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This week’s Folk Show features a rich offering of Irish and British folk music. Throughout are a number of recordings from Topic Records’ widely-acclaimed and seminal traditional British folk music series Voice of the People. There are also some beautiful contemporary offerings that are rooted in the tradition, such as Ensemble Ériu ( a septet led by Jack Talty and Neil Ó Loclainn), Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin & Ultan O’Brien, Eliza Carthy, Sam Sweeney, The Martin Hayes Quartet and more.
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Playlist
- Siskin Quartet – The Peewit (Flight Paths)
Siskin Quartet is a new project featuring two well-established folk music duos, Swedish-English Bridget Marsden & Leif Ottosson and Scottish-Finnish-Norwegian Sarah-Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola. On their forthcoming album Flight Paths (out on 30 September), their respective deep traditions meet in new compositions framed by the theme of migratory birds. This is a theme every touring musician can identify with, but even more so in Siskin Quartet as Bridget, Sarah-Jane and Juhani have all settled in a new country. The Peewit, a composition by Sarah-Jane, opens the album. - Sarah Makem – As I Roved Out (Voice of the People – Sarah Makem – The Heart is True)
In 2011, Topic Records released ‘Sarah Makem – The Heart is True’, a Voice of the People volume dedicated to her singing. Sarah was born on 18th October 1900 in the small market town of Keady, Co. Armagh. In 1952, Peter Kennedy made a field-recording trip to Ulster. The Makem household would later be recorded by Jean Ritchie and her husband George Pickow, Diane Hamilton, Liam Clancy, David Hammond, Pete Seeger and more. She died in 1983…very little had been written about her. In the liner notes, there’s an extract from a note by Aideen D’Arcy that she wrote for the South Armagh Genealogy Project, in which she says Sarah “travelled little, spoke less, and wrote nothing at all… for what Sarah did was sing. She sang when she was happy, and she sang when she was sad, and she sang when she was angry – you could always tell what mood she was in by the way she sang. “If you hear me singing loud, don’t come in!” she’d warn… - Ensemble Ériu – Jurna (Ensemble Ériu – 2013)
Ensemble Ériu, a septet led by Jack Talty and Neil Ó Loclainn, draw on a wealth of creative sources to perform arrangements of Irish traditional music rooted in the styles of West and North County Clare. Featuring Jack Talty – concertina, bass concertina & electronics, Neil Ó Loclainn – double bass, flute & whistle, Matthew Jacobson – marimba & drums, Matthew Berrill – clarinet, bass clarinet, Úna McGinty – violin & viola, Jeremy Spencer – fiddle, Paddy Groenland – guitar, Sam Perkin – piano, Colm O’ Hara – trombone, Saileog Ní Cheannabháin – voice. - Laura Smyth & Ted Kemp – Alizon Device (The Poacher’s Fate – 2017)
From the liner notes: The Pendle witch trials of 1612 are one of the largest and most famous of their kind in English history. Whilst there were many factors which acted as a catalyst to these accusations, one of the most intriguing is an incident involving a young girl called Alizon Device. She was accused of bewitching a man who had suffered a stroke not long after they had an altercation. Alizon believed in her own guilt and sought forgiveness, but it didn’t save her. There are no surviving contemporaneous ballads connected to these events, so Laura decided to write her own. - Janet Penfold – Won’t You Buy My Sweet Blooming Lavender (Voice of the People – I’m a Romany Rai – Songs by Southern English Gypsy Traditional Singers – 2011)
The songs and this volume were selected and presented by Shirley Collins from recordings made in the 1950s. This track was recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1958 in Battersea, London. The liner notes state that Janet, aged thirty at the time of the recording, lived with her mother, Florrie. They were both Gypsy street sellers. “As a youngster I went around with my mother selling lavender and singing the song, The Lavender Cry, in the London town, and it goes back from generation to generation long before I was born. It was my grandmother that learnt us about it. I mean, they done it all their life. We used to get up at four in the morning and go and gather it from Mitcham. Tie it up in little bunches, small ones, large ones. We’d go around Chelsea and Pimlico, and Sloane Square, all up in London. They like the smell of it for one thing, and for another, they like to hear you sing the song, the old London cry.” - Aidan Connolly – Reels: Paddy Cronin’s Own, As A Thoiseach, John Blessing’s (Be Off – 2016)
Across sixteen tracks, this remarkably accomplished debut album from the young Dublin fiddle player features music from a wide range of sources and in a wide variety of arrangements, including many with close musical friends of Aidan’s. Guest Musicians: Liam McGonigle, Deirdre Winrow, Pádraic Keane, Oisín Morrison, Con Moynihan, Andrea Palandri, Pauric Bannon, Jack Talty, and Ruairí McGorman. - Belle Stewart – The Overgate (Voice of the People – There is a Man Upon the Farm – Working Men & Women in Song – 2000)
Recorded by Fred Kent at Blairgowrie, Perthshire, May 1976. Linter Notes (extract): Belle Stewart (née McGregor) was born in 1906 in a bow-tent on Claypotts Farm on the bank of the Tay near Dunkeld, Perthshire. Her family were travellers living a hand-to-mouth existence hawking, making and selling besoms, pearl-fishing from fresh-water mussels, and doing casual farm work. At some time during Belle’s childhood, they settled in a house, which was a base for their excursions seeking a living…Belle was the major singer in the family, learning songs from close and more distant relatives and friends, but in particular, she learned many from her brother Donald McGregor…The Stewarts were contacted in 1954 by Maurice Fleming of the School of Scottish Studies and were recorded quite extensively, and subsequently added appearances at folk clubs and festivals to the list of their various jobs. - Brìghde Chaimbeul – Brìghde Chaimbeul and Dimcho Enchev (single)
Brìghde Chaimbeul grew up on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. She has developed an innovative style on the Scottish smallpipes that emphasises rich textural drones and a trance-like constancy of sound. In 2018 she became the first signing to Rough Trade’s new folk imprint River Lea and released her debut album, The Reeling, which we reviewed here. This track was recorded in 2021, a collaboration with Bulgarian piper Dimcho Enchev – it’s a selection of traditional kaba gaida music from Bulgaria. - Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin & Ultan O’Brien – Máirseáil na Sióg (Solas an Lae – 2020)
The debut album from Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin & Ultan O’Brien – The human voice and the fiddle are often thought of as musical cousins. Their debut album, Solas an Lae, is an exploration of that relationship — an effort to bounce songs and strings off one another to see what might emerge. We reviewed the album here. It features Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin: voice, flute, Ultan O’Brien: fiddle, viola and Nick Turner: Drones and found sounds. - Cormac Begley – Reels – Paddy Canny’s Pigeon On The Gate / The Dairy Maid (Cormac Begley – 2017)
Cormac Begley is a bass, baritone, treble and piccolo concertina player from a west-Kerry musical family. He plays in a number of projects, including: duets including Clíodhna Ní Bheaglaoich, Jack Talty, Caoimhín O Raghallaigh and Liam Ó Maonlaí; a trio entitle ‘Concertina’; and with the band Ré. He is the founder of Airt and award-winning Tunes in the Church live concert series in Galway & Dublin.
This was his debut solo album – From album notes: All of the pieces of music that feature on this album instantly struck a chord with me the first time I heard them. My approach here has been simply to connect as honestly as possible with them. I wanted to produce a solo concertina album using the full range of concertinas from bass, baritone, treble to piccolo, and to highlight some of the instrument’s possibilities spanning across seven octaves. Each track is one take, featuring one concertina and are all free from studio manipulation. I have sourced previously unrecorded music, new compositions and other tunes within the tradition that have been my companions and my internal sound track during my life to date. - June Tabor – The King of Rome (From Here: English Folk Field Recordings Volume 2 -2019)
This was Stick In The Wheel’s second ‘From Here’ compilation. The King of Rome was made popular by June Tabor and was later covered by The Unthanks on the BBC Folk Awards. The man who wrote it was Dave Sudbury, and it was shortly after The Unthanks BBC Folk Awards performance that his daughter contacted me and sent his album ‘King of Rome – Songs of Dave Sudury’. It was a self-release and was recorded by Andrew Cronshaw. I went on to interview Dave here.
Here’s an extract: I had a happy ‘backstreet’ childhood, secondary modern school and then a factory apprenticeship at 16. After serving my time, I went working on the North Sea gas pipelines. I was married young and soon had a family to support. The music that inspired me was usually American-rooted, Blues, Country and early Rock n Roll. Bob Dylan, who seemed to channel all this stuff, has always been an inspiration. I bought a cheap guitar in my early thirties and learned three chords. I wrote a few easy-to-play songs and nervously sang them in local folk clubs. People said they liked them.
The music I’d always loved seemed to have come out of authentic, personal experience, so I tried to keep mine the same. While still working on pipelines and power stations, a friend told me about the ‘Northern Arts Council’ songsearch contest. I sent off a couple and the ‘King of Rome‘ made it through to the final. I sang it in front of an audience and panel of judges (a bit like X factor). I didn’t win, but June Tabor, who was one of the judges, asked to record it. Since then, it’s flown around the world. - Peter Knight & John Spiers – Drone in D (Both in a Tune – 2022)
Following their 2018 collaboration, Well Met, the inimitable Peter Knight and John Spiers returned earlier this year with the magical Both in a Tune (Review | Interview). They were our Artists of the Month, and you can read the album review here. Drone in D was one of the self-composed tunes on the album, and, as Billy Rough said, it superbly highlights the extraordinary freshness and confidence the pair inhabit in their improvisation and musicianship. We also interviewed the duo here. - Paddy Tunney – Lough Erne Shore (Voice of the People – The Flax in Bloom – Traditional Songs, airs & dance music in Ulster 2014)
This is featured on Topic Records’ 3-CD set, The Flax in Bloom, and it opens Disc 1, which features songs recorded by Peter Kennedy and Sean O’Boyle in 1952 & 1953. Whatever their expectations were of the Tunney Family, as the liner notes state, they struck a rich source of material. Paddy and his brother Joe, their mother Brigid and her brother Mick Gallagher were recorded. This recording was made at the Tunney home at Garvey near Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, 20 July 1952.
Extract from liner notes: Paddy Tunney’s parents were from adjoining farms that straddled the Donegal-Fermanagh border, one farm in the Irish Free State and the other in Northern Ireland. Born in Glasgow in 1921, he was shortly afterwards taken home to his mother’s family farm on Co. Donegal and, at the age of five, moved to his father’s family farmstead. He attended technical school in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, and went to work as a forester for the Ministry of Agriculture in Northern Ireland. In 1943, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for illegal nationalist activities, serving four and a half years in HM Prison Belfast, where, among other things, he learned to speak Irish. Upon release, he trained at University College, Dublin, as a health inspector and was eventually posted to Letterkenny in Co. Donegal. He was brought up with family music-making and community country-house dancing…He began singing as a child…throughout his adult life, Paddy continued to learn songs from singers from all over Ireland. - Eliza Carthy – Pretty Ploughboy (Anglicana – 2002)
Eliza’s 2002 album Anglicana won “Best Album” at the 2003 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and was also nominated for the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. On this particular track, she was joined by Barnaby Stradling on acoustic bass, John Spiers on melodeon, Jon Boden on fiddle, and Donald Hay on percussion. She said in the liner noted: “I love the fact that she grabs him at the end of the song and doesn’t let go; not only does she go find her true love and rescue him from the press gang, but she pays for him as well, and we all know how girls are with bargains. Harry Cox sang this.” - Sam Sweeney – Maid Of The Mill (Unearth Repeat – 2020)
As our album review noted (Sam was our Artist of the Month – Review | Interview), Unearth Repeat was a significant leap forward for Sam in terms of his solo work. Glenn Kimpton called it a highly creative work that brings something new to the mix while also celebrating the simple joys of instrumental folk music. Mesmerising and irresistible stuff. We went on to interview Sam here.
Interview Extract: In a way, it is a kind of ‘un-concept’ album and also the perfect follow-up to his debut. “I think the thing with my career so far is that I’ve been involved in a lot of research projects that have had gigs attached, or there has been a sort of reverence placed on the provenance of the material, often without a huge amount of regard for the quality of the content,” he explains. “The Full English was a great thing to do, it was a research project, and it was good fun. I’m also incredibly proud of The Unfinished Violin and I love it, but the goalposts were incredibly narrow. It was a record inspired by music and stories surrounding the First World War; with this album, I just wanted to create. I like that idea of the ‘un-concept’ album because there is nothing you need to know about this record to enjoy it. Even further than that, I’ve purposely kept back information on the music in the notes; I don’t say which are traditional, which are half trad or original and it’s very much on purpose because the folk scene is obsessed with provenance and research and not concerned enough with just loving music.” - Skipper’s Alley – William And John (Skipper’s Alley – 2014)
This was the debut album from this incredible Dublin band, and if the voices on this track sound familiar then yes, it is John Francis Flynn and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin. Eoghan and Ultan O’Brien – who both feature earlier on in the mix, are also in the band. You can read our review of the album here. - The Martin Hayes Quartet – Frank Keanes Reel (Rogha Raelach Volume 1 – 2020)
As many of you may know, Dennis Cahill, one of the world’s finest guitarists in traditional Irish music, recently passed away (read our tribute here). He was well known for playing as a duo with Irish fiddle player Martin Hayes and later as a member of The Gloaming. He was also a member of the Martin Hayes Quartet, which featured Martin on fiddle, Dennis on guitar, Liz Knowles on viola and fiddle, and Doug Wieselman on bass clarinet. They released their debut album Blue Room in 2017, but this track is not from the album. This is from a gorgeous compilation from Rogha Raelach Records, an artist-run, not-for-profit, traditional and folk record label based in county Clare, Ireland, that Jack Talty founded in 2011.
Photo credit: Livelihood and Housekeeping: harvest (Dunquin, Co. Kerry) – Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.