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Despite being the centre of both folk revivals and the British folk rock movement, the songs of London were largely neglected in favour of regional and rural music until relatively recently. London, unsurprisingly, was the most common location mentioned in English folk songs, including 'London is a Fine Town', and the 'London Prentice' and it was the centre of the broadside publishing industry ...
- A Playlist: Some of The Best Traditional Folk Songs
- ‘Clyde Water’: Chosen by Jim Moray
- ‘Adieu, Adieu’: Chosen by Jack Rutter
- ‘Georgie’: Chosen by Nicola Kearey
- ‘Cariad Cyntaf’: Chosen by Ffion Mair of The Foxglove Trio
- ‘The Trees They Grow So High’: Chosen by Ange Hardy
- ‘Two Constant Lovers’: Chosen by Greg Russell
- ‘Bonny Udny’: Chosen by Iona Fyfe
- Rufford Park Poachers: Chosen by Jimmy Aldridge
- ‘Brave Benbow’: Chosen by Laura Smyth
This British Folk Songs Playlistseries was intended to be a fortnightly collection of snippets and recommendations from various well-known folk singers living and working in Britain today, each talking about the old ballads and folk songs that inspired them, offering newcomers to the genre a leg-up so that they can find their way forwards. I hope y...
Roud number: 91 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “I’m not sure that you can separate the singer from the song at the level that gets under my skin. Part of things being of ‘the oral tradition’ means it deeply matters to me who is singing or playing, and whether they can communicate stuff. “So my choice would specifically be N...
Roud number: 490 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “My choice of song is ‘Adieu, Adieu’. It got to me first through The Watersons’ album For Pence and Spicy Ale and also Martin Simpson’s album, Kind Letters, both of which I took out from Huddersfield Library in my mid-teens and both of which are still in my top 10 favourite al...
Roud number: 90 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “It was so vital sounding – about a place in London. The woman saying, ‘yeah, I’ll take you all on’. It just had a fierceness I could get behind. I first heard Martin Carthy playing it in his gardenfor the BBC Folk Britannia programme. That is the only version you want.” Where ...
What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “The traditional Welsh love song Cariad Cyntaf is a great song. The lyrics are powerful (lots of hyperbole about how wonderful a woman is – the song title translates into English as ‘First Love’) and the tune has a lot of passion. It’s short and has an irregularly-lengthed last line. These two...
Roud number: 31 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “There are many versions of this song and I love it for that reason. You can really play with the melody as the phrasing lends itself to many styles of singing, and it has enough space in the lyric to allow you to play with your vocal delivery, adding inflections. It’s a fantas...
Roud number: 466 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “One of the things I sometimes struggle with, regarding traditional song, is that it can be very hard to associate with – and lyrically enjoy – a song that appears to be about the supernatural. But this song, for me, gets around such barriers, firstly because of its delivery a...
Roud number: 3450 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “I heard this song from the singing of Lizzie Higgins and John MacDonald. It is also found in the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection Volume 6 and John Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads. The narrative explains his love for Udny as well as his love for his significant other. Udny Gr...
Roud number: 1759 What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “My choice is ‘Rufford Park Poachers’. I particularly love Nic Jones’ version on the live album Game Set Match. “It’s the perfect song for a newcomer to traditional music because it introduces so many of the themes that (I think) make traditional music engaging. “Firstly, it’...
What makes this one of the best traditional folk songs? “Sea songs and shanties tend to be a good place to start when learning folk songs – they usually have either great stories or great choruses, or both. And with Britain being an island with a strong naval history, we luckily have a fair few to choose from. “This song came to our attention when ...
Best English folk songs: from Scarborough Fair to Greensleeves, we run down our list of favourite folk tunes from England
Mike's Music Time channel.Thanks for listening: Chillout to 63 mins British folk musicJust let the cool smooth vibes take over and enjoyPlease subscribe to m...
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A new music service with official albums, singles, videos, remixes, live performances and more for Android, iOS and desktop. It's all here. Full English - A Collection of Traditional British Folk Songs
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Traditional and progressive folk music....with samples of classical music.
