English Folk Music

[Beorn]

Inspired by this thread (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3702), I thought it would be good to start a thread to stage the songs, bands and personalities of the English folk music scene.


Folk music of England is a form of popular music, often contrasted with courtly, classical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music) and later commercial music, for which we have evidence from the later medieval (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval) period. It has been preserved and transmitted orally, through print and later through recordings. The term is used to refer to English traditional music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_music) and music composed, or delivered, in a traditional style. English folk music has produced or contributed to several important musical forms, including sea shanties (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_shanties), jigs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigs), hornpipes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornpipe) and forms of dance music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_music), such as those used for Morris dancing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dancing). It can be seen as having distinct regional and local variations in content form and style, particularly in areas more removed from the cultural and political centres of the English state, as in Northumbria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northumbria), or the West Country (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Country). Cultural interchange and processes of migration mean that English folk music, although in many ways distinctive, has particularly interacted with the music of Scotland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Scotland), Ireland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music_of_Ireland) and Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Wales). Because of the close cultural connections between England and the USA, from the late twentieth century, the term has also been used for forms of music based on American roots music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots_music), traditional and folk music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_folk_music). English folk music has been the subject of a number of 'revivals' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots_revival) and periods of resurgence, particularly since the late nineteenth century. It has been seen as an important element of English national (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_nationalism) and working-class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-class) identity. It has also interacted with other musical traditions, particularly classical and rock music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music), influencing musical forms and producing musical fusions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_%28music%29), such as electric folk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_folk), folk punk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_punk) and folk metal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_metal). There remains a flourishing sub-culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-culture) of English folk music, which continues to influence other forms and occasionally to gain mainstream attention.

Folk_music_of_England - Origins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music_of_England#Origins)
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And no English Folk thread wouldn't be complete without....

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:D


Please, if you have an English folk song you love do not hesitate to add it to the thread.

[Birka]

How about this one by Strawbs.

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[Bloodeagle]

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Not sure if this is folksy enough, but I like his music.:thumbs up

Video seemed to work in preview but not now!

[Barreldriver]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkC1ohl2Knk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dx9mbkdQsA

:D I want one of these:D

[Treffie]

Beth Orton is awesome, many people forget that she's a folk singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbQeNRaSZ3c

Kate Rusby's voice is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3B2mntKAZo

[Barreldriver]

Good song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5SX3A-ifME

Only recording I could find of it. :(

[Freomæg]

Bellowhead
They're the band whose member Jon Boden has the "Anti-Nazi League" sticker ;).

A little contemporary perhaps, but I'm a big Steeleye Span fan:
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though a lot of what they do is based in traditional songs from all over Britain:
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[007]

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Love this song. Wish I could find it with all the verses sung. :thumb001:

[007]

A few more;

Hearts of Oak

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Life on the Ocean Wave(sung by Tony the Tiger)

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Greensleeves, supposed to have been written by Henry VIII

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Fivepenny Piece Where there's muck there's brass

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[Beorn]

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I think this band's message go hand in hand with the below post.


What English Folk Music? (http://www.johnkirkpatrick.co.uk/wr_WhatEnglish.htm)


By John Kirkpatrick

From "Direct Roots". the new folk directory and guide published by


Mrs Casey Music, 2001

Anyone who loves English folk music has had to accept that they are part of a minority. The most traditional thing about traditional English music is that most people in England, in the British Isles, and in the world at large neither know nor care what it is. Well, in case anyone out there is wondering how to findo out, here's how you do it, and it's dead easy.
In any region of the world it is the local dancing that gives the music its character - the steps, the rhythm, the tempo, the ebb and flow of the movements, the amount of energy expended - all these things affect the style of the music in that place. The more closely the accompaniment matches the pulse of the dance, the more distinctive a voice it will have, and the more exotic and mysterious it will appear to foreign ears. If you ignore the needs of the dance, you just end up with a spineless blancmange of bland fusion styles with no roots in anything.
England can easily match any other country for the richness and diversity of its traditional dances. You can dance with sticks, handkerchiefs, swords that bend, swords that don't bend, poles, brooms, cotton slings, wooden coconuts, garlands, tobacco pipes, and antlers that are a thousand years old. You can dance in couples, on your own, in sets of three or four, or six, or eight, or in townfuls. You can dance in shoes, or boots, or clogs; in your ordinary clothes, in the garb of a hero, in rags, in uniform, all in white, with a disguised face; or dressed as a horse or as Robin Hood, or as someone of the opposite sex. You can dance in a straight line, in a circle, in a square, in a hey, round a tree, back and forth, up and down, and you can tie yourself in knots. And all these dances have their own precise requirements that must be matched by the music.
So, if there's all this wonderful stuff lying around, why aren't we more aware of it as an everyday part of our national culture? Why aren't we all doing it, and valuing it, and treasuring it? Well, of course some of us are, but it is, or was, mostly done, and valued, and treasured in the country. And folk music in all its forms has been preserved most tenaciously by the least privileged layers of society - that's part of the definition - because even if there's little in the way of material wealth or worldly possessions, at least you know who you are, and where you come from, and your place in your local community, because you re-affirm all these connections every time you do your local dance, or song, or custom, at the right time of the year, in the right way, to the right music. And the begging verses that so often occur aren't something quaint or curious stuck on to spoil things - they are a vital part of the survival of the custom and of those doing it - a chance to gather a few much-needed extra pennies.
As people moved more and more into towns, as well as leaving behind the physical setting of these customs, they also left behind the reason for keeping them up. If you work in town, indoors, you don't even need to be aware of the weather, let alone what time of year it is. Every day is the same. And the number of people around you all the time lessens the feeling of community, lessens the strong identification with the place where you live. And that in turn leads to the happy acceptance of any form of cultural stimulation, whatever its source, especially if your new-found urban wealth and sophistication makes you feel ashamed of what you got up to in the days of your poverty.
The Royal Family haven't helped. Historically they've always been more inclined to look for spouses for their offspring from other royal families in Europe rather than from native English stock (We might never have had Christmas trees or maypole dancing in this country if Queen Victoria hadn't married a German.) Even though the current royals are better about this than their forebears, their birthday bashes are still stuffed with all their foreign cousins, and you can bet your life that they don't get up to any step dancing, or belt out 'Pleasant and Delightful', or do a morris jig - not even 'Princess Royal'. And although Princess Margaret is the President of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, and does attend a function once in a blue moon, you only ever see the rest of the family doing Scottish dancing, never English. A fine example!
The Glorious British Empire probably did as much to stamp out ethnic culture in England as it did everywhere else it crunched its mighty boots. Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, and Jerusalem are brilliantly designed to whip up fervent patriotism and nationalist feelings, but do so by smothering more local and parochial loyalties, in much the same way as Hymns Ancient & Modern and the church organ combined to smother and drive underground the old style and repertoire of the church bands. You can easily understand how the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh have had cause to feel resentment against their London-based ruling classes, but so too have the English.
Cecil Sharp probably did the cause no good by getting the folk music he had been collecting (from adults) into the school curriculum in the early twentieth century. How many grown-ups do you see playing hopscotch, or conkers, or doing a nativity play, or maypole dancing? It's OK to do these things at school, but you leave all that behind as an adult, don't you? I know I hated having to do country dancing at primary school myself, and I only changed my mind when the hormones kicked in, and holding hands with girls stopped being utterly embarrassing and actually became something rather desirable. But not everyone gets the chance to make that connection, and many would dismiss it all as kids' stuff.
If the story so far explains why we English are so reticent and unsure about our Englishness, then the final nail in the coffin must be the onslaught of American culture. We're swamped by it. Records, films, radio, television - it's everywhere.
All the forms of popular music come from there - ragtime, jazz, blues, big bands, gospel, musicals, rock & roll, country music, pop music, rap - they all sing with an American voice. Pop music sounds ridiculous in an ordinary English accent, and the singers in all these styles know it doesn't work because,wherever they come from, they always sing in American. It's so pervasive that you don't even notice it, and the sad result is that when you do hear singing in a straightforward English voice - in classical music, say - it sounds fabulously square and old-fashioned. At least punk bands tried to sing in English, but that's largely lost now.
But the worst contamination was yet to come, because America also had folk singers. They were people with guitars who wrote their own songs. This was obviously the real thing, not those old fogeys singing songs they'd learned from their grandparents in the pub. I mean, they didn't even play anything! They didn't even think to use a microphone For the cool and sophisticated, the way forward was to put our deepest thoughts into bland melodies over a bland guitar pattern and work through our angst in a sleepy American drawl.
But traditional music isn't cool and sophisticated, it isn't easy listening, it isn't quiet and introspective. It's simple and straightforward, it's full of life and lust, it's dark and dangerous, it's exotic and mysterious. It addresses the uncivilised part of human nature, it deals with epic themes in a way we can cope with, it channels our excess energy, it makes us feel we belong somewhere.

One aspect of English culture we'd all agree about is that we're bad at complaining, but let's start making our voices heard. Next time you see a singer-songwriter in a folk venue whispering away in a mid-Atlantic twang, ask them what's wrong with singing out in their own voice and accent. Next time you see parents putting in a pop video to keep their kids quiet, ask them if they know that singing them nursery rhymes would do far more good to the kids and themselves - it's the best possible introduction to live music, to learning speech patterns, and rhythm., how to match words and a tune. Next time you see a pub session that is non-stop reels at the speed of light, ask if they think anyone could ever dance at that speed, and ask them to play a nice steady jig - it's much harder! Next time you see a slovenly team of morris dancers shuffling half-heartedly or half drunk through their routines, ask them if they think they are justifying their position as guardians of our shared national heritage.
The raw material of English traditional folk music is sensational. Let's do it justice, let's be proud of it, let's cherish it. Let's listen to all those field recordings of singers and musicians and wonder at their strangeness. Let's use our brains and our hearts, and get out there and build up something unique to where we live, like they do in Allendale or Abbots Bromley, or Bampton or Abingdon, or Handsworth or Grenoside, or Helston or Haxey. And if these names mean nothing to you, then join the English Folk Dance and Song Society and support the work of The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library - one of the best folk music libraries in the world - and go there and find out.

John Kirkpatrick - Morris dancer, singer, musician and Englishman.

[Freomæg]

I've just discovered Fire + Ice. Excellent, melancholic Anglo Saxon themed folk (I guess some would say 'neo folk'):

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IAN READ started his musical career with CURRENT 93 in 1986 with a vocal track on the album. 'SWASTIKAS FOR NODDY' and continued with DEATH IN JUNE on the 'BROWN BOOK'. Then Ian met Tony Wakeford and SOL INVICTUS was born.

SOL INVICTUS' first offering was the mini LP 'AGAINST THE MODERN WORLD' which came out in 1988 with IAN's vocals. Ian went to Japan on the 1988 tour featuring SOL INVICTUS. DEATH IN JUNE and CURRENT 93. From this, the live album 'IN THE JAWS OF THE SERPENT' was released. A live performance at Chislehurst Caves saw IAN on percussion and vocals, and the release of a 7' single only for gig participants with SOL INVICTUS on one side with 'ABATTOIRS OF LOVE' (remixed with intro by IAN) and CURRENT 93 on the other. The album 'LEX TALIONIS' followed and, finally, in I990, 'TREES IN WINTER', which was IAN's last recording with SOL INVICTUS. After some time spent on the continent, IAN returned to found a new band FIRE + ICE.
Fire + Ice (http://edred.net/fireandice/)

[Beorn]

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High on a hill,
There's a sweet bird calling,
All come together,
Are you in or are you out,
He sings of a time,
When the sky was falling,
All come together,
And be in no doubt.

Chorus:
Oh darling let's go over,
Now the devil's here,
Oh darling let's go over,
Now the devil's here,
Oh darling, oh my darling,
Be strong and be proud,
Oh darling then you'll see,
The devil will go round,
Round, round.

High on a hill,
And way up yonder,
All come together,
Are you in or are you out,
The eleventh day was hell,
But the heart grows stronger,
All come together,
And be in no doubt.

Chorus.

Over the fields,
Where the water's falling,
All come together,
Are you in or are you out,
There's a bird on the hill,
And he's sweetly calling,
All come together,
And be in no doubt.

Chorus.

High on a hill,
There's a sweet bird calling,
All come together,
Are you in or are you out,
He sings of a time,
When the sky was falling,
All come together,
And be in no doubt.

Chorus

[Goidelic]

Good music ;)

I was surprised how similar the English bagpipes sounded to Irish & Scottish, I actually thought it was quite nice. :thumb001:;)

It's too bad English aren't considered an ethnicity in the diaspora areas around the world, that's why you never hear about English-American folk festivals or English-Canadian folk festivals because most of their descendants have been there for so long that they're no longer considered "ethnic", despite making up the overwhelming heritage, in comparison to immigrants that have immigrated within the last 150-200 years & have formed ethnic enclaves. :p:D

[heathen_son]

Brassmonkey - The Maid & The Palmer

[Æscwyn]

Maddy Prior's album "Seven for Old England" is very good. You can hear two songs here -

For Old England

The Cuckoo is a beautiful song.

[Liffrea]

A few on the i pod.

Sweet England- Jim Moray:

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Show of Hands-Country Life:

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Levellers- The Boatman:

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Seen the Levellers live several times, they play a gig once a year in Derby.

Alright not English, Loreena MacKennit, The Mummer's Dance:

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[Graham]

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Byker Hill is a traditional English folk song about coal miners that has been performed by many contemporary acts.There are at least two different tunes to which the song is sung.

Byker Hill is in the East end of Newcastle, as is the adjoining district of Walker, also mentioned in the song. "Byker Hill and Walker Shore, Collier lads for ever more"
:thumb001::guinness:

Some of my family came from these areas, found this song on youtube. Sounds like a good old english folk song to me.

[heathen_son]

Maddy Prior...wonderful. I can't think of her without thinking of June Tabor, a woman with traditionalist sensibilities :D

But I am (always) in the mood for Martin Simpson.

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[heathen_son]

Some of my family came from these areas, found this song on youtube. Sounds like a good old english folk song to me.

The pairs finest work! I saw them play this together last year. Amazing!

[Nglund]

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[Lithium]

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I actually adore all kinds of British folk music

[heathen_son]

Lovely Eliza...

Eliza Carthy The Ratctchers - The Gallant Hussar

[Peasant]

Miri it is!

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[heathen_son]

Maddy Prior - Bold General Wolfe

[Marinus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NXFCDgyanA

[LouisFerdinand]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0lDdrUFgME