Get the folk out! Awesome, I'm going to listen to this right now!!!!!
The return of Folk Music Friday
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 On 02/07/2014 at 11:49 AM by Ranger1 See More From This User » |
I was going through the piles of stuff stacked precariously on my table and ran across my Folk Friday notebook. On leafing through, I realized I haven't done a Folk Friday Blog since my friend Kat died back in July. Oops!
Anyway, here's another installment for you. No theme, stuff's kind of all over the place, but there are ten songs and tunes that I liked on here. Sorry that the first two are Christmas themed, I meant to do a whole entry devoted to Christmas, but obviously that never happened.
Playlist is here.
My friend Jed wrote this one several year ago and it's one of those catchy tunes that gets stuck in your head. Banjos We Have Heard on High - Jed Marum
The other Christmas song is a Scots Gaelic song called Taladh Chriosda that has been translated into English as The Christ Child's Lullaby. Here it's sung in the original Gaelic by Arthur Cormack and the pipes are played by Dougie Pincock.
Turlough O'Carolan was a blind harper who composed a ton of tunes in the early 1700s. Si Bheag Si Mhor is probably one of his more famous tunes. The group, Tumbleweed Trad, isn't one I'm familiar with, but I loved the energy they were raising while playing it.
The Grey Funnel Line is one of my favorite songs. It was written by Cyril Tawney in 1959. The Grey Funnel Line is slang for the British Navy. There's a video of Cyril Tawney singing it on YouTube, but I've always loved this one with Maddy Prior and June Tabor.
And now for something completely different. My friend Matt Brown is an amazing fiddle (and banjo and guitar) player, and he plays Appalachian-style. Here's one of his original tunes: Taylor Girls.
Continuing with disgustingly talented under 30s, we have Meridian (Colin de la Barre and Olivia Gale) singing Unison in Harmony.
My friend Debra Cowan isn't under 30, but she is disgustingly talented. The Night Owl Homeward Turns is one of my favorites that she sings.
A while back, country singer Kathy Mattea put out a CD of songs about coal mining titled Coal. Its a more a folk album and less a country album and it may be one of my top ten albums of all time. Lawrence Jones, written by SI Kahn, who may be one of my favorite contemporary folk music song writers.
Tunnel Tigers was written by Ewan MacColl about the Irish workers who dug the tunnels for the London Underground. Sung here by Sean Keane.
The last song for today is A-begging I will Go sung by George Papavgeris.
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