Folk Show: Episode 101 features Clare Sands & Bridin, The Bonny Men, Owen Shiers, Nick Hart, Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, False Lights, The Willows, Trú, Peach/Skeoch, Antoni Breskey, Lisa Knapp, James Yorkston, The Memory Band, Kathryn Tickell, Marry Waterson & David A. Jaycock, Wistman’s Wood, Oysterband, The Rheingans Sisters.
This week’s Folk Show kicks off with Iontach Bheith Beo, an ode to the ‘Irish Summer’ and all it entails. It’s the new single from Clare Sands feat. Bridin, the video for which we recently premiered here.
Keeping things upbeat, Dublin’s The Bonny Men keep the feet tapping with a blast from last year’s album ‘The Broken Pledge‘ and Cynefin follows suit, the music project West Wales native Owen Shiers who puts in a double appearance, later with a track from the new Landworkers Alliance compilation (buy it here) from which we also feature Nick Hart.
Stand Up Now collates traditional and original music gathered from the farms, woods and cities of our contested nation and stands in a proud tradition of peoples’ music and peoples’ history. Recorded the cold, wet spring of 2021, these fifteen songs raise the eternal themes of our present and of our past; love, liberty and the struggles of labour.
Other new and recent releases include a track from Trú‘s No Fixed Abode (reviewed here). Band member Zach Trouton told us of ‘The Blacksmith’:
Deeply connected to the South of England, the melody for this popular ballad was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1904 from a Mrs Verrall of Horsham, Sussex. A song with many ‘definitive versions’, a line can be drawn directly from these to the singing of English Traveller Phoebe Smith, whose version was collected by Peter Kennedy in 1969, which inspired the great Shirley Collins to record her own interpretation.
Although very much considered an English Song, Planxty’s treatment of the song in the 70s served as a touchstone for our arrangement. As they had altered the song harmonically and rhythmically, so we wanted to in our own way. A continuation of the tradition. I love Michael’s cold and metallic production, which adds an almost industrial feel and brings the elusive Blacksmith character to life.
From Antoni O’Breskey‘s new album Blessed Sadness. On Eighteen Years Old, you can hear the beautiful vocals of Consuelo Nerea Breschi, Antoni’s daughter and member of the Dublin duo Varo. The album was conceived at the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020, recorded between Italy and Ireland during last summer, in collaboration with an extensive ensemble of musicians, including Ultan O’Brien (Slow Moving Clouds), Davide Viterbo (Distant City), the aforementioned Consuelo Nerea Breschi (Varo), Paddy Cummins (Skipper’s Alley), Leonora Lyne and many more.
From Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys The Wishing Tree, we have the beautiful Irish lament Mo Ghile Mear.
Sam Kelly and The Lost Boys have again demonstrated they are the complete package. Whether you look at the song writing, the development of the arrangements or the individual musical performances, you’d be hard pushed to find the merest chink in their armour. With The Wishing Tree, they demonstrate that to perfection.
From James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra‘s The Wide Wide River (reviewed here) is ‘A Very Old-Fashioned Blues…”beautiful and elegiac, immersive and fiery, its backing vocals nudging it into Richard and Linda Thompson territory.”
The rest of the mix features a selection of personal favourites from the past, including tracks from False Light‘s debut Salvor (2015), The Willows album Amidst Fiery Skies (2014), Peach/Skeoch‘s self-titled debut (2017), Lisa Knapp‘s Till April is Dead (2017), The Memory Band‘s A Fair Field (2016), Kathryn Tickell‘s Ensemble Mystical (2001), Wistman’s Wood self-titled debut (2006) which features Steve Turner, Jackie Oates and Andy Clarke, Oysterband‘s This House Will Stand compilation (2016).
The closing tracks come from Marry Waterson & David A. Jaycock‘s Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love (2017):
‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ was inspired by one of the last few remaining maidens’ crowns housed in St Stephen’s Old Church in Robin Hood’s Bay, built in 1822. I sang there for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show in 2016, and as I explained this custom to Mark Radcliffe, I realised I wanted to write about it.
And The Rheingans Sisters award-winning track Mackerel (The Best Original Track at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards) from their 2016 album ‘Already Home’. Rowan wrote a beautiful in-depth article for Folk Radio here.
Folk Show Playlist
Clare Sands feat. Bridin – Iontach Bheith Beo (Good To Be Alive)
The Bonny Men – An tSean Bhean Bhocht
Cynefin – Dole Teifi/Lliw’r Heulwen
False Lights – Polly On The Shore
The Willows – Daughter
Peach/Skeoch – East Meets West
Trú – The Blacksmith
Antoni O’Breskey – Eighteen Years Old
Lisa Knapp – Staines Morris (feat David Tibet)
James Yorkston and The Second Hand Orchestra – A Very Old-Fashioned Blues
The Memory Band – On Our Side
Kathryn Tickell – Border Widow’s Lament
Nick Hart – The Faithful Plough
Wistman’s Wood – Bold Reynard
Oysterband – Bold Riley (Alt. Version)
Owen Shiers – Trecadwgan
Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys – Mo Ghile Mear
Marry Waterson & David A. Jaycock – Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love
The Rheingans Sisters – Mackerel
Photo: Blea Tarn, Ambleside, UK
Credit: Photo by Jonny Gios