Folk

RIP Mary Asquith

2009-11-18T16:27:50Z

Mary Asquith died last week, after a struggle with cancer.

Many of you won't know her name, which is a shame, because Mary was one of the best.

She never knew how good she was and gave up singing completely in the 1980s.

I worked with her around the North in folk clubs like the MSG Manchester and the Topic Folk Club in Bradford in the late 60s and early 70s and can still see her - a slight but sparky girl who was a feminist before anybody knew what the word meant.

She took no prisoners but was a true and loyal friend to those she loved.

She was also a great guitarist and a fine blues singer whose voice, tuned by the roll-ups and
whisky she had a taste for then, was edgy but tuneful and more importantly - truthful.

She also wrote great songs such as 'When Marilyn Monroe Died Blues', 'In Dreamland Tonight' and a song that I covered myself on one of my serious albums 'Closing Time'.

She only made one album, it was on Saffron Summerfield's Mother Earth label in 1978 and is called 'Closing Time' and though the vinyl edition is a collector's item the CD version is still available. If you get a chance, listen to Mary singing her greatest song 'Closing Time' - it's Mary at her most unpolished and raw, and it is simply wonderful.

Bring in the Clowns

2009-11-13T13:03:22Z

The other day on the programme, I played a track by Noel Murphy.

Many of you will remember Noel as one of the funniest men in the folk world; the man who invented Draught Porridge, and had a banjo player called Shaggis in his band.

He gave a great night wherever he went and I'm more than happy to report that he is fit and well, living down in Cornwall and has a new double CD out called 'The Quality of Murphy'.

Listening to those live CDs set me to thinking about the old folk scene and the present day version.

One of the things that struck me is that, whereas there used to be a mix of trad/contemporary/comedy in the clubs, there now seems to be little or no comedy in the mix.

There is no doubt in my mind that the present generation of singers and musicians are wonderful and I feel that, in their hands, the folk scene has a great future - but I do miss the laughs.

There were always curmudgeons who hated the folk comics - who saw them as the ruination of the clubs. I believe that the comics were needed as much as the trad singers; for every Nic Jones there needed to be a Tony Capstick, for every June Tabor a Jake Thackray.

June and Nic are up there in my pantheon of great folkies of all time, but I think both of them would admit that they were never "patter merchants".

Bob Davenport (who can chant a trad song as good as anybody) once said he would tear telephone directories in half if it kept the audience happy.

Most old traditional singers had a comic song or two under their belts because they too realised that songs like 'The Manchester Molecatcher' could sit quite happily alongside songs like 'A Fair Maid Walking in Her Father's Garden'.

Yin and Yang, darkness and light all part of the whole.

But where, I wonder, are the Murfs, the Capsticks, the Wedlocks, the Connollys, the Carrots of today?

They can't all be doing the Edinburgh Fringe surely?

War, and the Pity of War

2009-11-11T10:14:10Z

This week's programme is devoted entirely to songs about war. It seemed to
make sense, since the programme goes out on Remembrance Day, to play songs
which dealt with what Wilfred Owen called "War, and the pity of War".

]]> Many of the songs in the programme were inspired by the First World War. A war which seems to have a special fascination for so many people and to have inspired so many songs, and so much writing. This was partly, I suspect, because it was the first industrial war, the first war where fully mechanised armies and their machines rolled off the assembly line; partly because of the horrors of the trenches and a war that seemed no more than a litany of horrors in the mud; partly because it was a war of "lions led by donkeys" and partly because of what was lost.

In Britain at least, some kind of innocence seems to have vanished with the boys and men that died in those four years and nothing after that would ever be the same again.

Some villages lost a whole generation and small towns like Accrington and Barnsley sent battalions to war in the famous "Pals" battalions only to find that they had been lost in the mud of the Somme and other battlefields.

My own father was killed in 1944 when his Lancaster bomber was shot down over Holland so, when it came to recording the programme, I felt I had some understanding of the stories told by many of the songs.

Like the cenotaphs and memorials in many of our cities and towns the songs of "War, and the pity of War" are there lest we forget.

Emily Smith on the Lifestyle of a Musician

2009-11-09T15:38:24Z

I love the lifestyle of a musician. No week is ever the same whether at home or on the road.

]]> This week Visit Scotland (Scotland's national tourism organisation) has invited me to perform at two events. Jamie and I are flying down to London today to play a few songs at an evening reception hosted by Scotland at the World Travel Market.

On Wednesday we'll be playing at the launch of Visit Scotland's 'Winter White' campaign in Edinburgh. I've been asked to sing my 'Winter Song' which I wrote a few years ago out of sheer frustration at the length of the winter. The launch is well-timed as the temperature has significantly dropped here in the last few days! I can't complain though as I'm lucky enough to be heading off to tour New Zealand and Australia throughout February and March 2010.

Also happening today is the official release of 'Adoon Winding Nith'. Yay! This album, by Jamie McClennan and I, is a collection of lesser-known songs by Robert Burns.

For our album cover we commissioned the fantastic Scottish artist John Johnstone to come up with a painting of Burns, Jamie and I sailing down the River Nith. John painted 4 different paintings in all which we have had made into cards.

So better dash for now - I need to check that Jamie has remembered to pack his guitar in its case. We were half way to our gig in Edinburgh on Saturday before we realised we only had an empty case! Thank you to the lovely folk at the music shop in Biggar who kindly lent us one. Otherwise we could have looked a tad foolish!

Emily Smith on music and food.

2009-11-06T11:44:34Z

Last night's trip to the BBC in Glasgow was fun - the city was aglow with fireworks exploding all over the sky.

]]> When I lived in Glasgow during my student years we had to endure the sound of fireworks most nights for a week either side of bonfire night.

I remember a firework being set off in the close of the tenement flat I was living in and being terrified as the whole building shook with the noise.

Ahhhhh, Glasgow. Tomorrow Jamie and I head across to Glasgow's (affectionate?) rival city of Edinburgh for an in-store performance in one of Scotland's premier stockists of folk/world music.

We'll be playing a few songs from our new album 'Adoon Winding Nith' and supping on the free hot chocolate and snowballs. Yum.

Every time I go to this special Folk record shop, I get stuck looking at all the albums I need to buy, not just want, but NEED!

I recently had a bit of a clear out of my music collection and came across one of my favourite albums - 'The New Humblebums' by the Humblebums.

It's funny how after a long break from listening to something, music brings back memories of what you were doing and where you were the last time you heard it.

The Humblebums record reminds me of my late teens, summer time and a long-held desire to own a VW camper van.

Maybe Mike would loan me his!

Today I'm getting stuck into learning seven beautiful old carols which I'll be performing with the lovely Feral Choir at a series of concerts in December.

I'm really looking forward to being a soloist with the choir again, I sang with them last year in a series called 'Saut Sea and Bonnie Ships' and it was such a powerful experience. An added bonus this year will be the mulled wine and mince pies on offer at the gigs. Starting to see a trend here? Music and food are a winning combination with me.

Emily Smith on 'Adoon Winding Nith'

2009-11-04T16:03:43Z

Emily Smith writes:

I'm currently enjoying a few days at home following a run of Scottish dates promoting 'Adoon Winding Nith' the new album myself and husband Jamie McClennan have made this year as a project to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns.

]]> When we began planning this album we were well aware of the wealth of existing recordings of Burns but at the same time felt we could still add something new to the mix with our interpretations of his music. I continue to be amazed at how much of an appeal and connection Burns has made both geographically and emotionally with so many people.

We focussed on choosing lesser-known Burns and some songs that he collected on his travels. The end result is an entire album of happy endings, no broken hearts and no deaths - that's surely got to be a first for a folk singer?!!

Our good pals Nancy Kerr and James Fagan came up to see the final show on Sunday night here in Dumfriesshire and have stayed on to visit for a few days during which there has been a fair bit of eating, sleeping and singing of songs...oh and a few games of Bananagrams too.

It's such a good game, anybody play it?

Nancy and James have recently recorded a fantastic new album entirely of songs written by Nancy. They treated us to a listen of the mix so far and I'm so looking forward to this album coming out - look out for its release sometime in 2010.

Tomorrow evening Jamie and I head up to Glasgow to be guests on Archie Fisher's Travelling Folk on BBC Radio Scotland. He'll be playing tracks from both 'Adoon Winding Nith' and Jamie's new solo release 'In Transit'.

Music made with love, care and joy...

2009-11-02T13:28:44Z

I bought three absolutely cracking CDs last week that have put me in a very good mood ever since.

All three CDs are what Irish musicians would call 'the pure drop'.

Unadorned, rootsy and full of life they are what folk music is all about.

]]> We have become so used to hearing traditional songs with guitars, fiddles and percussion (and no harm in that) that we often forget that they were originally heard raw and unadorned.

The CDs are by Vic Legg, Katie Howson and Jeannie Harris and Will Noble and John Cocking.

The Vic Legg CD 'I've Come To Sing A Song' is a good example of a traditional singer in great form. The songs are all unaccompanied and are songs that Vic learned from his family who were well-known Cornish singers. The CD is full of life and Vic's love for his songs and the people he learned them from comes through every one.

Kate Howson and Jeannie Harris play single-row melodeons in the old English 'push and draw' style and do it beautifully. Their CD 'Unbuttoned' is a great collection of tunes and songs, mostly from East Anglia. I particularly love Jeannie's way with a song, raw and emotional, it reminds me very much of the singers I used to hear in the pubs around Strangeways Prison, Manchester when great numbers of Irish Travellers were living in their vans on the empty bomb sites. Great stuff.

Will Noble and John Cocking are North Country singers and their CD 'Yon Green Banks' is a lovely collection of songs from the South Pennine area, some are duos and some solos, but all of them are the kind of songs you used to hear sung around Saddleworth and Holmfirth in years gone by.

These CDs are not bland easy listening, they ask you to open your ears and your mind and re-connect with music made with love, care and joy.

Old hippies never die - they just buy a campervan!

2009-10-30T16:48:40Z

Well I've gone and done it.

I wrote several months ago that my idea of bliss was a campervan with my banjo and fishing rod in the back and the endless roads of summer ahead of me.

Gripping my chequebook between my teeth I waded into the great swamp of second-hand VW campervans and after months of agonising over 'slities' 'bay windows' 'dormabiles' and 'westies' ended up with a compromise which as all my mates will tell you is unusual for me.

]]> I've bought myself a 2001 Brazilian bay-window import with a Danbury conversion.

It's 1600 cc which means I annoy everybody else on the road as I crawl at a dawdle along the road but, what the heck - it is the open road for me now, maties, and I know just where I'm going first of all.

There's a great little pub I know where they have real ale, proper pub food and live music and this very night my van is heading there and after a good old lash into the tunes and a bit of a sing I will be kipping out under the stars in my little tin home.

As far as I know you can't be done for being drunk in charge of a bed.

After that there's another little pub I know in the Lake District where the landlord plays the fiddle and makes bread from the yeast at the bottom of his beer barrels. I think I could probably make a good series of programmes just travelling round good pubs where there's good music and good craic.

A good way to spend the time I think.

So - if you pass a burnt-orange and white campervan parked up off the road with the curtains closed - drive past softly 'cos I might be still asleep.

Tiring work, banjo playing.

And remember - old hippies never die, they just buy a campervan.

Ewan MacColl - Journeyman

2009-10-28T16:26:39Z

I'm reading 'Journeyman' at the moment, the autobiography of Ewan MacColl.

It's a remarkable book on several levels; as the story of a working class boy who became one of the best songwriters and folk singers the world has known it is superb, and as a record of his life and work from childhood in Salford to his work with Theatre Workshop and later on the Radio Ballads - it tells a fascinating story.

]]> This is the third time I have read the book and I am particularly fascinated by the first part of the book which deals with Ewan's childhood and adolescence in Salford between the wars.

His writing opens a great window on working-class life during those bleak years and stands with Robert Roberts' 'A Ragged Schooling' and William Woodruff's 'The Road To Nab End' as an absorbing story of how education, whether through school or through reading alone, can transform a slum child's life.

The edition I'm reading is a new one edited by Ewan's widow and life partner Peggy Seeger (who surely should write her own story soon) and I went along to Salford yesterday to talk to Peggy about the book for my show before a concert to launch the second edition at Peel Hall.

During the chat we had she said something that I found very interesting.

That Ewan fled Salford all his life, that he wanted to put it all way behind him but that it never left him. Salford went through Ewan like Blackpool goes through rock. If you read this book (and I really do think you should) then you'll understand why the man who wrote 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' and 'Shoals of Herring' also wrote 'My Old Man' and 'Dirty Old Town'.

New CD from Colum Sands

2009-10-23T14:35:09Z

One of the beautiful things about the folk world is that it contains so many good people.

I spent a lot of time in the other world of showbiz / telly / music publishing, and I can tell you that there you will find some very murky waters and some very dubious and sharp-toothed fish.

I emerged relatively unscathed because I refused (and still do) to take any of it seriously.

]]> Sure, the folk world has the odd bit of back-biting and begrudgery (we're only human after all), but on the whole there are many more pluses than minuses. Amongst the pluses, I would count Colum Sands.

A gentleman and a scholar and all round good egg, as well as being one of the best singer-songwriters around; like his brother Tommy Sands, Colum seems to have his pulse on the times and to be able to communicate a deep love for humanity without being in any way mawkish or sentimental.

His new album is a typical collection great Colum songs, funny and thoughtful alike. My own particular favourite is 'Fred Jordan's Boots' inspired by a pair of boots that once belonged to Fred Jordan - that great Shropshire traditional folk singer and farm labourer - which ended up in New Zealand.

I will be playing this track on my programme next Wednesday (28 Oct).

If you don't know Colum's work already then this album is a great introduction to the man.

You should also of course check out Tommy's work too - in fact check out the whole Sands family - they are a very talented bunch.

Folk Alley - 100 Best Folk Songs

2009-10-16T16:07:54Z

A few years back in the USA I discovered Folk Alley a 24/7 free radio station that broadcasts
folk music - and does a terrific job of it too.

You'll hear everything from Asleep at the Wheel to Mike McGoldrick on the station and though it is a little USA biased (as you would expect) it is remarkably diverse in its playlist.

]]> I've found my way into a lot of interesting music through listening to the station, and I was
interested recently in their listener poll which went looking for the 100 Most Essential Folk Songs.

Here is the Top 25.

This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie

Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan

City of New Orleans - Steve Goodman

If I Had a Hammer - Pete Seeger

Where Have All The Flowers Gone - The Kingston Trio

Early Morning Rain - Gordon Lightfoot

Suzanne - Leonard Cohen

We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger

Four Strong Winds - Ian and Sylvia

Last Thing On My Mind - Tom Paxton

The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell

Tom Dooley - The Kingston Trio (Trad)

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell

Who Knows Where The Time Goes - Sandy Denny

Goodnight Irene - The Weavers (Trad)

Universal Soldier - Buffy St Marie

Don't Think Twice - Bob Dylan

Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez

Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie

Turn, Turn, Turn - The Byrds (Pete Seeger)

Puff The Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul and Mary

Thirsty Boots - Eric Andersen

There But For Fortune - Phil Ochs

You can see a list of all 100 songs here.

We did carry out a survey on my programme a few years back asking for listeners votes for the most influential folk album of all time and Liege And Lief by Fairpot Convention was the leader by a long head.

It would be interesting to see what listeners to my programme came up with in terms of 100 best folk songs of all time. I suspect it would be very different and that Puff The Magic Dragon and Leaving On A Jet Plane might not have made the cut.

Any ideas? Fire them in.

Ewan McLennan

2009-10-14T15:13:13Z

Don't you love it when you come across music that is new to you and you find that it delights and excites you? I'm always chuffed when I stumble on a folk-nugget.

]]> I felt like that the first time I heard Julie Fowlis and the evening I was walking through San Diego and heard the music of what would later become Crooked Still spooling out of a hotel room on the California air.

A listener emailed me to say I should listen to Ewan McLennan, a young Scottish singer and guitarist. So I did.

Comparisons are terrible and often used by bad journalists as a lazy way out of having to think. Well I thunk and thunk and the only way I can describe McLennan is as coming from the same stable as Dick Gaughan and Archie Fisher, while at the same time being truly original.

His voice is clear and strong with an appealing vibrato and his feeling for the narrative is strong and consistent. This is what the Irish call "the pure drop".

I'm going to be playing him on the programme in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, check out his website - I'm sure you'll like him.

Tom Russell: Savage Rants from the Minstrel Trail - Part 3

2009-10-12T15:42:19Z

Tom Russell writes:

So we're in Pittsburgh now, a week out, at that point when you have to find a Laundromat or buy a dozen new black tee shirts.

The answer to the food situation seems to be buying a ton of organic strawberries and bananas - living on smoothies.

]]> This is a country of the same recurring fast food joints and endless highways filled with
mindless people chatting on cell phones as their suburban sports vehicles weave in and out of the 90 mile per hour madness.

And no one is pulling over for three minutes to hear a song because, well, they ain't being
written these days.

Twelve years ago I toured with a group called The Monsters of Folk with Ramblin Jack Elliott and Dave Alvin. Now they got some new version of The Monsters of Folk out there....I'm sure they're nice people but where are the songs? Where is the danger? The character and attitude has no foundation in art....but me, I'm just on the road, heading for another joint....as Dylan, The Bard, would say.

Looking forward to the cheese platter and the tea and the sold out houses, weaving through the Blood and the Candle Smoke.

Tom Russell, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Tom Russell: Savage Rants from the Minstrel Trail - Part 2

2009-10-09T13:31:37Z

Tom Russell writes:

Five days ago we were taping a segment for the David Letterman show in New York City.

This was the very night Dave confessed he was being blackmailed because of several sexual escapades with staffers. Oh what a few days for the pig belly press to rave and beat their hearts with headline moral outrage!

]]> Talk show hosts were foaming at their mouths! Dave was extremely nice to me, per usual, and gave a strong introduction - we played 'East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam' with Paul Shaffer and the full orchestra.

Then: Back on the Road: The tour for 'Blood and Candle Smoke', and the fruit platters in the
dressing room and the microphones that smell like camel cigarettes circa 1952.

But the Letterman ratings almost doubled, and the press on our record was soaring and the shows are starting to sell out....I've been waiting forty years for this.

We relished that one night in a four star hotel in Manhattan and ran up the room service tabs to an embarrassing amount...then drove through the Holland tunnel towards Jersey and Philly, where we taped Gene Shay's 'World Café' show and he told me that he had 11,000 records in his collection from the last fifty years and 'Blood and Candle Smoke' was in the top 25.

Hallelujah!

Tom Russell: Savage Rants from the Minstrel Trail - Part 1

2009-10-07T12:43:36Z

Tom Russell writes:

There is no danger. Not anymore. Not in song.

Bob Dylan walked out onto a small stage at Newport forty years ago and scared ten thousand soppy-hearted folkies.

Johnny Cash shook his fist at American radio in an ad in Billboard magazine for their refusal to play Peter La Farge's 'Ballad of Ira Hayes'. "Radio people! Where are your guts?"... he screamed.

]]> Janis Joplin tore the screws out of every stage she stomped across.

Hank Williams cut to the heart of every possible footnote on modern love, then expired on the road at age 29.

These voices ripped into the soul of this cotton candy wasteland. But there are not many songs today that will make you pull over to the side of the road and weep.

But hell, I can try to write a few...here I am in Pittsburgh staring out at another mall, on a six month tour to push 'Blood and Candle Smoke', a 12 song record I believe in.

Remember the days when 'Blonde on Blonde' came out and you took this holy piece of the grail home and locked yourself in the room for three days dissecting the message? And a good one it was. A total work of art.

I'd like to aim for making a record that strong.

I'm staring at a broken cheese platter in a dressing room darkened by the spit and graffiti of desperate rock and roll bands and punkish songwriters, and the tea kettle is boiling over, and it's time to change the guitar strings.

The troubadour road. Graham Greene once mused that perhaps it was the troubadours who invented the concept of love. I'm with him.