Tag: Folk from the Attic
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![There Was an Old Man Came Over the Sea [Roud 362] | Folk From the Attic](https://jonwilks.online/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/bearded-odin-man-long-longest-beard-unusual-vintage.jpg)
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.…
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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,…
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The Greenland Whale Fishery | Folk from the Attic
Fresh from my Steve Roud interview, having learnt that the folk singer is an entirely modern construct, today I found myself itching to get my guitar out and dive into an old sea shanty. Let’s be clear, though: while this is some kind of performance of ‘The Greenland Whale Fishery’, it doesn’t in any way…
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Rosie Hood on folk song collecting in the 21st Century
In the months that I’ve been interviewing folk singers for this blog, one thing that tends to come across perhaps more strongly than anything else is the sense of enthusiasm for the subject. It doesn’t seem as though traditional folk music, in England at least, is something you get into lightly. It becomes a bit…
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When First I Came to Caledonia | Folk from the Attic
Like most modern performers, I think I first heard ‘When First I Came to Caledonia’ sung by Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy on their first Waterson:Carthy album. For years, in fact, it was pretty much the only song I’d return to again and again. The melody is haunting, and given that I was in…
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Ye Mariners All (A Jug of This) | Folk from the Attic
Forgive me if it feels like I’m just doing the folk Greatest Hits here, but certain songs I just can’t resist. This week’s ‘Folk from the Attic’ is ‘Ye Mariners All’, a song I first heard when I was at university in the mid-90s, back when I was the only person on campus with a…