                                                         

ARTIST

SONG

CD

NOTES

The Mrs Ackroyd Band (vocals Pete Morton)

Another Train

Yelp

A journey begins – but not just yet!

Matapedia

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Matapedia

An exhilarating car ride to catch a boat

Richard Thompson

Walking the Long Miles Home

Action Packed

A walk in the dark musing on lost love

Bruce Springsteen

Erie Canal

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

Tribute to the mules that pulled the barges

Roy Bailey

Road to Dundee

Below the Radar

An uneventful meeting

Chumbawamba

Words Flew (right around the world)

The boy bands have won.  If…

Bertolt Brecht’s words live on despite exile

Terry Allen

Wolf man of Del Rio

Lubbock (on everything)

American Road movie

Blyth Power

On the Viking Station

On the Viking Station

A dangerous voyage during the Cod War

Albion Band

House in the Country

Rise up like the Sun

Travelling the by-ways in a horse-drawn caravan

Bob Fox

Champion at keeping them Rolling

Dreams Never Leave You

Truckers on the Motorways

Mitch Benn

Motorway Food

Where Next…

A cautionary tale

Handsome Family

The House Carpenter

The Big Session Volume One

A horrifying voyage ends in tragedy

Ray Cooper

The Highwayman

Tales of Love, War and Death by Hanging

Some journeys never end…

 

Our September meeting was spent listening to a selection of tunes and songs chosen by members of the group.

ARTISTE SONG CD
Fran’s Choice
June Tabor and Oysterband Bonny Bunch of Roses Ragged Kingdom
Kate Rusby A Rose in April Hourglass
Fairport Convention Crazy Man Michael Liege and Leaf
Jill’s Choice
Moulettes Sing Unto Me The Bear’s Revenge
Jerry Douglas King Silkie Traveller

June Tabor/

Iain Bellamy/

Huw Williams

As I Roved Out Quercus
Sandra’s Choice
Merry Hell The Butcher and the Vegan Blink…and you miss it
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain Melange Live In London
Sue’s Choice
Duncan Chisholm Unknown Air Affric
Colum Sands Look Where I’ve Ended Up Live in Concert
Niamh Parsons Syracuse Heart’s Desire
David’s Choice
Isambarde Outlandish Knight Living History
Merry Hell Let’s not have a Morning After (Until we’ve had a Night Before) Head Full of Magic, Shoes Full of Rain
Hot Club of Cowtown Silver Dew on the Blue Grass Tonight Swingin’ Stampede

 

The August 2013 meeting was a translantic session.

English

US

Draggle Tail Gypsies

Benji Kirkpatrick

Song Links

Fellside

Clayton Boone

Skip Boone

Song Links 5

Fellside

Prickle Eye Bush

Spiers & Boden

John Spiers & Jon Boden

Bellow

The Maid Freed from the Gallows

Tim Eriksen

Song Links 3

Fellside

Soldier’s Joy

Shetland Fiddlers

Shetland Fiddlers

Leader 1973

Soldier’s Joy

Tommy Jarrell

Sail Away Ladies

LP 1976

Emmet Lundy

LP Fiddle Tunes from Grayson County, Virginia

  House of the Rising Sun

Bob Dylan

House of the Rising sun 2CD Set Feb 2013

Barbry Allen

Joan Baez

1961 Vol 2

Four Nights Drunk

Steeleye Span

The Lark in the Morning

'Girl from the North Country’

Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

‘Seven Yellow Gipsies’

Shirley Collins

The Power of the True Love Knot

‘Black Jack David’

Warren Smith

Rockabilly Crazy Days

‘Gypsy Davey’

Chris Barber Skiffle Group

‘Gypsy Davey’

Fotheringay

2

 

The July 2013 meeting was the Songs of Bob Dylan.

THE SONGS OF BOB DYLAN

Mike’s Tracks

Song to Woody

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

BD.JPG

Talkin’ New York

Bob Dylan

How Long Blues

Leadbelly / Woody Gutherie

The Best of Leadbelly

Lead.JPG

If You Gotta Go Now

Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann

MM.JPG

Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds

The Songs of Bob Dylan

Songs.JPG

Fran’s Tracks

Diamonds and Rust

Joan Baez

Diamonds and Rust

D&R.JPG

Simple Twist of Fate

Joan Baez

Just Like a Woman

Nina Simone

Classic Songs of the 60's

NS.JPG

All Along the Watchtower

Jimi Hendrix

The Songs of Bob Dylan

Songs.JPG

Sue’s Tracks

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

Martin Simpson

The Golden Vanity

Masters of War

Blowzabella

Blowzabella in Colour

Jill’s Tracks

Girl from the North Country

Altan

Another Sky

Too Much of Nothing

Fotheringay

Fotheringay

Buckets of Rain

Eric Bibb

Diamond Days

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Fairport Convention

Boxful of Treasures

XS
SM
MD
LG
XL