Tag: Birmingham songs
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![The Cruel Mother [Roud 9]](https://jonwilks.online/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Jon-Wilks-Cruel-Mother.png)
The Cruel Mother [Roud 9]
‘The Cruel Mother’ came out as a standalone single for digital streaming and download on August 8th, 2022. You can hear it/purchase it on: Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music The Cruel Mother by Jon Wilks I first heard ‘The Cruel Mother’ [Roud 9] when Emily Portman performed it live and unaccompanied…
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![The Brave Dudley Boys [Roud 1131] | Folk from the Attic](https://jonwilks.online/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/scan0020.jpg)
The Brave Dudley Boys [Roud 1131] | Folk from the Attic
This post is as much a tribute to one man as it is as history of ‘The Brave Dudley Boys’. The more you delve deeper into traditional folk music in the UK, the more you encounter certain names – figures that may be little known outside the cannon, and sometimes no better known within it, but…
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![Adieu, Adieu [Roud 490] | Folk from the Attic](https://jonwilks.online/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/maxresdefault.jpeg)
Adieu, Adieu [Roud 490] | Folk from the Attic
In investigating Birmingham songs, I’ve come to realise that two source singers in particular stand out. Perhaps the most widely known was Cecilia Costello, a Digbeth singer of Irish decent that may have acquired at least some of her repertoire following a spell working (not residing) in a Winson Green workhouse. She was visited twice…
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![Colin’s Ghost [Roud 1600] | Folk from the Attic](https://jonwilks.online/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/emersonnorfolk-tl.jpg)
Colin’s Ghost [Roud 1600] | Folk from the Attic
‘Colin’s Ghost’, eh? If there’s a more English sounding song title than that, I’ve yet to find it. And I have to say, I’m rather delighted to have found it on my quest through songs from Birmingham and the wider Midlands. I can go even further than that, too, because this song is about as…
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I Can’t Find Brummagem | Folk from the Attic
In last week’s blog post (‘John Hobbs‘) I wrote a little about the life-and-death decisions that must be made around singing in your own regional accent. Any conclusions I came to leapt eagerly from the window with this week’s song: ‘I Can’t Find Brummagem’. On the surface, it’s such a triffle that it’s hard not…
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John Hobbs (a wife-selling song) | Folk from the Attic
What a weird little song this is, and quite startling in subject matter, too. As is the wont of many people developing an interest in traditional folk songs, I recently began investigating the songs from the area I come from – Birmingham and the surrounding West Midlands. Hardly a glamorous place in times gone by,…