Category: Folk music writing
-
The Trial of Bill Burn Under Martin’s Act – The Story of the Song
As promised, here’s some background to ‘The Trial of Bill Burn Under Martin’s Act’. Unfortunately, there’s not nearly as much info here as there was for ‘Holly Ho’ (click here to confront that juggernaut), or even as much as ‘Who Hung the Monkey?’. Still, it’s a great song from a great story, and it’s worth…
-
Holly Ho [Roud 1407] – The Story of a Song
Part of the fascination I have for traditional folk songs is the way in which they humble the singer. As a singer/songwriter, I spent years thinking about the ways in which a song represents the self – a snapshot or meditation on the writer in that moment. What grabbed me about traditional song was how much…
-
Review of Jon’s Birmingham gig
On June 9th, I took the Midlife songs back to Brum. Performing at Kitchen Garden Cafe, I was delighted to see folk writer and presenter, Mike Davies, in the audience. He subsequently sent me the following review. Thanks, Mike! ‘Wilks is the sort of performer folk circles mean when they talk of the living tradition’…
-
Poverty Knock [Roud 3491] | Folk from the Attic
‘Poverty Knock’ is nothing short of a classic. I first heard it while painstakingly trying to pick it out on a piano, struggling to read the music in Roy Palmer’s book of the same title (not that Palmer scored it badly – my sight-reading is woeful). It’s one of those “folk songs” that makes the…
-
Who Hung The Hartleypool Monkey? Exploring the song behind the story
Who Hung The Monkey deals with the tale of the Hartlepool monkey (named Pug in this song) that washed up on a beach during the Napoleonic Wars and was hanged by the locals for being a French spy. An easy mistake to make, it seems, especially if you’ve seen neither a monkey or a French spy. Amazon.co.uk Widgets…
-
Oh, It Was My Cruel Parents Who Did Me First Trepan [Roud 2897]
Yep, you read that title correctly. I remember sitting in the library at Cecil Sharp House with a friend of mine, back when I started researching Midlands folk songs, when he held up a book opened at this song and whispered, “This can’t mean what we think it means, can it?” Amazon.co.uk Widgets See more…
-
Rachael McShane: The Grizzly Folk interview
Rachael McShane was the only female member of folk phenomenon, Bellowhead. You probably knew that. If you never saw Bellowhead live or on the TV, you’d have been able to find that much out from the internet. It’s probably why you’re here, reading this article. “Rachael McShane”, you’ll have thought. “She was in Bellowhead. I’ll…
-
There Was an Old Man Came Over the Sea [Roud 362] | Folk From the Attic
Here’s a great one for fans of traditional folk that love to see how songs change from place to place. Like many modern listeners, I first encountered ‘There Was an Old Man Came Over the Sea’ on Lankum‘s album, Cold Old Fire [2015] – a haunting, disturbing version featuring a spellbinding performance from singer, Radie Peat.…
-
The Gift Band Interview: Eliza Carthy on Norma Waterson, working at The Globe and Martin Carthy’s new version of ‘Scarborough Fair’
It’s a big weekend for folk music, especially if you’re in London and you’ve got a thing about The Watersons. On Friday, The Gift Band (made up, in part, of Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy and Martin Carthy), release their latest album, Anchor, on Topic Records (you can order it by clicking here), and that’s swiftly followed…