A Suffolk Harvest Home
A newspaper account of a Victorian harvest home unearthed by the Foxearth and
District Local History Society.
Welsh
Harvest Customs
The harvest period was also a time in which ancient customs were re-enacted
to ensure the fruitfulness of the land in the years to come.
The Haxey Hood
The Haxey Hood is one of the most vibrant of the mid-winter traditions, claiming
700 years of history.
Yorkshire Dialect Poetry
Many dialect poems only need the addition of a good tune to turn them into songs.
This website features several fine collections, all out of copyright.
Anti War Songs
There's always been a strong element of anti war sentiment running through the
folk song revival from the 1950s onwards. These songs are taken from a discussion
thread some years ago on The Mudcat Cafe.
John Playford
Who exactly was John Playford? This biography of the publisher of 'The English
Dancing Master' comes from The Letter of Dance, the newsletter for Renaissance
and SCA Dance.
Tony Doyle's website
Tony Doyle of the Plain Brown Wrapper Band has lots of interesting stuff on
his website - an article about Niel Gow, the great Scottish fiddler and composer,
the double hornpipes of Lancashire and Cheshire, and excerpts from the Ellis
Knowles tunebook.
English Country Music
As anglo concertina player with the seminal band Flowers and Frolics, Roger
Digby is well qualified to trace the history of English Country Music, the revival
of interest in English traditional dance tunes and playing styles.
Ancient
Poems, Ballads and Songs of England by Robert Bell (editor)
Taken down from oral recitation and transcribed from private manuscripts, rare
broadsides and scarce publications. Another important resource available on
the web.
Dance Technique
Colin Hume is a bit of a superstar in the world of folk dance calling. His website
includes a huge collection of articles by Colin and others to help dancers improve
their technique,
Scottish Dancing cribsheets
Do you remember the episode of 'Some Mothers Do Have Them' where Michael Crawford
as Frank Spencer attempted Scottish country dancing? Avoid a similar occurrence
by downloading cribsheets in advance for the programme of dances. You need Microsoft
Word to make it work.
The James Madison Carpenter
Folk Song Collection
Another major folk song collection that's available online and, this time, it's
on a British website.
Tim Sheppard's Storytelling Resources
The section of Tim Sheppard's website devoted to storytelling is a vast collection
of resources for the novice and experienced storyteller.
The Wroth Silver Ceremony
One of the ceremonies that Doc Rowe is a regular attender at is Warwickshire's
Wroth Silver and they now have a web site Thanks to William Waddilove, co-author
of Wroth Silver Today, the book of the ceremony, for tipping me off.
A Brief History of
Cajun, Creole and Zydeco Music
The effects of Hurricane Katrina threaten the future of traditional music forms
like New Orleans jazz and Cajun and Zydeco music. Many Cajun and Zydeco musicians
made their homes in New Orleans. Hopefully, all the music scenes will survive.
Thomas Bewick - Folk's favourite illustrator
The wood engravings of Thomas Bewick have adorned many album covers and songbooks.
Here is a short
introduction to him, while the web sites of Roger
H. Boulet and Roy
Archer contain many examples of his work. If you'd like to add a touch of
class to your club publicity, then Bewick's images (particularly the vignettes)
are a good place to start and they're copyright-free.
A Glossary of Seafaring
Terms
If you enjoy singing shanties, do you understand the terminology? Find out what
it all means here.
Poverty in the Victorian Age
Poverty and Families
in the Victorian Era - What caused poverty in Victorian Britain, and how
this affected families and children. Poverty
and Juvenile Crime - How poverty in Victorian Britain led children into
lives of crime, and what the lives of child criminals and prisoners were like.
Ragged Schools,
Industrial Schools and Reformatories - How some poor children were dealt
with by the Victorian system.
The History of Rapper Dancing
Just one of the articles on an excellent site devoted to the rapper dance of
North East England.
Canal Folk Art
The starting point for a series of articles on various aspects of the decorative
artwork associated with the canals.
A.L. (Bert) Lloyd - the early days
The beginnings of Bert Lloyd's involvement in folk music are examined in two
excellent articles by David Gregory. A.
L. Lloyd and the English Folk Song Revival, 1934-44 covers Bert's early
life, his time in Australia, his seafaring days, his radicalism and his career
as a journalist as well as his growing love and knowledge of folk song. Starting
Over: A. L. Lloyd and the Search for a New Folk Music, 1945-49 continues
the story. David Gregory is one of the foremost historians of the early days
of the folk song revival.
Wot - No guests?
One of the longest running clubs in the Midlands, The Somers Traditional Folk
Club, doesn't book guest artists. This is a strange idea for many club organisers.
I thought that their experiences might hold some lessons for organisers of singers'
clubs and singarounds, so I asked them to write about it. Here, Eleanor Simmons
writes on "How Does the Somers Traditional Folk Club Manage to Succeed Without
Booking Guests?" and other related matters.
Strictly Country Dancing
2004 saw a big upsurge of interest in dancing. Despite its clumsy title and
corny format, the BBC show 'Strictly Come Dancing' has convinced many thousands
of people that the ability to dance is an important and attractive social skill
and that dancing is a pleasurable activity. Given that we've got a superior
product, what can dance organisers, callers and bands do to sell country dancing
to the general public?
Tam Lin
Tam Lin is the most magical of the English and Scottish ballads. Everything
you've always wanted to know about this great ballad - Umpteen versions of Tam
Lin, Interpreting Tam Lin's symbols, Tam Lin Resources page, Bibliography, The
Music of Tam Lin, Tam Lin and Families of Scotland, Tam Lin and Carterhaugh,
Comparing Tam Lin to Other Tales, Tam Lin Theories, Tam Lin Parodies.
The Morris Book
Cecil Sharp's classic work is the bible of Cotswold morris. It's available online
from the above link. You can download it for your personal use.
William Cobbett's Rural Rides
William Cobbett was born in 1763, the son of a farmer and innkeeper. He was in
the army between 1784 and 1791, but blowing the whistle on military corruption
forced him to flee to America. There he began his career as a journalist, publishing
12 volumes of attacks on American democracy and becoming known as Peter
Porcupine. He returned to England in 1800 and began publishing a weekly
newsletter, the Political Register in 1802 He saw himself as a champion of
traditional rural society against the transformation due to the Industrial Revolution.
Philosophically deeply conservative, he was active in grassroots radicalism
and supported labourers' riots in 1830, leading to him being tried for sedition
but aquitted. He was elected to Parliament in 1832 but died in 1835. This site
contains excerpts from his most famous book.
The Gypsies in Britain
The Gypsies have been important to the folk song tradition, both as carriers
of songs and tunes and as main characters in the many variants of 'The Gypsy
Laddies'.
World War One songs
Here's a site where you can listen to and download MP3 recordings of the songs
that were sung during the period before and during the conflict.
Joseph
Taylor
The most admired traditional singer ever recorded must be Joseph Taylor, who
was captured on wax cylinder by Percy Grainger in the first decade of the 20th
century. Here's a whole site devoted to the man.
The John Quincy Wolf collection
The wonderful American singer Sara Grey told me about this site devoted to the recordings
of one of America's pioneer folk song collectors. You can listen to and download MP3
recordings for your own personal use.
The Highland Clearances
Why is one of the outposts of Scottish song and music found in Cape Breton in Canada? It's
all down to the period known as the Highland Clearances, when many thousands of Highlanders
were displaced from their homes in the late 18th / early 19th centuries.