While this week’s Folk Show strongly focuses on traditional and contemporary folk music of the British Isles and Ireland, there are some beautiful forays into the US and Quebec. The show opens with composer and multi-instrumentalist Cerys Hafana, best known for the triple harp.
We have several tracks from Dublin-based artists, including the singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Inni-K, with a track from Iníon on which she turns her attention to the rich heritage of Irish traditional sean-nós singing. Also from Dublin, we have music from Junior Brother and The Deadlians.
Last year, we were introduced to the London-based Shovel Dance Collective, first with Offcuts and Oddities and then via a Betwixt & Between Tapes instalment, which also featured guitarist extraordinaire C Joynes. It’s from the latter that ‘My husband’s got no courage in him’ is taken, which you can also watch them performing in the new folk music documentary The Broadside Hack, which is being premiered in the UK at Kings Place on 25th August (read more here).
Marlais returns this month with “The Nightingales Are Drunk”, from which you can hear ‘Let No Man Steal Your Thyme’ (we also recently shared a video for My Bonny Boy from the album).
We have new music from Alison O’Donnell‘s (Mellow Candle) latest album Hark The Voice That Sings For All. The Man Who Taught The Nation – Alison says, “the song is about the life and death of the great Irish hero, Padraig Pearse. He embodies the rebellious spirit of the 1916 Rising. He was executed for his leadership.”
Taken from their 2019 album Habitant is a track from jazz and avant-trad ensemble L’Oumigmag whose music inhabits the geographical, spiritual and imaginary territories of Quebec in music – “Habitant is a real crossing of the musical memories of Quebec and shows in music the river, the forest, the link of the inhabitant with his territory, a figure long considered naive that the group proposes to magnify just like traditional tunes.”
Archive | Cédric Dind-Lavoie is a remarkable album on which the composer brings to life archival recordings of French-Canadian people from the 1940s and 50s like this mouth reel from Benoît Benoît, recorded in 1957. Cédric Dind-Lavoie brings this music to life in a remarkable way that’s hard to translate into words, but it is incredibly respectful of these ghosts of the past while resonating perfectly with the present.
Two years ago this week, Cinder Well (the brainchild of singer and multi-instrumentalist Amelia Baker) released her ‘No Summer‘ album on Free Dirt Records. From that album, you can hear ‘Wandering Boy‘ on which she told us, “I first heard this song from Roscoe Holcomb, in a documentary by John Cohen called “The High Lonesome Sound: Kentucky Mountain Music”. It’s all shot in 16mm film, and the last scene has Roscoe Holcomb singing this song, sitting with his iconic hat and glasses, with a Baptist Hymnbook in his weathered hands. I amended the last verse of Roscoe’s version and wrote my own — to be a little less god-like.”
Other past releases in this week’s show include music from Stick in the Wheel‘s Hold Fast, Brìghde Chaimbeul‘s debut album The Reeling, Mick O’Brien & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh‘s 2003 album Kitty Lie Over and Caoimhín’s more 2014 album with Dan Trueman, Laghdú, Anna & Elizabeth‘s The Invisible Comes to Us, The Baird Sisters‘ Until You Find Your Green and Lizabett Russo‘s Something in Movement.
We also have a track from Serious Sam Barrett‘s The Seeds of Love. Sam is among the artists that Folk Radio UK is presenting at this year’s Sidmouth Folk Festival. He is performing a doubleheader on Tuesday, 2nd August at the Cellar Bar, Kennaway House (3:00-5:00 pm) with Modeste Hugues. Read more about A Cellarful of Folkadelia here.
Playlist
Cerys Hafana – Tragwyddoldeb
Inni-K – An Tiarna Randal
Shovel Dance Collective – My husband’s got no courage in him
Marlais – Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
Cinder Well – Wandering Boy
Junior Brother – No Country For Young Men
The Deadlians – Ultimate Gurrier
Stick in the Wheel – Soldier Soldier
Brìghde Chaimbeul – Tàladh Nan Cearc
Cédric Dind-Lavoie – Reel à bouche (avec Benoît Benoît, 1957)
Mick O’Brien agus Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh – Teampall an Ghleanntáin, Hickey’s
Alison O’Donnell – The Man Who Taught the Nation
Anna & Elizabeth – John of Hazelgreen
The Baird Sisters – A Soldier Being Tired
Serious Sam Barrett – Bushes and Briars
Lizabett Russo – Penumbra
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh & Dan Trueman – Mausoleum
L’Oumigmag – Maison jaune
Photo by Annie Spratt